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

[Crimea_River]

Thanks everyone and a special thanks to you Wojtek fro the heads up. I did notice those whip antennas in the photos and will study them more closely before placing the antennas.

I started assembling the wings to the fuselage by gluing the seams at the front and back first, leaving he joints between the upper wing and fuselage free to move. As Bill experienced, there is a gap in the upper wing to fuselage joint that needs to be dealt with carefully. I looked at the possibility that increasing the dihedral would close the gap. I tried, and it did, but the dihedral looked visibly wrong. I then resorted to my high school trig and calculated the correct distance from the wing leading edge at the joint with the wing tip to a flat surface based on a 6 degree dihedral which I found in two references. I then set up the below jig and, once everything was adjusted correctly, glued the seam between the upper wing and fuselage with some stretched sprue inserted in the-still evident gap. I took this opportunity to glue in the horizontal stabilizers as well, ensuring that these were square to the table top.

I always take my time at this stage to ensure things look right. It's worth the extra effort in my view. Thanks fro the continue interest guys. Still looking for wing bomb rack details so if anyone has some close up shots they can share, I'd appreciate it.

 

[fubar57]

Any ideas if they would be British or Australian mods? I'll start looking for British racks.

Geo

 

[fubar57]

These are all I can find in my P-40 books. This is just to show that they were not symmetrical.

I've got some other books to check.

Geo

 

[Crimea_River]

Yeah, thanks Geo but my plane did not have pylons but some kind of frame, similar to the centerline rack.

 

[fubar57]

Well crep, definitely didn't see anything that looked like that.

Geo

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Superb work Andy. I looked for my P-40 book and could not find it. It some RAAF craft in it but I can't lay my hands and eyes on it at the moment. Sorry.

 

[Crimea_River]

No worries guys. Thanks for looking.

 

[dneid]

Ain't it nice to actually use the trig stuff for something other than engineering? Andy, that bird is looking damned nice. You are getting me in the mood for a P-40 sometime in the nearish future. I realized I do not even have one on the stack of TBBs.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Doing good stuff here Andy and for what it is worth, the aircraft colour could have remained as was from delivery w3ith just paint applied to cover USAAF markings visible after the roundel had been applied. RAAF fitters were renowned for just doing only what was necessary, after all they had a war to fight and no time for officialdom. The ground crew were also dab hands at doing in the field modification and it is likely the under wing rack is one such example.

Edit

Andy, not sure if these will be of any help solving the underwing bomb rack, but they may give you an idea.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks very much Vic. Peter also PM'd me a link to another forum that has a description but no pictures unfortunately.

EDIT: Still in the hunt. Found this on Wiki of all places:

 

[Airframes]

Looks like a fairly simple, field-designed and fitted, cradle and release system. I'm sure I've seen that somewhere before, maybe on a Hurricane or P-40 in the desert. I'll have a look through my stuff, although heaven knows which book I saw it in, if it was a book, and not film footage at some time in the past.

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far Andy!

 

[Wurger]

Andy , I've enlarged these pictures posted above and clipped them to the areas that can show the antennas. I think the first shot shows it the best.

 

[N4521U]

Confirming what I have found..... you always come thru for us Wurger. Next time you hit the pub, have one on me.

 

[Crimea_River]

Very true. I'm not actually worried about the whip antennas but it's the wires that have me stumped. Also trying to figure out wtf the circled thingy is:

 

[subkraft]

For what it is worth, the Red Roo decal sheet has colour elevations of all surfaces. They show no variation in the "dark Olive Drab" surface colour other than the circle under the insignia and code.

 

[N4521U]

Funny it's not on the others.

 

[Wayne Little]

That's interesting...antenna moved further forward?

 

[Wildcat]

That wire is seen on these P-40's as well.

 

[N4521U]

NEW INFORMATION..............

The wire in front of the tail wheel is the Static Ground.......... from Pilots Manual!
The LUMP I point to in my post 143 in front of the static ground, is the Hydraulic Vent............ from pilots manual.
The wire on top is still unknown.

So perhaps the triling wire you are pointing out is a static ground wire, just farther forward?