Special Hobby P-40. SqnLdr Bobby Gibbes, CO 3 Sqn.

[RHB785]

A few shots of my Special Hobby P-40 Kittyhawk (short tail) in progress. This model is now almost finished with only a little work to go. Here she is in her underwear; Tamiya rattle can grey primer.







Now a few of her in her outer clothing with all her finements but still awaiting her undercarriage etc.







I'll finish this one tomorrow or tuesday so I'll post some more pics of her then. It's not my best ever effort and it did fight me all the way but she's now almost home and hosed.

Regards,
RHB.

[hrtpaul]

Looks great so far mate

[RayS]

Nice progress Ross,

What colours/brands did you use? I have a P-40 to do and trying to get colours sorted.

[RHB785]

G'day Ray. I used Model Master enamels for this build. It was straight out of the bottle and for the undersides I used RAF Azure Blue. For the topsides I used RAF Middle Stone and Dark Earth as these were the colours used on these birds in the desert. The interior surfaces are RAF Interior Green. There has been some discussion on other forums about the colour inside the side windows but I figured this one has had a major overhaul and if you have a look at the photos of the real Kittyhawk that Thommo over at ARC has used as reference for his desert crash diorama that area appears to be a different colour from the top side colours albeit very faded from decades in the desert sun.

Regrards,
RHB.

[Adam the Akrodude]

Hey Ross

Great work so far. I too have been through the whole controversy about whether or not to paint the area behind those rear windows interior green or not. On another Aussie modelling forum (which I hardly bother with anymore - mainly frequented by US based modellers now - you'll know who I mean), I got slated for using interior green in that area. Now, I showed my references, which shows a different shading in this area - could of course be a different colour, or could be the effect of the glazed area reflecting some light away, but I got torn into by one guy who said they were never painted this way, always the external camo appied in this area. This doesn't make sense to me. So, in the field they remove these windows just to apply the local camo - why? Surely they'd of just taped up the windows and paint over - way easier I think. Anyway, I've had my share of P-40 "Nazi's"!

I screwed up my P-40E camo anyway. I used the Khaki and Dark Earth camo on my 75 Sqn P-40E using the wrong later period Milne Bay period as reference, trying in vain to build John Jackson's last aeroplane from a few months earlier - the one he died in over Port Moresby back in April 1942. I do think now it should have been overall khaki with grey underneath, so will have to repaint it one day - GRRRRR!

I will build a desert P-40E one day, as they look so cool and it's such a interesting period in Aussie military aviation.

Cheers

Adam

[RHB785]

G'day Adam. Yes I've had such discussions and been torn into about such things too. I remember a discussion over at ARC about something like this. One poster, a Brit mentioned the "rumours" about British ground transport being painted with Italian paint. He reckoned it would never have happened as "orders were orders". I thought "what a load of old cobblers that is". I told him it may not have happened in the British Army but it certainly did in the Aussie Army and he continued to argue with me until I told him that when the Aussies received a shipment of brand new Chevrolet utes in Lybia after the capture of all those Italians and their equipment that Dad and some of his mates were handed cans of Italian Desert Sand paint and told to "go and camoflage those new Chevs boys". They did it with paint brushes. When the Chevs had arrived in theatre they were beautifully but uselessly spray painted in Aussie olive drab. Great for the temperate areas of Australia but useless as the proverbials on a bull in Lybia. For some strange reason he went all silent all of a sudden and that's where the discussion ended.

On another level I was at a modelling competition at Blacktown Workers Club before I got out of the RAAF and there was a young lad about 14 or so who had entered a 1/72 model of a Mirage, A3-34 in overall grey-green primer. As the judges approached the chief judge haughtily snorted "No Mirage ever flew in that scheme, ever." The young lad was crestfallen. He'd obviusly put a lot of research into his model as well as the work done to the model itself. He was standing near me and turned away from his beautiful model and as he did so I gently tapped him on the shoulder and whispered "Watch this mate". I then addressed the chief judge and told him firmly that A3-34 had indeed flown like that for a few weeks in 1979. He then turned on me and said "what would you know about it?" I replied "quite a bit actually". The penny still hadn't dropped, he was so wrapped up in his own importance. He then said "and you are?' to which I replied by pulling out my ID card and telling him who I was and that I had worked on her in that scheme, in fact I'd been one of the ground crew that took her to Townsville for 2 of the 3 weeks she had been forced to go everywhere in nothing but her underware. All the other judges starting going tick, tick, tick, tick on their judging forms and the young lad won his class. The chief judge tore up his judging sheets and glared at me as he stormed off to the bar. If looks could have killed I woudn't be sitting here typing this now.

[Adam the Akrodude]

Love that judging story - GOLD!

[RHB785]

Yep Adam. He let his ego write a cheque his knowledge couldn't cash.

Regards,
RHB.