**** DONE: Curtiss P-40M-5 Kittyhawk III, ‘Wairarapa Wildcat’, C’wealth GB

[javlin]

This kit sure does have some nice details Wayne.The P40 and P38 (esp. the 38 ) or two birds out 150 built kits I have that are not represented hardly at all.You Sir are making me keenly aware of that fact for sure. Cheers

 

[Crimea_River]

Nice work and good looking kit Wayne. May nee to get me one for, say, 2019.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

 

[Vic Balshaw]

What Terry said.................

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

That is some beautifully molded detail there. I'd say in your hands this plane will look extremely realistic. May not be able to tell the difference if put up against the right background.

 

[T Bolt]

I agree. Exceptional detail on that kit. Should look like the real thing in your hands Wayne.

 

[Wayne Little]

Thanks Guys...finally getting some modelling time.... prepped and painted the cockpit stuff, created the interior green simply by using the Tamiya equivalent to the Chromate yellow and adding some black.....looks ok to me?

 

[Airframes]

Neat work Wayne. Can't really comment on the green shade, as it looks more grey on my monitor, sort of between RLM 02 and RLM 66 ! Guess it must be the lighting.

 

[Crimea_River]

I like it!

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

very nice. A very rich dark green color. Atleast that's what it looks like to me.

 

[T Bolt]

prepped and painted the cockpit stuff, created the interior green simply by using the Tamiya equivalent to the Chromate yellow and adding some black.....looks ok to me?

That's how the chromite green color was made back then. I read an article on it somewhere. They added lamp black to chromite yellow and came up with chromite green. The color varied depending on how much lamp black was added. I know I saved that article somewhere on the hard drive. I'll have a look for it.

 

[T Bolt]

Here is a link to the article I read. Some interesting stuff there.
Everything You Need To Know About Zinc Chromate

 

[N4521U]

T Bolt, you come thru again. Very interesting read. Seems we can't go wrong with any variation on the colour.... Thanks for that. Heaps!

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff Glenn. I'd seen that before, but couldn't remember where (IPMS Stockholm maybe?), and it's useful info - especially for settling arguments! Co-incidentally, I was at my friend's garage today, and he was refurbishing an old military vehicle, using raw ZC, in the 'Yellow' form. Some of the old, original panels, showed a great example of the coating on bare aluminium, which you've probably seen, where it looks like a thin dusting of yellow, with the specular effect of the 'silver' metal showing through.

 

[ozhawk40]

Thanks Guys...finally getting some modelling time.... prepped and painted the cockpit stuff, created the interior green simply by using the Tamiya equivalent to the Chromate yellow and adding some black.....looks ok to me?

Looks great. The seat was manufactured from stainless steel, and usually left unpainted. You might want to check on this. 8)

Cheers

Peter

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Nice bit of spray work Wayne and thanks for putting this up just now as the use of Chrome Green is a question I put up yesterday, so between you, Glenn and Terry, I think I have my answer.

 

[Wayne Little]

Looks great. The seat was manufactured from stainless steel, and usually left unpainted. You might want to check on this. 8)

Cheers Peter

Well, after countless hours trying to determine Painted or unpainted I was none the wiser on that score......so I went with the painted.

Peter, if you have any info that tells me P-40M's were unpainted then I will gladly change it!

 

[ozhawk40]

Yes Wayne, no problem!

The manual page below is straight out of the dash one for the P-40M-5.

Also a photo of a resto (Dick Thurman's P-40K) appeared in post 18 by Glenn (T-Bolt), which is a pretty good example.

 

[Wayne Little]

Ok Peter, will run with the unpainted, change it tomorrow! Thanks!

Now another thing.....seat belts, can you confirm US belts? some sources quote the British Sutton harness...but I would have thought US belts as these aircraft didn't actually go through British hands to become NZ aircraft.

 

[ozhawk40]

Ok Peter, will run with the unpainted, change it tomorrow! Thanks!

Now another thing.....seat belts, can you confirm US belts? some sources quote the British Sutton harness...but I would have thought US belts as these aircraft didn't actually go through British hands to become NZ aircraft.

My understanding is that all NZ Kittyhawks from the p-40K onwards used US belts. Some (perhaps all?) P-40E's delivered to the RAAF had lap belts only, hence the swap to Sutton harnesses in the RAAF at least. Later P-40's had the full US harness and therefore the swap was not necessary.

Cheers

Peter