Airfix 1/48 P-40B Warhawk

From the kit's instructions: "The P-40B, in its various incarnations, served as the United States Army Air Force throughout the Second World War, fighting in Europe, across Asia and in the deserts of North Africa. The first model to see active service, the P-40B proved to be an effective and tough low level fighter.

While not as maneuvrable as the Japanese Mitsubishi Zero, or as fast as the German Messerschmitt Bf 109, the P-40B still proved to be a tough opponent. Pilots liked the fact that it could often get them home after sustaining heavy damage, as well as being able to inflict it with its armament of six machineguns.

The P-40B became synonymous with the shark mouth motif, due to its use with 112 Squadron and the American Volunteer Group in China. Today the P-40B continues to fly in the United Kingdom as well as its homeland of the United States of America."

The model comes inside a single big bag, with the clear parts being inside it and separately bagged. Parts are moulded in a light grey, soft plastic, and don´t have any flash or any imperfections/short shot parts.

The instructions come in the shape of a small full colour booklet with the painting schemes being at the end of them. Each step of the instructions has a red remark which shows you the pieces you've already glued in place.

There're two decal options, one is for the aircraft of 2nd Leautenant George Welch on Infamy Day (December 7th 1941, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour), and the second one is for an aircraft in service with the American Volunteer Group, its pilot being Flight Leader Robert Smith. The decals are printed by Cartograf, so they shoudn't give the modeller any issues when applying them.

I began by painting all the cockpit piece on their sprues with Revell 48 (Interior Gree), with black boxes for the different instruments on the cockpit. Once that was dry, I glued the cockpit together. The finished item is suitably busy, and doesn't need any aftermarket resin, aside from, maybe, photoetch seatbelts. After that, the cockpit was glued to the fuselage, and began working on the radiator intake. After building that part, I glued the fuselage together and let it set while I worked on the wings.

Before building the wings, I glued the fuselage fillets, and then glued the landing gear wells into the lower wing, after that I glued the top wings in place. With the wings complete, I glued them to the fuselage, which proved to be an excellent fit. I then built up the horizontal stabilizers and glued the elevators and rudder in the neutral position.

I had decided to paint this kit as the Pearl Harbour variant, which is in Olive Drab uppersides and Neutral Grey undersides. These were painted with Revell 66 Olive Grey and Revell 43 Medium Grey. I then coated the model with Revell's gloss varnish, to prepare the aircraft for the decals. Decalling took less than an hour to complete, with all the stencils sinking into the panel lines with the help of some Vallejo decal softener (not very aggressive, I´ve changed that and now I use Micro Sol). After letting the aircraft to dry for 24 hours, I brushed to coats of Revell's matt varnish.

Landing gear doors were painted fuselage colour with interior green inners, the landing gear struts weren painted in aluminium, and the wheels were painted with aluminium hubs with RLM 66 (Revell 78) tyres. The propeller was painted aluminium and the propeller hub and spinner were painted in Olive Drab. The guns were given a coat of flat black. The last pieces to add were the clear parts, which were first painted with Interior Green, and then Olive Drab.

This kit is great as an introductory model for modellers who wish to go from 1:72 to 1:48. Its cheapness (but with great quality control), make it possible to build it in large numbers.

Francisco Santoro

10 May 2021

Copyright ModelingMadness.com. All rights reserved. No reproduction without express permission.