1/32 Kittyhawk Mk I, 112 Sqn

[pmarshall]

I've been after one of these for ages but they had been OOP for a while, and going for silly money until this version was on sale at Luckymodel, and Creative models were clearing the Eduard Big-Ed so a plan came together.





Now to make it a Kittyhawk rather than a P-40E need some decals - enter the Barracuda decals



Started by soldering the PE Flaps together - mainly to see if I was going to use them. After an hour of soldering reached a point where I decided that i'm not using the flaps ( not seen a photo with the flaps down on the ground anyway ).

So onwards - soldered together the PE replacement seat



Then primed, and sprayed with Alclad Aluminium



Started assembling the cockpit - removed some of the details and replaced with PE



Finally after a quick coat of primer, a base coat of Interiour Grey / Green. First time using the Akan paints, so far not entirely convinced. Sprayed nicely,but did seem to dry quickly leading to a little pebbling. Will try a bit more thinner next time.



Peter

[pmarshall]

Today's work on the Kittyhawk

Sanded off all the details on the Instrument Panel, then fitted the PE layers replacements, and some Ammo Crystal Clear in the dials.



Added the PE to the sides and the belts on the seat.



Then weathered the cockpit back, using oils and pigments and finally a prismacolor pencil.







Peter

[Jack]

Looks great love the cockpit, look forward to seeing how this one turns out

[pmarshall]

Onwards with the Kitty - First replacing the grilles for the Radiators and Oil Cooler





Then joined up the fuselage - slight twist, looks like it got bashed when in transit, so had to glue with CA and plastic powder in sections.





Then put all the insets in - Exhaust mounts, and the fillet behind the cockpit



Now the nose joints needed some filler - P38 Car filler to be precise, sets quickly, and sands back nicely



Then sanded back and wiped clean with IPA





Finally sprayed the fillet with Aircraft Grey / Green, painting the fuel filler cap red



Peter

[tferedo]

Good start and will also be watching your build. I always wanted to build this kit and will definitely learn a lot from this thread.

Cheers,

[Twokidsnosleep]

Ya, cool subject in good hands

[patrickroos]

Recently bought the "little brother" to this one, the 1/48 version. Looks like a very nice kit, have this 1/32 on the shopping list.
Love the P-40, one of the real rugged workhorses of WWII.
Watching this with great interest!

Your build looks really good so far, cockpit came out excellent.
Also nice nose job, what brand is that filler?

[pmarshall]

it's P38 Car filler - best stuff by a mile as it sands back easily, but can build up big areas if required. Cures quickly too.

Faffy to use though, being a 2 part filler though.

[Willem]

Ya, cool subject in good hands

Agreed. Just read this thread through with my morning cuppa. I remember my Dad using P38 filler on his old Cortina! Will have to stock up.

Great job and a very cool build to follow.

[pmarshall]

Today's work - first adding the PE to the wheel wells



Added the wings and tail



Then lots more P38, then sanding back - lots and lots of sanding back, fitting the gun insets and more sanding back....







Finally fitted the front and rear sections using the masks from the big-ed set.



Peter

[frack]

outstanding

[pmarshall]

Today's work - started by rescribing to replace the panels clogged with the sanding





Then added the PE radiator flaps





Mr Surfacer 500 along the joints where the clear parts met the fuselage then rubbed back with cotton buds soaked in IPA.



Mask off the main cockpit



Then masked off the centre sections of the canopy with the masks



Sprayed interior grey-green over the canopy parts





Peter

[patrickroos]

Great work Peter!
Shaping up nicely...nice craftsmanship.
Any verdict as of yet regarding how it goes together?
Only thing I have understood so far is that the tail vs fuse is a bit work.

[pmarshall]

Great work Peter!
Shaping up nicely...nice craftsmanship.
Any verdict as of yet regarding how it goes together?
Only thing I have understood so far is that the tail vs fuse is a bit work.

It's just like the 1/48th scale kit - the nose insets always need some filling, as do the wing roots and the rear section of the Fusalage where there's the butt joint.

I know why it's engineered this way - so they can do *most* of the variants of the P-40 from one mold - just a bit annoying - lots of sanding rescribing but not massive re-engineering.

[pmarshall]

Today's work on the Kitty - first masked off the wheel wells, with blu-tac



Added the last section of the keel



Coat of Alclad Grey Primer - revealed a couple of problem areas





So on with some Mr Surfacer 500



Rubbed back the primer



Preshaded the panel lines with German Grey





preshaded panel variations with grey and white





The Akan colour set is a disappointment - it's got Light Stone rather than Middle Stone so reverted to using Gunze for the Middle stone.



Then the Akan Dark Earth



Finally the Akan Azure blue - this is very dark, closer to Light Mediterranean Blue. However as one option is Clive Cauldwell's aircraft, which had a dark blue underside, so this will do for that.



Given their reputation, i'm disappointed with the Akan paints, the colours all seem to be off, the set has the wrong colours.

Peter

[Twokidsnosleep]

Great work
I like your pre shading methods for panel variations...gonna try that

[pmarshall]

Today's work - Advanced Dentistry

First draw out the shape of the mouth with a pencil.



Then mask off the area - using the new Tamiya Vinyl Tape for the first time i've used this and i'm impressed with it



Sprayed the black edge of the mouth



mask the black edge with 1mm Jammy Dog tape



Then more vinyl tape over the joint



Sprayed white, then masked over with tape then drew the teeth in with pancil.



Cut the tape around the teeth with a scalpel, then sprayed the red



Then masked off the lower half, then sprayed black and unmasked everything. A few little touch ups with brush and we have teeth !







Peter

[Twokidsnosleep]

Awesome, best shark mouth I have seen

[Danta2er]

Freakin' awesome!!

[JediBoer]

Damn, that is some fine masking and painting going on right there!

[Goose]

This is awesome.

craching masking job!

loving it

Goose

[pmarshall]

Today's work - first started by Klearing the aircraft, and spraying the spinner red



Then sprayed the Dark Green panel around the serial number



Decals on, followed by another coat of klear







Ready to start beating to hell tomorrow

Peter

[Twokidsnosleep]

Paint work is superb

[patrickroos]

Really really nice mate!!!
That shark mouth is an awesome piece of work...looks perfect.

[Willem]

Loving this build of one of my favourite subjects. The patient work on the shark mouth is superb and inspiring.

[pmarshall]

Today's work on the Kittyhawk - started weathering with True-Details to do some fading and dirt.



Spray randomly across the surface, gradually working through the colours





Weathered the prop / spinner with some chipping and oils



MIG Dark Wash on the upper surfaces, MIG Neutral Wash on the lower surfaces



Then cleaned back with tissues once dried



Start some chipping with a Prismacolor pencil, and silver paint





Then finally for the day, a flat coat over the top



Peter

[pmarshall]

Today's work - first started by adding some streaks of AK Desert Dust



Once dried, stump the streaks back to give a nice worn effect





Made up the exhaust manifolds, sprayed with Dark Iron, then fitted them



Added some grease and oil staining on the underside



Finally for the day, unmasked the wheel wells, and fitted the Undercarriage legs. Also chipped the edges of the wheel wells. Will need dusting and dirtying up once the doors are in place



Peter

[Danta2er]

That look awesome, nicely played sir!!

[patrickroos]

Awesome!!

BTW, been looking at True Earth products for a long time.
The whole water based idea appeals to me a lot.
Whats Your experience with their products?

Looking fantastic, this will be a real beauty!

[pmarshall]

Awesome!!

BTW, been looking at True Earth products for a long time.
The whole water based idea appeals to me a lot.
Whats Your experience with their products?

Looking fantastic, this will be a real beauty!

The True Earth products are good, but not great. The biggest problem is the same thing that appeals to you - they are water based, so have high surface tension, which makes them difficult to spray but for some things they are great.

These days I prefer oils

[patrickroos]

Awesome!!

BTW, been looking at True Earth products for a long time.
The whole water based idea appeals to me a lot.
Whats Your experience with their products?

Looking fantastic, this will be a real beauty!

The True Earth products are good, but not great. The biggest problem is the same thing that appeals to you - they are water based, so have high surface tension, which makes them difficult to spray but for some things they are great.

These days I prefer oils

Mmm what I have suspected...ok will stick with what I use!
Thanks!