TAdan wrote:
As a P-40 nut I whole heartedly approve! Very nice work.
I'd love to hear more about the fabrication process if you have the time.
When I started collecting parts to build this P40 replica, my intentions were to make the entire fuselage and make a full scale replica that I could drive down the highway. I wanted it to look like an airplane had just crashed landed on the interstate and that I was still rolling down the road with the wings clipped off. After I built the front end, I decided that it was going to be a rediculous amount of work to build the rest of the fuselage. You can see in the pictures the front end of the fuel tank that I started with. Originally the tank was about 17ft long! I lobbed off just the nose section of the fuel tank and started from there. I went up to the Cavanaugh flight museum in Addison TX and measured off of their real P40 a few times to get everything to scale. I spent years collecting up parts. The bottom of the "Jaw" is made from a jet engine cowling off of a Hawker private jet. The chin is made from an air intake from a helicopter. The nose cone tip was off of a modern plane. I did have to fabricate most of the nose cone however. The propeller was just a junk ground strike off of a crop duster. I used stainless steel pop rivets to fasten it together. The prop spins on a huge shaft that is mounted on huge bearings. The slightest gust of wind and it is off and running.
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The nose art/aviation artist and general lunatic from Houston, Texas
http://www.jasonbarnettartist.com
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