The Atom Furnace: Back Track - Revell 1/48 Flying Tiger

I have always loved the P-40. Not the best fighter of the war but it more than held it's own in every theater in which it fought. I had built a large scale P-40 many years ago but not a great build and it is in the hands of my step grandson. I like 1/48 for many reasons and when I found one at Hobby Lobby for under $13 I thought what could I lose!

Wow, 1964! Could the molds be that old? Based on my experience, they might well be!

As you would guess for something this old there is not a lot of detail - no Allison motor only exhaust. At least it is not molded into the fuselage,

Interestingly the instrument panel is molded and, while not relying on decals, it is a challenge to apply any detail. This is my meager attempt at dry brushing.

Let's skip ahead. I painted the interior the requisite
Zinc Chromate, the few interior details included and closed up the fuselage. As one can imagine with molds this old there are fit and finish issues to deal with which require trimming, filing, filling and sanding. The plastic is also rather thin so care is required when trimming to differentiate flash from model!

The tail fit is good as is the one piece canopy.

I used Tamiya 6mm tape for frame masking. I applied tape in stages, masking off straight lines and letting dry before continuing. A lengthier process but easier than trying to cut up four sided pieces of tape to fill a window panel.

Next was the wing assembly after some ZC applied to the inside. The machine guns are molded to one wing half, but the the Pitot tube is a separate piece.

Surprising is that the flaps are built to open and close!! Who knows how details are selected???? (I did cut open two of the shell casing eject ports).

Prop and spinner painted and decals applied. A positive to note here is the decals are very good. They are sturdy and remove quickly from the backing paper.

The underside gets the light aircraft Gray spray.

Tape and paper towel sheets for masking the entire underside so the camo brown can be sprayed topside.

Then the topside is masked so that olive can be applied.

I was happy with the result.

The prop and.....

.....painted pilot are the next to be assembled.

All decals follow for the American Volunteer Force "Flying Tigers". As suggested when I reviewed the kit in Scalemates, the one piece shark teeth and eyes decal I cut in half as well as cut off the eyes to apply separately. IMHO it is the only way to go. The other thing I suggest for ease of application is not installing the prop until after applying the shark teeth.

The disk decals are applied (didn't have to paint😉) so I test fitted the gear into the wing. Those angle braces don't attach to anything!!!????? What's up with that?

Ok, now for my DIY for this build - adding some needed detail to the landing gear. Not a lot but components not often seen plus hydraulics.

I brought out the styrene rod and attached to the molded angle off the main gear leg (strange, as I said above ,it is not long enough to have any affect or attachment point). An interesting piece of engineering is the gear leg that has to rotate 90 degrees within the steel collars that are drawn up into the wing nacelle covering the mechanics but leaving the wheel exposed.

I glued on the hydraulic (thread) line and later tied it to the gear leg as shown in research photos.

I had to add the interior plate with heavy stock with a hole to receive the draw bar extensions.

Now I could fit the gear leg in place and glue it in.

The DIY pieces are painted.....

More styrene rod added for the front perpendicular arm, the gear doors are on and the gear is complete.

Before dullcoating and attaching the canopy the Iron Sights had to be installed. The fuselage had ridiculously large holes molded into the two halves which I filled in. The sights were actually mounted offset, I had to get out the drill! Anyway, the dullcoat was sprayed on and the canopy affixed

and my P-40B Tiger Shark was finished.