1/32 Curtis P-40 production line, building 7 at once!

[Martinnfb]

Pretty cool stuff. Setting my chair up for some chill time, to follow your build more closely

Cheers

Martin

[Ivan Ivanovich]

Now I feel sorry for having sold off my P-40K/M/N kits. Inspiring one-man group build. 

Keep it up!

[Grunhertz]

That's looking nice. You don't see enough Merlin p 40's 

[1to1scale]

Production line style painting, early stages, but it’s a start...

[Grunhertz]

Nice one! What green do you use for curtiss  interior green? 

[1to1scale]

7 hours ago, Grunhertz said:

Nice one! What green do you use for curtiss  interior green? 

I use Tamiya XF5, but by the time I add washes and filters, it looks pretty close to some original color pictures i have in some books I have. 

[Martinnfb]

[1to1scale]

A little bit of detail painting today. Painting dials drives me nuts. If I didn’t have 7 of them, I would have bought PE for each. Luckily the Eduard kit came with two panels, and I have another late panel, some day I will figure out an easy way to paint them. I still have home touch up to do with green, black, and silver.

[Grunhertz]

16 hours ago, 1to1scale said:

I use Tamiya XF5, but by the time I add washes and filters, it looks pretty close to some original color pictures i have in some books I have. 

Thanks I'll remember that 

[1to1scale]

6 hours ago, Grunhertz said:

Thanks I'll remember that 

I have a formula I use, dark brown wash fills all the nooks and crannies, and changes the tone of the green, then I use light green and metal pastel pigments to lighten all the raised areas. On aircraft in dusty or desert areas, I use a light tan wash. Then I always use a light grey wash on all black surfaces.

[Grunhertz]

That's beautiful nice technique. I'll put that away for when I build my e 

[Peterpools]

OMG, I'm confused just looking a the production line.

Thank you for the tips on the interior weathering - looks spot on and very realistic

Keep 'em comin

Peter

[TJTX]

Looking great Mark.  It will be so neat to see 7 different versions all lined up next to each other. 

[1to1scale]

I got the washes applied to the individual cockpits, at this stage I had to stop, take some notes. I had to think about each aircraft and the environment it operates in in, then pick the right weathering colors for it. I also had to determine which seats, panels, and what seat belts each had. I had to create a list so I could keep it straight. I also had to stop and do a workbench teardown, as I was missing the trim knob and rudder pedals from one of the planes. I searched the carpet, my workbench twice, and the boxes. Nothing. so I decided to do a full mid build workbench cleanup. Still nothing. I finally found that one of the P-40 boxes had my F-15E box sitting on top of it. Guess what...they were still attached to the sprues. Now I can continue with the build. I still have some weathering to do on the cockpits, final assembly, then I can close the fuselages. That's where the fun begins, filler and sanding....

[1to1scale]

Im just trying to keep it out of the ditches.

i had to start writing things down, sorting out the IP, seats, belts, and weathering for 7 aircraft has been confusing, I finally took some notes.

 

[Grunhertz]

Good idea on that. I don't know how you got that far without notes tbh 

[1to1scale]

Today I finished assembling my and weathering the last of the cockpits, so I moved on to getting some filler on the tail seam, before I glue it together. I used masking tape to try to preserves as much detail as possible. I applied three coats of Mr Surfacer 500, which has become my favorite large gap filler.

[1to1scale]

The pictures posted backwards, but you get the idea. As you can see from the pictures, this is a “K” tail, of the short and long tails, it is by far the worst. This one had the worst shape issues, only one panel line matched each side, and the rivets were too light. I’m going to have to definately do some rivet work on the two “K”s. I have a feeling this project is going to involve filling non existant panel lines along with a lot of sanding.

[Grunhertz]

This is my worry with the hasegawa P40 

[TJTX]

I had the same issue on my P-40.   Also had to work at cleaning up the seam where the window section goes.  Yours is looking great Mark.

[1to1scale]

I tried cleaning up the seam a little, you can see the wavy gravy wonky seam, this K tail is not quite a disaster, but does require some work.  After sanding, it straightened out pretty nice.

[Grunhertz]

That looks pretty damn good 

[1to1scale]

one down, 13 more to go!

 

[harv]

......Harv

[Bomber_County]

Man I have trouble with one on the bench, can’t wait to see them all lined up....