Hi All,

The trails and tribulations of my Hasegawa P-40 build are at an end. Aside from stringing the copper antenne aerials to the wings (as noted on USAF Museum's P-40E at Wright-Pat--photos forthcoming) , putting on a bit of exhaust staining and some fluid leakage on the spinner, it is finito!

I drilled out the ring sight and made crosshairs of fine wire. Wingman's looks far better.













This is the mount of Gen. Claire Chennault's son Maj John S. Chennault, first commander of 343rd Fighter Group (three fighter squadrons, the 11th, 18th, and the 54th; later the 344th arrived in October) 11 Sept 1942 until 16 Nov 1942, in the Aleutians. I have an affinity for Gen. Chennault's history and the AVG, and especially for the P-40. This is my ongoing effort to honor him, them, and it.

Maj. Chennault, to honor his dad and the AVG, came up with the remarkable "Aleutian Tiger" nose art, displayed on several P-40s. I believe Revell's 1/32 P-40 of this plane was one of my first 5 models I ever built. The decals are Super Scale. To make the tiger more vivid, I wish I'd done my first plan--apply the decals over the silver primer, mask, and paint the OD.

Yes, I have been disappointed in Hasegawa's effort, as hashed out below. In summary, though I understand the economics of making a modular kit for many versions of the P-40, I think Hasegawa really dropped the ball engineering the kit. Beautiful as the molding and detail is, as far as I am concerned, this is more of a cottage industry model. For the price, I think one should consider buying other manufacturer's P-40s and spending the savings on aftermarket details. Why? See below:

Critique one

More Critique

Trials

Tribulations

Murphy Strikes!

Life Goes On

Wingman, I look forward to your progress reports! Looking good!

Hi Fred. Thanks. I actually drilled out the OOB gunsight and attached it to the fuselage. It looked bad, then I thought, I think I have some photo-etch sights that I can use. I clipped off the OOB sight and superglued the new one on top of the post for the original. It wasn't fun, but worth the effort. My rescribed panel lines on the rear fuselage look bad. I didn't want to go any further with them so I stopped where I was at and left them go. Like the look of your build, are the white stripes decals or were they painted on. Looks like you got the right color on your pilots seat right[natural metal]. I painted mine interior green, should of done better research. Remember this kids when starting your next build. Looks good Fred, Wingman out.

Hi Fred

You finished the beast!

Time and tides stopped me getting my in-box review done before you and Michael got started... but nothing I could have written would have prepared you for the miserable time you've had! Maybe it's a good job I wasn't able to publish... you'd have been after my scalp! :-)

I have to say though - and this goes for everyone... - Armorama really needs more input in the Reviews section. Your critique is great - but submit it as a Review where everyone will benefit from it long-term.

It totally mystifies me.. we get get so many great posts in the Forum which never appear as reviews. Please - tell us what's putting you guys off! Is it the Review Form or the Support Centre? We do want to know and we'll try to incorporate your feedback because your opinions are the lifeblood of Armorama.

Timing... it's always ******* timing! I'm going to have to be off-site from tomorrow for a couple of weeks due a family crisis. If you want to PM me, I promise to try to act on it when I get back.

Forum or Content... keep 'em coming! It's what makes Armorama great!


All the best

Rowan

Hi fred!

After all the efforts your P-40 kit is dead! DEAD!? Why dead? Because now you will put it on a shelve and go working on something else! The P-40 will slowly go off your head and only (bad) memories will stay in your mind!
That the life of a model! Some have a nice life without problems, others only have bad luck! But, now that it's over, have in mind that sometimes the way is more important than the final destination! Sometimes also, when you take the "hard way", you are even more happy to have reached the end of the road...

Congratulations fred!

Jean-Luc

P.S. Like Rowan said, this could be a great article! You have already taken the pictures and written the story, so basically the only thing left to do is to ZIP the whole to the Magician and he will do the rest! Believe me it's easy!

Hi Jean-Luc et al

I hope it didn't read as though my earlier comments were aimed just at JPTRR! Fred has already been in touch to offer his experiences as a full review. Nice one Fred !C[ ]

I've told him what I'd really like to do is get his and Michael's experiences together for the be-all-and-end-all of Hasegawa P-40 reviews!

This'll be something fo rme to look forward to when I get back.

Cheers guys

Rowan

Rowan,

I did not take it as such. Not at all.

So we will have a P-40 article!? Hurray!

Here are two Wright-Pat P-40 pix. I think this is Rector's plane.

Disappointingly, these pix are very dark--not so on the contact sheet. I even lightened them as much as possible before uploading.

Belly/drop tank/gear :



Spinner/prop/snozola:

Both. The fuselage and tail are painted, the wing stripes are decals--forgot they were there when painting

The model was primed with a silver auto body rattlecan. All paint is Polly Scale, glossed with Future, sealed with Polly Scale Flat.

Basic decals are Hasegawa--went on well--and Super Scale for Chennault's markings, and extra stenciling. Hasegawa's prop data is too thin and dried faint, S.S.'s are nice and yellow.

Question: Most models I've seen show his P-40's fuselage star without the blue roundel. However, some photos I've seen, I can make out a roundel. Was it overpainted?

More pix forthcoming.