Afternoon Gents,
Well tonight I have for you my second build for 2012.
Curtiss
P-40E-1 "Warhawk"
41-36398
U.S. 499th Fighter-Bomber Squadron
Harris Neck, Army Airfield, Georgia, ca. 1943.
The kit is by ARII.
This kit was a pure joy to build but, as with any build it does have its ups and downs. I was rather disappointed in the level of detail in this kit but, I used my artistic skills to make the best of a lack thereof.
The kit in general as for parts fit was very good, no fitting problems truly encountered. The decals were tough to apply but given time they turn out very nicely. The only thing I had trouble with was the paint... I used some Light OD Krylon for the interior detail bits and I tried to put Testor's Flat OD over it and it just wasn't having any of it. I handled the kit a LOT during the building process and made sure to clean all my hand oils off of the kit thoroughly before applying the paint so I know that wasn't the problem. All small detail painting was done by hand by me, serial number, interior...etc.. all done by hand.
I wanted to make this build a bit out of the ordinary. We've been seeing a lot of "in theater" built kits and I wanted to do a out of the norm stateside build. The research for this build was murder. Not so much for the aircraft detail research but for picture of the birds at Harris Neck Army Airfield just south of me in Glynn Co. Georgia. I managed to find one picture(located above), its was very grainy... I can see some detail but tail numbers and little things forget it. So, I had to go with some historical fact backed by some guess work. The tail number in the photo above, I can barely make out two numbers a 1 and a 2 or a 1 and a 3. So, the serial number on my bird is that for a P-40E but whether its this bird is unknown and as for the serial number above... theres not much known about the aircraft other than it remained in the states though it was slated to go to the R.A.F. and it was condemned in Nov. 1944. So, the serial number is at least for a P-40E-1.
As for the rest of this bird everything was taken off detailed photos of other wartime P-40E's, and what I could decipher from the grainy wartime Harris Neck A.A.F. photo of two 499th P-40E's.
If you guys see anything that can be improved upon in my builds please let me know. I'm open to any and all suggestions. Any and all critiques and criticism's are welcomed.
Hope you all enjoy.
Regards,
Laggin' Dragon