I just recently finished this kit. It is an Academy 1/72 scale P-40E kit. It is painted like the P-40E of Col. Bruce Holloway's on display in the National Museum of the United States Air Force. Col. Holloway was a pilot in the Flying Tigers, as well as the Army Air Force 23rd Fighter Group.

The kit is mostly right from the box. I did add Quickboost Exhaust and Eduard PE gun sights. I made the radiator flaps from sheet styrene so they were in the open position. The decals are from Barracuda Studios, and Micro Scale with stencils from the Academy kit. The Micro Scale numbers on the fuselage silvered a bit and I didn't see it until after the dulcoat whent on. This little kit was a blast to build.

Good job Tim, nice looking P-40. To address the silvering, you might want to try some Solvaset softening/setting agent. It is pretty strong stuff but I found that it removed any silvering on an older Academy kit I had, the P-39. The decals had been sitting on the model awhile and I just brushed it on and after a minute blotted it down with a piece of paper towel. It worked, the silvering went away. Try it. Russell

Is Solvaset stronger than Micro Scales Micro-sol? I bet I applied 5 coats of the Micro-sol just to get the decal lay down. I'll get some Solvaset and give it a try! Thanks for the Russell!

Hi there, yes Solvaset is stronger I believe than the Micro scale stuff, the Micro scale is what I normally use and I save the Solvaset for last ditch efforts! Russell

Tim,

Nice clean P-40! The extras really set it off.




That is my experience.

Another thing you can try is picking the silvered area many times with a pin or Xacto. Then brush on slightly diluted Future. It should enter the holes and leech into the voids of air that create the silvering. Then it will dry and be like the under gloss coat. You may not even have to re-dullcoat it. I have tried this will success, and I think Siderius tried it too.

What are you using to dilute the future? I've been using it straight from the bottle.

I actually haven't used future, but I do cut the decal sometimes and then brush some softening/setting agent into the decal. I still think, with my experience with some Academy decals, that a bottle of Solvaset will set you in good stead. Russell