This is Hasegawa’s still very nice plastic rebooted by Eduard and supersized with some of their excellent resin and Photo etch.
This was built for a review for The Modelling News, and rather than go through the build again, I will just send you there via this link
I was quite happy with the finished model and it still resides in my cabinet.
Decals: Combination of Cutting Edge Pyn Up and Aussie decals
Hasegawa’s P-40 series seems to be one of those kits modellers either love or hate
Flick through any of the fora and you will find modellers that rate it as a horrible fitting kit through to other modellers that have had no fit problems at all. It does require care in assembly – like any kit – but I found mine went together reasonably well with only a small amount of iller needed around the gun ports and fuselage. To be honest, I found the Cutting Edge decals a real disappointment, thick and reluctant to conform to recessed details. The nose art decals, although very thin, were not sharply printed. I dare say though printing technology has improved since these decals were first released.
The second of a parallel Boston build, This one was finished as a RAAF machine. All the comments from my first Boston Build apply here too, including the spindly landing gear.
Another two builds of the same kit in parallel. AMTs kit is getting rather old now and we really need a new one. Detail is soft, although there are now sets available for it from Vector, and it has several inaccuracies including metal control surfaces where they should be fabric and I believe the main landing gear is to far backward, or forward, cant remember which. That said, it is a pretty viceless build. The only weak point being the undercarriage attachment. It is incredibly flimsy. Mine have sheared off twice!!. The doors also have poor attachment points.
I cut out all the control surfaces and replaced them with the Vector resin replacements,
I built the RAF one for a group build on an on-line forum. It was the first time I had used the salt chipping method, and I was quite pleased with the results. I wanted an machine that reflected the haste with which some units applied their invasion stripes., so the stripes were hand painted using vallejo paints.
As there are no decals for this scheme in 48 scale I used various generic sheets for the codes and national markings and hand painted the nose art. She was flown by an Australian crew. Im really hoping a new tool kit of this important aircraft is released soon. The A.M.T kit has served well, but is long overdue for replacement.
Xtracolour enamels were again used
The second part of my double Buffalo build. Like the other build, this one also went together quite effortlessly.
To paint it I used the then popular “black base” technique. I remember not liking it that much as I didn’t think it gave you a lot of range with the colours. The colours on this were all lightened considerably to portray a faded machine that had been operating under a blazing hot Northern Territory sun.
Extracolour paints were again used from my now diminishing supply.
I think this one turned out better than the U.S one I completed just prior.
Date Completed: 2014
Aftermarket used: Quickboost rudder and corrected cowlings
Decals Not decals at all, but masks from Mal’s Miracle Masks
A little more effort was put into this model of the skyhawk than my last one as I wanted to display it with the tailplanes tinted up exposing the hole through the fin and the hellhole open.
Cutting off the moulded tailplane rub plates was trickier than expected, but I got there in the end using a thin razor saw. These days I would use a P.E saw.
I made up some rudimentary innards through the open hell hole door. The door itself had its interior detailed with plastic strip and some foil to replicate the small bag for the R.B.Fs. These doors were commonly seen open on the flight line.
The air superiority scheme consisted of light and dark admiralty grey. At the time of modelling, no off the shelf paints were available from any of the major manufacturers.
The paints for this came from a local company that actually made model railway colours. As far as I kno, these paints were their only foray into aircraft sets.. The practise bomb carrier seen so often on Aussie skyhawks was scratch built from plastic card and strip.
I have always loved the look of the Hurricane armed with rockets. Again it evokes memories of building the 72 Airfix kit as a child. It was another model I wanted to revisit, so my second Hasegawa Hurricane used a resin conversion set from Guideline Publications which included the armoured radiator and resin rockets and rails. The rails were rather twisted so a friend kindly recast me a new set. Searching out colour schemes was interesting as it was quite difficult locating photos of rocket armed Hurricanes. I eventually settled on this one from South East Asia Command, although you will note it has no codes or serial. Much searching and asking of questions failed to reveal an accurate combination I could use. This model was also riveted with my new Rosie the Riveter tool, although I just confined it to the wing upper surfaces
Theres not too much I can remember about this build, being as Im writing it up about ten years after completion. The gunship grey scheme the RAAF trialled appealed to me, and I thought it would make the jet stand out from all the other Aussie hornets you see.
In fact the jet standing out is why the RAAF did not go ahead with the scheme
Decals are Hawkeye decals which, although quite thick performed adequately. There are much better decals on the market now, although up to date markings for RAAF “Classic” remain rarer than hens teeth.
For some reason, even our own Australian decal manufactures can not come up with a decent decal sheet. The long OOP Afterburner sheet remaining the best out there still.
This model no longer remains ion my collection having been sold off in 2021. I will replace it with a hopefully better RAAF Classic Hornet build sometime in the future.
Bruce’s-Scale-Models 