Correcting diheadral on Academy P-40B Tomahawk (1 Viewer)

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gijive

Airman 1st Class
The Academy 1/72 scale P-40B is not a great model, but in 1/72 scale there is not much choice in early models of the P-40. In fact I think this is the only one. The later Academy model of the P-40 N is a much better example in being more accurate and true to the plane. As some of you know I recently was advised on the forum (thanks to all) that the dihedral was missing from the wings of the model and should be there. I tackled this with some success on the model I had already started making and took the wings off, shaved the wing roots on the fuselage and stuck them back on. From the front it looks ok but underneath the belly pops out and you loose the rim of the nose section.

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So to counter this and having bought another model so I could replace the broken propeller ( £2.51 bargain) I started again from scratch.

The important thing was to maintain the under belly position relative to the front cowling radiator flaps( Sadly only modelled in this case as closed and just panel lines)

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So I shaved the roots on the fuselage and thinned the belly section at the front, then stuck the wings on pressing firmly on the belly to get that bit right, then once that was dry and well set pulled the wings up to close the gaps on the upper surface.

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Problems

The flatter underside looks a lot better with regard to the front cowling; however this puts a greater stress on the glue holding the upper joins and tends to pull the wings flatter again even after gluing is complete. Much sanding, filling and care needs to be taken to get it looking right, but it's far better than the original models flat wings!

More to follow as model progesses.
 

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