Well, I started on the right side and draw the rough shape with a CD marker and scraped away the surplus decal. the pen went dry so I need some better stuff. I will probably get some artists pastel pencils (hope this is the right term) some greys, red, and maybe white too. IMO it looks already much better (and meaner) even though I still have to "push" the nose up a mm or so.



I will start tomorrow by a bit of sanding and sealing the decal with Klear. Then I will need to do some masking sessions to restore the paint job where I had to remove parts of the decal. After that a flat coat should provide a good basis for the pencils and paint .... sounds like I will be busy for a while ....

comments and ideas welcome

all the best

Steffen

Hi Steffen. I LOVE this scheme. The skulls look so cool on the P-40. I have Eduard's P-40N ProfiPack that come with decals with the skulls from the 89th Fighter Group, Karachi, India 1943. On the box top art, it shows the fuel tank being mounted backwards. Your build makes me want to start my P-40N, but I have to finish up my Avenger build after the Eduard Hellcat. Looking forward to seeing it done, Wingman out.

Thanks Michael!

i also shortly thought aot the tank, but I will leave it off, just like in the picture.

I am not sure how fast I can do it now I have this decal problm .. else it was one of the fastes projects i ever did ...

Here is how the nose looks now. I roughly "cleaned" everything and gave it a nice gloss coat to seal it. Now another flat for the pencils ... and of course I need to buy these (the other pic is fo comparison)



cheers

Steffen

Nice job so far on changing the profile of the skull Steffen .

Thanks Terri, but I am not satisfied yet.

The rear skull has to be reshaped even more and then comes the "artistic" part ... should invite Jean-Luc for a coffee and a painting session ; I drink a coffee and he will be painting the skulls

cheers

Steffen

Hi All

i just finished the lhs .. I used paint (GW) and a small brush to do that stuff. i know I am not very good at it, but for me it turned out quite nice. (I repeat the stages pix again, because in my settings I am post 30 and thus will have a other page started ...)





The dark patches are fresh OD and will be less pronounced (or even disappear) when I seal it plus washing and flat coat ...

all comments welcome

all the best

Steffen

Not bad at all Steffen , I've said that before . Yes I know ! But I like it . A lot better then what the kit decal look at first . The shading on the jaw bone is nice .

How did you like using the pastel chalks ? For doing the black out lines have you tried using a sharpie ?

Hi Terri

many thanks .. I must say, that I am very satisfied how it turned out! Even if it is no full match to the original thing I think it is much closer and better now. The tooth shading needs a bit of retouch. i will probably lay on a white filter.

I do not understand this: "How did you like using the pastel chalks ?"

As we say here: "Wer lesen kann, ist klar im Vorteil" ... quoting myself:



GW is Games Workshop .. I like these acrylic paints very much for brush painting (e.g. cockpits) and their inks/washes are also very good

I did actually do the basic layout with a pencil. I had to look up "sharpie" ... here in good ol Germany we have a similar companie (Edding .. not affiliated) I tried with a 0.1mm tip, but the pen dries up fast and produces no consistant line. Furthermore it turns bluish when dry (I used a black pen !)



As i am not done with the other side yet, I took another pic of it:



all the best

Steffen

Hi Steffen,

You are showing your artistic side! Well done...

Jean-Luc

Jean-Luc, you are a good friend, but you should not lie ....

I know I have as much artistic talent as a wood log, luckily I could "copy" it from photo and thus I only needed some basic handicraft. But it turned out in a way that I like and so I am very happy.

The other side turned out not quite as good as the first one, but that's o.k. I rather proceed with the build than trying to beat a dead horse.



all the best

Steffen

Hi All

the decals from the Eagle Strike set are applied but I need to check the kits decals for some maintenance stencils ... I screwed the 71 on the tail and had to partly repaint it. The whole thing should probably sit a bit higher ...



I like it so far ..

all the best

Steffen

P.S. I am an idiot .. just found out, that I forgot to install two inserts and none of you gave me a warning ?! .. just aft of the exhaust pipes. Easy to do but some more colour repair afterwards.

Ach well a chance to add the inserts in a minutely different colour for that
roughly handled look. Looking really well, hard to replicate the crude
drawing of the original in small scale. Would you even bother with decals
if you were to do it again?

Hi JP

Thanks mate!

The problem is that the inserts shall be flat with the surroundings to replicate a metal sheet (similar to the problem at the aft section) ... probably I was to pi..ed about that to notice the inserts at the nose. Anyway I just glued them in and added some Mr. Surfacer 500 .. hope I can sand it even without too much damage to the other areas. If I wouldn't make mistakes what would I have to write ...

Yes I would use the decals again .. I am no artist so i cannot draw such things myself, but i can improve the look of the decal .. .step by step...

all the best

Steffen

hi all

today I did a bit of fine tuning the thing. Sadly I will be occupied with other stuff for the next two days and then I will go on vacation for a week .. soo no further updates on this model for some time.

Here is a pic I took some minutes ago. i will maybe shoot a flat coat tomorow, but sadly I cannot install all the small lenses, position lights and stuff ....



as always comments welcome

all the best

Steffen

Nice P-40 and good work on that skull. Looks great.

Many thanks, Anze!

Hope I can finish it soon .. despite the nose art repainting one of my fastest project...

all the best

Steffen

Most excellent Steffen ! Your skulls turned out really great

Thanks a lot Terri!

I did not intend to reshape my skull so how do you know

sadly I cannot proceed in my vacation .... but I think I can finish the model next week.

all the best

Steffen

How goes the finally assembly Steffen ?

Hi Terri

It is amost done .. there were a lot of small fiddly things to do that were not worth photographing, so I left it. I only need to glue the sliding hood to the model and repair a bit of the paint job on the rear side windows.

all the best

Steffen

Hi All

Did I ever mention, that I am an idiot ... seems quite often lately. I took the pix of the "finished" model and while preparing them for publication I found out I missed something ... can you spot the mistake? ...



Stupid me

hope I can fix it and take some new pix today

all the best

Steffen

LOL. A case of being too close to the project if I ever saw one.

It took me a minute to find - but i'll leave the mystery for others and not say.

at least you caught it in time.

If you leave them off now then you won't need to add the weathering and stains that result from them being there.

Aside from that, love your work, it looks great.

well it can't be the inserts aft of the exhausts. Cos you remembered them.
...

I guess once you get the exhaust glued in placed you will be good to go !

Looks great though Steffen , you did a fantastic job on this project