**** DONE: Academy 1/72 P-40N "Cleopatra III" of Lt.Col. G.C.Atherton Commonwealth GB (1 Viewer)

[Crimea_River]

I like it!

 

[T Bolt]

Very cool Igor! Looks like were going to have a whole squadron of P-40s at the end if the build

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

With all here Igor, very sharp build sir!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Looking very nice Igor.

 

[Wildcat]

Very nice Igor!!

 

[imalko]

Finally finished it tonight... Though I had some problems with the decals. Thank God they didn't tear as Academy decals are sometimes prone to do. On the contrary these have to be some of the stiffest decals I've ever encountered. I used Revell's decal soft solution on them, but to little effect. This prevented me to highlight some panel lines over the decals as I planed. I tried that on the under wing roundels, but when I noticed they might tear I decided to let it be (see the last photo below). Also if you look at the close up of the fuselage roundel, you may notice partial white outline on one side. Unfortunately this became visible only after I applied it to the model so nothing could be done here. Though I don't know if I could manage to cut that out and preserve the round shape of the roundel anyway. Ah, well...
Apart from these few little things I'm generally rather pleased with this build. Always wanted to build a model of P-40, so this was good opportunity to do it. Tomorrow on daylight I'll take some more photos and set up the official ***Finished thread.

 

[Ruud]

Nice build! Don't you love the clear parts of the Academy P-40. So thin and clear. So thin that i ruined one of them on my P-40 (working on a P-40N KNIL)

 

[T Bolt]

Turned out beautiful Igor! I've had that same problem every time I used the decals that come with an Academy Kit. Mico Sol doesn't even have an effect on them. I bought some Solviset to try on the next one but haven't used Academy decals since. That stuff viscous on other decals so I hope it has some effect on the Academy ones.

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

Looking real good there Igor! I've heard you can put a thin varnish over the decals to keep them from coming apart. I usually use white glue with mine and dab flat with a cotton ball. Once on I hit them with a little future floor finish to seal them.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

You should be very proud of that Igor! Very nicely done sir!

 

[Crimea_River]

I think it looks excellent Igor. I agree, off-register decals are annoying and in your case doubly so if you can't see this til they're on the model. I had the same trouble with stiff decals on my ICM Spit IX. Although they were perfectly registered, they were so thick that Solvaset just rolled right off.

 

[Airframes]

Very well done Igor. The decal problem is a pain, especially out of register. You could maybe touch-in the white with the green though.

 

[Crimea_River]

Green pencil maybe?

 

[imalko]

Maybe if I had one in appropriate color...
Nah, don't wanna press my luck. Might make more damage then good. Besides if you look closely I would need two greens - standard dark green and lighter shade of green which I used to simulate over painted old roundel. However, I've made this latter color by approximately mixing dark green and yellow colors and there's no chance to get that same exact shade again. I just call this one finished as it is. Although thanks for the advice and all the comments guys.