http://flightaware.com/photos/view/248147-c6d293ed3036190a65e242dc75f3623227dc1ca9/aircrafttype/P40/sort/votes/page/1

Check out this very pleasing portrait of a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk. Either and M/N model. Enjoy. Russell

Russell, thanks for the link. A really nicely restored
P-40N. It certainly sports a rather unique paint scheme which seems to change as one looks from wing to wing and prop to tail.

It's not a M because the M's all had two small air scoops in front of the exhausts. I don't see them in the picture. I'm no expert by any means as I did a few google searches on M & Ns.

Joel

Hi Russel, Joel,
Beautiful photo, Russel. I'm in the planning stages of a P-40N build using the 1/48 Hasegawa P-40N Warhawk 15,000th Anniversary kit and Eduard Big-Ed set, so have been researching the N variant. Your photo is another useful reference!

I agree with you, Joel, that it is a P-40N, but a modified example. There is a very useful Modellers' guide to P-40 variants on the IPMS Stockholm site:

http://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/1999/09/stuff_eng_p40.htm

The guide has a good close-up of the P-40M nose showing the cooling "gills" in front of the exhausts - actually a grid of 15 circular perforations. The guide states the P-40M was similar to the P-40K-20 but with the Alison engine (hence the additional gills), so the P-40M would have had the framed sliding canopy and side glazing, not the frame-less canopy and "glasshouse" behind the cockpit, as in the photo. Interestingly, the P-40N also appears to have the cooling gills but these aren't evident in the photo, as you say, Joel.

It also appears that the P-40 in the photo has had a second seat fitted behind the pilot - the Hasegawa kit has a sloping fairing here, which I believe was a fuel tank but haven't been able to confirm this.

I also understand that there was a two-seat TP-40N trainer variant but this had a second sliding canopy and the aerial mast was much further back on the fuselage.

Hope this is of interest!
Ray