Welcome to the P-40, the Work Horse of WWII Campaign campaign!

Please post your progress and campaign fellowship here

If you haven't already joined, you can Enlist Here

Please post the photos of you completed build in the Official Campaign Gallery

Sam, thanks for the Official thread. NOW you AUSSIES are up first show the rest of the world what that beautiful bird did for your country. I know what fantiastic building has been done down there and I am just drooling to see what you come up with now with my favorite a/c that unheralded but magnificint P40


Bob

Ich bin Bereit


Cheers Nick

My German is non existant (2 wasted years in high school). Ich in Texan sounds like ick.

IIRC

Ich bin ein Berlinner = I am a donut

So
Ich bin Bereit = ?

"I am ready"


Cheers Nick

Hi All
It's now 11.54am on1/2/11.

I've opened the box and am now starting to figure out what if any scratching is to be done.

Does this mean Ive won???

First pics soon


Chris

Yes you have, the prize is a lifetime supply of Tang.

For those of us with short term memory problems, what are you building?

OK!

@ Nick: it is 3:31 pm 2/28/2011 here what is your time? And how many p40's do you have lined up my young freind for the campaign? Glad to have you aboard.

@ Mark: in TEXAN everything is distorted with our back home dialiect , What have you got planned, buddy?

@ Chris: yes you have won the opportunity to enjoy this campaign GB what bird had you planned to share with us?

I myself have planned on.
1. P40F (Navair)
2. P40B/C (Academy)
3. P40E (Otaki build that I did not finish) just for fun.

Bob

Here's what I'm planning:

Hasegawa's P-40E



Had some goodies for it.


Only decals in the kit are for a couple of Russian birds. Even if it has the instructions for a British and American plane.

So I got these instead


Thinking about the middle one Sand & Middlelestone over neutral gray. Would prefer a full up RAF desert scheme (Dark Earth/Middlestone over Azure Blue) , but this is what I've got that's not OD over neutral gray.

This is my chosen kit. I fancy building a l'Armee de l'Air "la fayette" Warhawk or maybe two, with three coloured upper camouflage pattern and azure blue undersurfaces.
I am just finishing off a review of the kit for Aeroscale. So far I really like what I have seen.
All the best.
tim

@ Mark: I still like the bottom scheme.

@ Tim: Love the Azure Blue undersurfaces, my P-40F-15 will be "Sweet Bets" scheme of Lt. Charles Jaslow's a/c of the87thFS/ 79th FG in Tunisa, 1943. The schemes of both of our a/c are very similar, only different national markings. I also think that both squadrons were based close in North Africa. I will post some pics later.

I also would like to reiterate the rules:
The Rules and Regs
1. P-40 & P-36
2. Any scale.
3. WW II era.
4. Any nation that flew either a/c.
5. Any Unit.
6. 2 inprogress photos.
7. Some sort of documentation of unit markings (book, media, kit, aftermarket, decal, photo) to be posted during build progress.

The reason I bring up the rules again is: for those who participate gain knowlege, tips, and just plain enjoyment with their posts and pics and in my estimation bacome richer for it. In the past I have seen an enlistment at the last moment and sometimes not at all then a post to the gallery which cheats the rest of us from the sharing and gaining of your experiance. So please share your tips and building experiance with us for all to learn from. I also have no trouble with a/c that have just been started if a pic with a newpapers date can be seen to verify the stage of the build to be decided on.

Notice that rule no.6 is a sticklar and at least one photo of the finished a/c must be in the gallery to qualify for the ribbon that Vance (Vanize) designed.

Hermon (Voncuda) Damian (AussieReg) and myself are happy to host this campaign. This a/c hits home with Hermon, one of the origonal AVG pilots is a family memeber of his.

OK! nuff said, lets get to building.

Bob

Here's my kit. I'll be building out of the box: Squadron Leader Robert H. Neale, 1st Pursuit Squadron "Adam and Eves", American Vounteer Group, June 1942:



My wife loves these planes, so she wants to help me build this one. She has never built a kit in her life, so it should be interesting.

@ Whitey: Some of us could only be so lucky. Great choice the kit that I have looks pretty good (simply for me ) but look out you may be creating a monster who will need their own bench and a share in the finances to obtain her own kits and supplies Cant wait to see yall's progress photos, I know they will be good judging from your armor.

I stole this excell matrix from Jan Etal (tread-geek)


Bob

Hey Bob, if I build a 1/72 P-40E instead of a 1/48 one Can I still get a ribbon?

Of course you will Mark, but it's gunna be tiny !!

I'm doing the 1/32 Hasegawa kit, so my ribbon will be huge !! If Hermon manages some bench time and does his VFS 1/24 kit as promised, his ribbon will be enormous

Hi

I'm building the Hasegawa 1/48th P-40N 15000th Anniversary.
HOWEVER I'll not be using those markings.
I'll be doing her up as P-40N, NZ 3220 Gloria Lyons.
There were 3 P-40 "GLORIA LYONS'' credited with 2.5 kills
this will be the last,
which I believe is still to be found in a shed here in New Zealand ,she was saved as a wreck after WW2.

Furthermore my father in law flew Tiger Moths, P-40s as an instructor here in New Zealand and also did one tour on F-4U Corsairs up in the islands late 1944 early 1945.

Here is a brief history

(thanks to WINGS OVER NEW ZEALAND website)

Romantic Story of Pacific Airmen, An Aircraft and A Girl
The Telegraph - Press Assn - Copyright, RNZAF Official News Service, New Georgia

Nineteen-year-old Gloria Lyons lies in Christchurch Public Hospital with turburculosis of the spine. Patient and cheerful, she faces a stay there of two years. At a forward Pacific base of the R.N.Z.A.F. stands another "Gloria Lyons" - a slick Warhawk fighter and in the pilot's cockpit a small type-written note is pasted, "To the pilot. Gloria Lyons is our No. 4 S.U. mascot. She is doing a long term in hospital and we want both our Glorias to last a long time. No. 4 S.U., December 43."

Four young New Zealand airmen of No. 4 Servicing Unit attached to a New Zealand fighter wing sat in their tent one evening reading mail that had come that day. For one there were seven or eight letters, another also received a good batch, but for the other two it was a lean mail day.

So they got their heads together and not long afterwards this advertisement appeared in a Christchurch newspaper:
"Two lonely airmen wish to correspond with two smart young ladies 18-21 with a view to friendship, interests, dancing, music and sport. Photo if possible."

Among the replies came one rather dimaenily from Gloria Lyons on behalf of herself and a fellow patient. A few more letters broke the ice and now a regular correspondence flows. She tells the airmen to whom she writes of what goes on at home in New Zealand and he describes to her what life is like in the tropics. It is amazing how things get round in these camps, but the airman did not have to stand chipping from his mates.

Instead the story caught their imagination; and when a Warhawk with the identification letter G was passing through the maintenance line the idea blossomed in some head to name the fighter after the sporting, bed-ridden girl and adopting her as the unit's mascot.

So while Gloria Lyons of the Pacific takes to the air with her colleagues to beat the Japs out of the skies, her namesake follows her fortunes keenly and hopefully. The thoughts of the boys of No. 4 S.U. are with the welfare of both.

I'd like to know more of course. Did Gloria Lyons recover? Did she ever meet the airmen of the SU? Who were those two airmen that set up contact with her and her fellow patient? Who was the other patient? Are any of them still alive today. Perhaps we'll never know, but I reckon there's a great chickflick aviation movie in this story.


This cutting was from the Press 27-1-44
No 4 S.U. (Servicing Unit) was one of many which were raised during the war to look after aircraft of various squadrons. Instead of sending complete squadrons with servicing and administrative personnel attached for the tour of duty, which normally lasted three months for the fighter and bomber pilots, it was decided to form servicing units which would stay in the forward areas and service whichever squadrons were serving in the area at that time. These units were known as Servicing Units from October 1943 onwards.

and was based at Ondonga, New Georgia. Early in November 1943 No 15 Squadron was relieved by No 14 Squadron, and No 15 once again relieved No 14 in the second half of December 1943. No 15 then moved to Torokina on Bougainville Island on 17 January 1944, where it was followed by No 4 S.U.
By the end of October 1943 No 4 S.U. was responsible for aircraft of No 15 Squadron RNZAF,
At the beginning of March 1944 No 4 S.U. was servicing aircraft of No 18 Squadron, and in the middle of June No 18 Squadron's were again under No 4 S.U. still on Bougainville. No 23 Squadron, which formed in New Zealand with Corsairs in August 1944, arrived at Piva, on Bougainville, in October 1944 and on 16 November it was transferred to Los Negros together with No 4 S.U. where it carried out strikes against Japanese positions. The servicing unit at this time was working under difficult conditions as it's heavy equipment had had to be left on Bougainville owing to transport problems. No 4 S.U. spent the rest of it's existance at Los Negros during 1945 and it was dispanded after aircraft based on the island had been returned to New Zealand after the war ended in August 1945.

On 18th September 1944 a crowd assembled in the Square in Christchurch to see Miss Gloria Lyons visit the Warhawk which carried her name at that time. However the visit was postponed because of rain. The aircraft was on view all that week, and the caption to the photograph published in The Press states the aircraft had taken part in 57 raids in the Pacific. The aircraft was P 40 N NZ 3220 and appeared to be coded FE-B or FE-D or FE-P (FE was the code for No 4 FOTU) It is believed that the "mission bars" were carried forward from one aircraft to another, as were the 2 1/2 Japanese flags painted under the cockpit windscreen.

There were three different Kittyhawks named "Gloria Lyons". The first crashed on 9 February 1944, when, approaching the airstrip, the aircraft suddenly dived but managed to pull out about half way down the strip, by then it was at about zero feet, it hit a tent, crashed into scrub at the end of the strip and overturned.

The same pilot (F.O. Charlie Woods) was also flying the second "Gloria" when it also crashed, on 22 February 1944. The rudder controls in the cockpit were hit by enemy action and althought the aircraft could still be flown (by pulling on the cables from inside the cockpit), it could not be landed due to the undercarriage malfuntioning as well and therefore the pilot bailed out into the sea near the end of the airstrip at Buka.

The third "Gloria Lyons" was NZ 3220 which was disposed of at Rukuhia and subseqently acquired by John Smith of Mapua

Gloria survived and , as Mrs Austin Eames, lived in Bankstown NSW. She was still alive in the late 70's.

I hope I can can do her Justice.

Chris

Hi all,

WOW, 1st March rolls around and 5 campaigns start!!

I will be doing an 1/48 Hasegawa P-40N with markings from the Zotz decals sheet (not 100% on which one yet, knowing myself, most likely the pyn-up one).

This will be my first P-40 build and I am looking forward to completing such an iconic plane.

I'll post some pics tonight.

I just have to finish off my Grey Nurse Spitfire for the Spitfire Campaign and this WILL be done by Saturday!

Cheers,

Mark

@ Chris: thanks for the history it was inspiring. I hope that you were or are still able to converse with your farther-in-law he is a hero and I thank him for his service.

This is the article that was my inspriation for this campaign.
http://www.chuckhawks.com/p40.htm

@ D, Hermon, & Mark: the ribbon is one size fits all just like those hats that do not fit my fat head

@ Mark: glad to have you aboard and your build will be watched with anticipation.

Bob

Wanting to build a P40k as flown by John Gorton {who became Australia's Prime Minister in the '60's}, having the Hasegawa kit shown here and upon opening the box, decided to build it as the kit option of the 18th F.G. based in Hawaii during '42 - '43, due to the unique artwork of a Cobra Head nose art.



The kit box and it's instruction sheet.
The unique Cobra Head artwork decal.


If I have time to build a second or third P-40 for this campaign, I hope to do the 75 or 76 Sqn RAAF P40e from Milne Bay as well as the P40k of John Gorton.

NOTE: This photo is of a painting depicting John Gorton in his P40k AM-E and is the reference to the eventual build of the RAAF bird.

Hello all,

I'm joining the fray with my own P-40E and some aftermarket goodies.


The kit is Hasegawa's P-40E. While it includes some nice decals like the Texas Longhorn, I always think a P-40 is incomplete without its shark-teeth. Therefore I bought an EagleCal decal sheet, gun barrels from Master Models, pre-cut canopy masks and a zoom photo-etched set from Eduard.

This is the P-40 I aim to build. However, not even EagleCal is sure about its true colors. The bottom is Azure, but the top colors can be Middlestone and Dark Earth OR Dark Green. We'll see.



I'm currently thinking whether I should buy Ultracast exhausts and wheels as well... or will it be too much after-market?

@ Rob: Nice choice the cobra head looks menacing, but I like Gortons K. I remember reading his wikipedia page and thought it interesing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Gorton

@ Emre: As to the color, if it looks right then it is. And you do have a lot of goodies, you can never have too many of them. The little lad urinating on the rising sun is a class act.

Bob

I couldn't help noticing how Hasegawa seems to be the brand of choice around here. Well, now there's one more.

Hey guyz, last summer I pulled together a spread sheet of all the kits, decals and details I could find. There's a link at the bottom of this thread:
Unofficial P-40 Work Horse Resource Thread

Ah Eetu, is that the correct marking for a Finnish A/C or is 'something' missing??

Sign me up for the Campaign. I will be building a Hasegawa 1/48th scale P-40N of Sammy Pierce, Kay the Strawberry Blonde/The Hialeah Wolf. The decals will be a combination of kit, custom made, and Montex masks. It will be out of the box.
Floyd

I presume Hasegawa decided to opt for a single box used for kits sold all over the world.

Presumably some board members from the relevant countries know for sure, but I think this is the matter.

In some European countries (most notable Germany) possession and/or sale of objects carrying some Nazi-symbols is illegal, and so is(or was) possession of objects carrying those symbols - unless one possesses a permit (so yes, museums displaying (pre-)WW II stuff (including models and relics) carrying them do possess such a permit.

Most notable are the swastika and the Sieg-rune (SS-rune). Hence the fact that many manufacturers do not print them at all on decal-sheets, or in parts (cut in two/for) and show a 'square' in the instructions.

I am not sure whether that also showing/carrying around WW II models carrying those symbols at for instance model shows will get you into trouble. But IIRC I came across an article not too long ago where a modeller specifically stated that he got a permit for using these symbols in a display for an exhibition.