A dutch Curtiss P-40N, an oldie rebuilt

1
November 11, 2016
Base material.... brings back childhood memories.
2
November 11, 2016
Parts stripped and ready for rebuild
3
November 11, 2016
Attempt at plug forming a new canopy, sort of succesful...
4
November 11, 2016
Scratch building cockpit and fixing landing gear bays
5
November 11, 2016
More parts getting fixed...
6
November 11, 2016
Narrowing radiator scoop and adding interior..
7
November 11, 2016
Cockpit and gunsight ready
8
November 11, 2016
Fuselage assembly, with lots of gaps and steps to fix. Found equally old replacement wheels from Airfix P-51B, sort of correct...
9
November 11, 2016
Fixing mess on underside and spinner, added radiator exhaust flaps
10
November 11, 2016
More progress, need a spar to reattach wings
11
November 11, 2016
And more gaps to fill...
12
November 21, 2016
Plenty of gaps on underside filled
13
November 21, 2016
Breaking out the filler, prop fixed some more
14
November 21, 2016
First time use of Mr Surfacer, love the stuff. Masked canopy
15
November 21, 2016
Cockpit ready, time to install canopy
16
November 21, 2016
Final touches on filling, almost ready for paintshop!
17
January 29, 2017
First sprayed on a coat of gloss grey to help cover the remaining small scratches etc and to provide a good base for the white.
18
January 29, 2017
And then white gloss for the Dutch flags and white spinner band, and olive drab for anti-glare panel and the vertical fin.
19
February 12, 2017
Applying masks for the Dutch flags, spinner sprayed red
20
February 12, 2017
And ready for the aluminium coat
21
February 12, 2017
Base coat on...
22
February 12, 2017
... and the gloss coat underneath doesn't like it 🙁 No idea why, but the worst damage is confined to the lefthand stab
23
February 12, 2017
Damage repaired, also noted I forgot to smooth a patch of Mr Surfacer. Duh...
24
February 12, 2017
Masking applied for the different metal shades. I use Tamiya tape, which slightly mottles the surface when pulled of, which I like because it makes the surface less "flat" and more lifelike
25
February 12, 2017
More masking for the fabric covered flight controls. Used Revell aluminium for this.
26
February 12, 2017
And ready for decalling Only a few to apply, so that will be quick.
27
February 21, 2017
Decaling and weathering done, sealed under a satin coat to dull the finish
28
February 21, 2017
Added landing gear, had to replace main gear upper legs by copper tube and used a tailwheel from the spares bin with more copper tubing. Wheel doors from plastic card. Prop assembled, used pins to fit the blades, not looking half as bad as I thought.
29
February 21, 2017
And finished! Canopy looks much better than expected.
30
February 21, 2017
Ouch, those digital camera's show everything, like the sloppy brush painting of the prop blades. Didn't notice that before...
31
February 21, 2017

Comments

11 November 2016, 15:18

Hans Zwetsloot
More progress on this old warhorse. Slowly rebuilding this basket case, is actually a lot of fun.

21 November 2016, 20:27

Eric Juvyns
That brings back some fond memories. Looking very good.

27 November 2016, 10:09

John Thomas
Now nice and great work. I built a few back in the day.

27 November 2016, 13:35

Hans Zwetsloot
Thanks! Got this one now waiting for paint, but first will revive another Matchbox oldie (F9F-5) so that I can spray them together. One problem though with these rebuilds, the stack is not getting any smaller... 🙂

27 November 2016, 19:34

Łukasz Gliński
Watching as I also recover some old kits from time to time

27 November 2016, 20:54

Erik Leijdens
Cool subject Hans. Nice to see a P-40 getting revived, and Dutch too 👍

27 November 2016, 21:02

Hans Zwetsloot
And we have progress again on this one. Waited patiently for my other project to catch up, and today first paint went on. And the second layer as well, although that was a bit too soon, with some very light cracking in the OD... Hope it dries up well, I will consider it pre-mature weathering... 🙂

29 January 2017, 20:13

Hans Zwetsloot
And more progress on my ancient P-40 as well. Spraying also went well, dropped this one only once while handling. Cracked a stabilizer joint, but it is still hanging on so left it as-is. Ready for the decals and the final bits.

12 February 2017, 13:54

Hans Zwetsloot
And we're done!

21 February 2017, 18:32

Łukasz Gliński
Doesn't look like a matchbox one anymore - and the canopy is literally briliant😉

21 February 2017, 20:24

Album info

Rebuild of my very old (like 40 years) Matchbox P-40N. The second kit I ever built. Built as Dutch P-40N of the Dutch East Indies Air Force in 1947.

Curtiss P-40N in Dutch service

31 images

1:72

Completed

1:72 P-40N Warhawk/Kittyhawk (Matchbox PK-31)

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