AVG P-40 Build

3 Sprues in this kit.

Cockpit sides painted.

Fuselage halves joined.

Prop and spinner assembled.

Cockpit floor painted and assembled.

Seat belts added.

Instrument panel decal added.

Wing tops added and joined to fuselage.

Some gaps at the wing roots.

Filled with Perfect Plastic Putty.

Added the engine cover. There were some small gaps to fill.

Added the cowl flaps and the radiator. I chose open flaps, since many photos of the aircraft on the ground show them open.

There was a bit of a step at the radiator seam on the left side that needed to be faired in.

Rudder and tailplanes added.

I originally planned to use Vallejo Flat Earth (70.983) for the brown camo color (upper left), but it looked too dark when I painted it on the spinner. Tried a couple of other colors against the green (Vallejo US Dark Green, 70.893): Vallejo Iraqi Sand (70.819, upper right), Tamiya Buff XF57 (lower left), and Tamiya Desert Yellow XF59 (lower right). Both Tamiya colors are close to pictures in various places, but the Buff seems a little too much on the gray side, so I'm going with the XF59.

Added the gear door piece for the tailwheel.

Now the fiddly task of masking to get ready for painting. Started working on the canopy.

Got the windscreen and the side windows on the canopy (and the scalloped windows behind the cockpit, not shown) done before calling it a night.

Canopy masking finished.

Parts assembled for priming. I'm using Stynylrez primer for the first time. I'm still searching for a satisfactory primer, so I'm hoping it works for me as it seems to for a lot of others.

Parts primed. The Stynylrez went on smoothly and dried quickly. I sprayed it straight from the bottle as the instructions advise. The only issue was some clogging in the airbrush. I'll try to see if a little thinning helps next time. The question will be how well it adheres, since that's been my issue with other primers. But if it sticks to plastic as well as it did to my fingers, that will be good!

Wheel wells painted Zinc Chromate Green (brushed).

Wheel wells masked with Silly Putty.

Bottom painted. I used Model Master Flat Gull Gray (4763), a good approximation of the color seen in the color pictures of AVG aircraft. Model Master Acrylics go on nice and smooth, but I haven't yet cracked the code for keeping them from clogging my airbrush, which makes painting with them something of a fight.

A little touch-up needed on the rear wheel doors.

That's taken care of!

The filler on the radiator is visible if you're looking for it, but probably won't be noticeable once the camo and decals are on. The Gull Gray is more distinct from the primer than it looks in this photo.

Bottom base coat finished. I'll allow it to dry overnight to try to avoid any peeling up with the masking. Part of my dissatisfaction with other primers is that I've had them pull up with Tamiya tape masking. The Stynylrez seems pretty robust (it stood up to some light sanding with no problems, and the green in the wheel wells adhered fine), but I've had disasters in the past, and so I'll play it safe. If there are no problems I might be brave enough to try a shorter drying time in the future.

Masked the gray surfaces in preparation for painting the upper camo base color. In moving the tape during masking, I had no issues with paint lifting, so definitely a good result from the Stynylrez primer.

First camo color down. Painted with Tamiya XF59 Desert Yellow.

After allowing the Desert Yellow to dry, I added the masks in preparation for spraying the dark green camo color. I scanned the back of the Airfix box and scaled it to match the size of the model, and printed it out on my printer. I cut out the sections of the light color to use them for masks.

I attach the masks with Blu-tac (actually, white in my case). With the Blu-tac, the edges of the paper masks are elevated just a bit, giving a slightly soft demarcation line.

All the masks applied, with a little extra Blu-tac or Tamiya tape to extend any mismatches or places where the mask is slightly smaller than it should be (mostly at the leading edges of the wings).

After adding the dark green. I used Vallejo Model Color US Dark Green 70.893 thinned down with distilled water.

Masking removed.

Glossed up with Pledge Floor Care Multi-Surface Finish. It's still Future to me.

Painted and added exhaust stacks. I used a Prismacolor fine marker (.03 in) to darken the ends of the exhaust tubes. Much easier than trying to drill out such small pieces of plastic.

Looks pretty convincing at this scale.

Added landing gear and gear doors.

Standing on its own!

Adding decals. The shark mouth gives it the Flying Tiger vibe.

Decals completed. The Roundels seem a bit too pale a blue, but I haven't been able to find much on their color. The few that can be seen in photos (black and white) seem to be a bit darker in tone, but it's not worth it to me to try to find other decals. The Airfix decals behaved beautifully and responded well to Solvaset. The only place they were out of register was on the victory flags, where the Japanese suns are shifted off center.

Slight mismatch where the red fuselage band comes together on the bottom. It was printed as a straight line, and that's to be expected. I'll live with the mismatch rather than try to mask and paint it.

Applied a sludge wash to emphasize panel lines and shadows.

Wheel wells weathered with a dark artist oil wash.

Added a flat finish coat. I use about 60% Future to 40% Liquitex Matte Acrylic Varnish and airbrush it on.

Little details completed: painted yellow tips on the prop, added the canopy and rear windows, pitot tube, and the lens on the bottom of the port wing.