Muller Posted July 28, 2010 Posted July 28, 2010 I originally was going to enter only one build in this GB, an Irish Air Corps F-15. I was thinking of a story behind it and came up an historical reason for them having these aircraft, which inspired another build. So here goes... December 11 1941, Germany & Italy declare war on the United States, the US returns the favour. After much debate, on December 16, the Irish govt relinquishes it's neutral status and allies itself with the US & Britain and declares war on Germany. February 1942 the 1st US forces begin arriving in Ireland. Over the next 6 months, the USAAF begins expanding existing IAC airfields and establishes new ones. The US supplies lend/lease aircraft to the IAC and begins training new recruits before deployment to the Desert Air Force in North Africa and re-enforcing the RAF over mainland Britain. My build will be an IAC P-40B based at Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel. The scheme will be US olive drab over medium grey (or is that gray??) with an olive green camo pattern. A bit like this Russian P-40E. I reckon it'll look cool with IAC roundels. This'll be the 3rd P-40 I've built.
CPNGROATS Posted July 28, 2010 Posted July 28, 2010 kEITH: gOOD sHOW!! Can't have too many P-40's [ IMO].. Cheers, ggc
Daniel Posted July 28, 2010 Posted July 28, 2010 I don't think I've seen many models in Irish markings.... should be unique. Dan
Muller Posted August 18, 2010 Author Posted August 18, 2010 Made a start on this one this weekend. Here's the kit, Trumpeter P-40B. There's a bit of a dodgy kit cockpit in this, its too shallow, so I'm using this resin pit from Legend, it's not for the Trumpeter kit but it's not too difficult to make it fit (apparently....) Max Decals IAC sheets, I'll be using the seafire roundels (149), I have a spare set in a spitfire sheet somewhere, the stripes on the 2nd sheet are for under the wings. I got the dremel out to remove the moulded mounts for the kit cockpit. Painted and weathered the resin pit. I need to remove the raised panel circled, I'm a bit nervous about putting the dremel anywhere near the outside! That's it till the weekend chaps, thanks for looking!
robw_uk Posted August 19, 2010 Posted August 19, 2010 great start... I love cockpits - wish I could get mine to look half as good..... my WHIF has a covered cockpit (damaged canpoy well beyond repair) so that should speed my build up no end ;-)
RussTnailZ Posted August 19, 2010 Posted August 19, 2010 Wow that pit looks really good cant wait to see the rest Russ
Muller Posted September 6, 2010 Author Posted September 6, 2010 Cheers fellas, here's a quick update, it's not going as quick as I'd like, a few more bits painted, wheel bits have brake-lines added with stretched sprue. The fuselage halves are together, wings are together and part painted. There's a fair bit of filling and sanding required on this one. (apologies for the crap workbench pic!)
Col. Posted September 6, 2010 Posted September 6, 2010 Good to see progress on this one Keith, everything looks good so far, shame about the fit issues.
Muller Posted September 11, 2010 Author Posted September 11, 2010 Cheers fellas, Col not too much filling required, not as bad as other builds I've done. I got the resin pit fitted, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be seeing as it's not designed for this kit. Wings and tailplanes are one, and the whole thing is primed. Ready for some pre-shading now......
fredjocko Posted September 11, 2010 Posted September 11, 2010 That is some very nice work. Love the pit and I can't wait to see more.
Muller Posted September 13, 2010 Author Posted September 13, 2010 Cheers lads! Got it painted up over the last couple of days. I used a combination of Humbrol & WEM enamels and Tamiya acrylics, I decided to go with a white spinner and rudder. Now I'll give it a couple of coats of Klear before decalling. Thanks for looking!
Muller Posted September 13, 2010 Author Posted September 13, 2010 Cheers fellas, topside decals on and slathered in MM Softer. Not too impressed with them, bits of white showing along the edges of a couple of them..... Still, I think it looks good in those markings. I'll wait for these to settle and dry completely before tackling the underwing stripes.
fredjocko Posted September 14, 2010 Posted September 14, 2010 Cheers fellas, topside decals on and slathered in MM Softer. Not too impressed with them, bits of white showing along the edges of a couple of them..... Still, I think it looks good in those markings. I'll wait for these to settle and dry completely before tackling the underwing stripes. That is coming along very nicely. Thanx, Carl
Ian Posted September 14, 2010 Posted September 14, 2010 Like where this is headed. Great work so far. Ian
Muller Posted September 15, 2010 Author Posted September 15, 2010 Cheers fellas, I've been away from the bench for a couple of days. I've found that a 2c coin is the same size as the wing roundels so I'll use one to mask it and spray over it to eliminate the white bits, the fin flashes are the same. I'm sticking the underwing stripes and numbers right now...
jynski Posted September 15, 2010 Posted September 15, 2010 Nice build so far. If I could I'd buy you a pint.
Muller Posted September 15, 2010 Author Posted September 15, 2010 Cheers jynski, not on a school night though! Got the decals on, letting them settle overnight. You can just make it out in the pic, I thought the rudder looked a bit bare so I stuck a yellow 1 on it from a bf109 decal sheet I had left over. Next up is my favourite bit, dirtying it up a bit!
TaiidanTomcat Posted September 16, 2010 Posted September 16, 2010 What a great splash of color! Loving this!
Muller Posted September 17, 2010 Author Posted September 17, 2010 Thanks again fellas, not much of an update, and these pics don't really show it (I need to learn how to use the decent camera I bought!) I added some paint-chipping on the wing roots and the gun access panels. The exhausts are painted, just dry-fitted for now. And i gave it wash with some pro-modellers wash, 1st time I've used this stuff, its GREAT!! The pics don't really show the results of the wash though..... Next up is some exhaust stains, oil stains and gun stains... then I have to tackle the bit I hate most, masking and painting the canopy. Thanks for looking.
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