**** DONE: 1/48 Kittyhawk IV "Cleopatra III" - Aircraft in Foreign Service WWII

[subkraft]

Hi all,
The pilot is my uncle. Bub was his last Kittyhawk, the one he flew home to an aircraft wrecking yard in Queensland, Australia. Cleo 1 was trashed at Milne Bay, Cleo 2 was hit in the radiator by Japanese ground fire, he was picked by a US Catalina rescue crew. Cleo 3 was the one he flew home. Which is how we remember her.

 

[fubar57]

Wow, pressures on now.

Geo

 

[Crimea_River]

Hi all,
The pilot is my uncle. Bub was his last Kittyhawk, the one he flew home to an aircraft wrecking yard in Queensland, Australia. Cleo 1 was trashed at Milne Bay, Cleo 2 was hit in the radiator by Japanese ground fire, he was picked by a US Catalina rescue crew. Cleo 3 was the one he flew home. Which is how we remember her.

Interesting - thanks for letting me know. Please feel free to steer me straight if you see something wrong. Do you have any more pics?

 

[subkraft]

No, I can't offer more wartime pix. But I can say that you can get a lot of bottles of beer in the ammo troughs of a P40 and a quick fly cools them off real good. We'd sit around the kitchen table sticking airfix kits together listening to this kind of stuff. It was great.

 

[Crimea_River]

Nice!

I'll be making a start on this one today. If anyone has any "heads ups" on differences of RAAF P-40s vs their American counterparts, let me know.

 

[Wayne Little]

be getting back in to mine tomorrow....

 

[ozhawk40]

Nice!

I'll be making a start on this one today. If anyone has any "heads ups" on differences of RAAF P-40s vs their American counterparts, let me know.

Not much, but there was some in-theatre mods. Wing bomb racks and instrument panel were main ones. RAAF were using AAF style seat belts by this stage, so no need to change to sutton type.

Cheers

Peter

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Peter. I spent a lot of time going through your excellent GB2 build and got lots of great info. Yesterday I mixed up a batch of Curtis Interior Green and squirted it on but didn't like how it turned out. Mixed a second batch and resprayed last night. I'll need to see how I like it this morning. Pics later today.

 

[Crimea_River]

First thing was to deal with the unfortunate fuselage splice. The kit instructions ask you to glue the front and rear halves together first and then bring the finished assemblies together. I felt it would be better to splice the front and rear sections together first to get a better chance of alignment and cleanup. The first two pics show the sequence with the sections glued together while securely held to a flat surface, followed by brushing on some surfacing primer and wet sanding. After a check coat of a light colour, the panel lines will be rescribed.

The far-too-thick seat was filed down to look more realistic:

After the second attempt at spraying the Curtis Green, I assembled and painted the coolers and ducts:

And then it was on to the cockpit floor, bulkhead and sides, shown here with basic shading, highlights, and colours added.

 

[fubar57]

Totally agree with your method of doing the fuselage. Nice start.

Geo

 

[Crimea_River]

Yep, much easier to fix and rescribe that way. Thanks Geo.

 

[dneid]

Looking very nice, Andy. I am just not a fan of those multi-piece fuselages. I try to avoid if at all possible.
Dale

 

[Crimea_River]

The Hasegawa mold is used for many versions of the P-40. Had to do the same on my Kitthawk III with the filleted fin.

 

[ozhawk40]

Yep, that's the best way to get the fuselage right with least effort. Interior's looking good.

 

[Wayne Little]

Well done Andy, nice start mate!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

That is an unusual fuselage assembly, nicely fixed though Andy and some other work going on here

 

[T Bolt]

Very nice Andy, and I'll agree with every one else on the tail assembly. I've dealt with that kind of thing many times, be it P-40 tail or B-24 nose and it is always easier to get the parts to align as best as you can first and worry about any bad fuselage half joints Later. Much easier to clean it up that way.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Though a while away from painting, I'm wondering whether the upper camo for this bird would be the olive drab with the darker green patches around the wing edges?

 

[fubar57]

You seem to have every photo that I've seen of this aircraft but I'll look a little deeper, might even read the odd written word. Back in a bit.

Geo

 

[fubar57]

Sent you an email Andy. Nothing definite I'm afraid, probably muddy the waters a little further.

Geo