**** DONE: Curtiss P-40E-1 S/L Keith "Bluey" Truscott - Aircraft of the Aces GB.

**Crimea_River** · 10-02-2011 01:25 PM

That's looking quite nice Peter. Gotta check my details on that conopy frame for my Kittyhawk III now.

**Gnomey** · 10-02-2011 06:47 PM

Coming along nicely Peter!

**Andy70** · 10-02-2011 08:08 PM

Wow. Looking great. I might need to get some of that Mr. Surfacer, too.

**T Bolt** · 10-02-2011 09:55 PM

I just read an article about Mr. Surfacer today and it sounds like a very good product. I’ll have to find out where I can lay my hands on some.

**Crimea_River** · 10-02-2011 10:01 PM

I have a hard time getting it here but have used Tamiya primer for the same purpose. I don't know if it performs the same, better, or worse, but it works well at filling in panel lines and small sink marks.

**Wayne Little** · 10-03-2011 03:26 AM

I'll vouch for that Mr Surfacer too, it's pretty good stuff!

**ozhawk40** · 10-27-2011 07:53 AM

Thanks guys.

Long overdue update.

Pic 1
These Hasegawa P-40s are fine kits, but some areas have details that are oversized for 1/48. Fabric ribbing and that rivet detail on the fuselage side are two such areas about to get attention.

Pic 2
Here's the tail surfaces after sanding back. Much better to my eye.

Pic 3
Ailerons and rudder (not shown) were also treated similarly

Pic 4
I scraped, rather than sanded the detail off in the scallop behind the pilot. It will leave a little bit of raised detail.

Pic 5
Once this was done, I installed the cockpit tub and completed assembly of the wings and fuselage. Fitted like a glove. Nice job Mr Hasegawa!

**T Bolt** · 10-27-2011 08:09 AM

Big improvement on the control surfaces Peter. Looks much more realistic.

**rochie** · 10-27-2011 08:10 AM

nice work Peter

**ozhawk40** · 10-27-2011 09:24 AM

Thanks Karl and Glenn

Bluey's aircraft, although he was in his time a very famous Aussie fighter pilot, has not been picked up by any decal manufacturer, which is unfortunate. Rather than use decals for the main markings, I will be painting them using masks, plus using generic/ spares box codes and serials to get the job done.

Pic 1
As a first step, I painted all the white areas.

Pic 2 and 3
First areas was the fin flash. The red colour was sprayed here using insignia red, faded down with a little white added to the red.

Pic 4 and 5
To do the roundels I made masks from magic mask (vinyl) using a circle cutter. It makes the job easier if they are taped down to the mat while you do that.

Pic 6 through 12
Once the roundels were cut, you place them on the model, and then remove the outer circle, spray blue (again mixed with white) and then replace the outer circle and then remove the outside. I covered up the masks completely so that when I spray the camo, it will not leak between the gaps in the masks.

The great thing about doing the roundels this way will be the ease of duplicating the camo changes made when the original US marking were oversprayed on assembly of the aircraft on delivery. More on this soon.

Cheers

Peter