DONE: Finished Kittyhawk IV -Curtiss P-40N RAAF 76 Sqn G-SV A29-1140 Group Build

[109ROAMING]

Very cool profiles on post 15 Ozhawk 8)

Also great/interesting info Andy!

 

[ozhawk40]

Heres some shots of progress so far on interior and radiators. The cockpit detail is good on these kits, but still room for improvement if you would like to use etch and resin.

I haven't finished adding detail, and they will get a final wash before putting it all together.

Thanks for the interest.

Cheers for now.

Ozhawk

 

[Wildcat]

Looks good mate.

 

[Wurger]

Echo post above.

 

[Wayne Little]

Nice start, looks good!

 

[FlexiBull]

Looking good excellent detail work.

Interested to know what paint your going to use for the upper surface "foliage gren". I'm just in the process of completing
BU-B 80 squadron RAAF.

Do you know if there were any darker green blotches on the edges of the wing, tail plane?

FlexiBull

 

[ozhawk40]

Hi Flexibull

At this stage I'm going for a OD/NG finish without splotching. I've seen some photos of aussie P-40N's with the splotching, which confirms they had the original OD finish, and others that do not. I'm not sure whether they have been refinished in overall OD or Foliage green or they left the factory without it.

Any case, I need to do more research on that point myself. There are heaps of photos and profiles of BU B Cleo 3 about so your job is easier!

Also need to confirm the wheel cover colour. Info I have is that they were sometimes painted yellow on 76 Squadron aircraft, but they do appear very dark in photos - against the yellow spinner particularly, so I am tending to think they were actually blue. These later 76 squadron kites seem very camera shy!

Cheers

Ozhawk

 

[Njaco]

Excellent work on the cockpit area!

 

[rochie]

great job of painting all that detail ozhawk40

 

[lesofprimus]

Lookin great so far, nice detail...

 

[Catch22]

Looks very well done!

 

[FlexiBull]

Not sure if this is what your after Ozhawk

NZ P 40 photo

 

[Amsel]

Hi Flexibull

At this stage I'm going for a OD/NG finish without splotching. I've seen some photos of aussie P-40N's with the splotching, which confirms they had the original OD finish, and others that do not. I'm not sure whether they have been refinished in overall OD or Foliage green or they left the factory without it.

Any case, I need to do more research on that point myself. There are heaps of photos and profiles of BU B Cleo 3 about so your job is easier!

Also need to confirm the wheel cover colour. Info I have is that they were sometimes painted yellow on 76 Squadron aircraft, but they do appear very dark in photos - against the yellow spinner particularly, so I am tending to think they were actually blue. These later 76 squadron kites seem very camera shy!

Cheers

Ozhawk

Some of those P-40N's that were painted OD without splotching had olive green scallops along the aeilerons and elevators.

 

[ozhawk40]

Flexibull

Thanks for that great shot of the wheel wells. I was aware they had these, but have never seen them on a restored bird. Do you know which p-40 these are on?

I was meaning the wheel hub covers, so apologies if it didn't come out right. I'll attach an image to show you exactly. Does look like something other than NG or yellow for that matter. Seems to be the same on lots of Aussie p-40s, and not only 76 squadron.

I'll attach another picture of 78 squadron line up which again shows the wheel hubs and darker colouring.

Cheers

 

[ozhawk40]

Amsel

Thanks. You are correct, some had the markings along the wing and tail were medium green. Question ie, are these applied to 1140. Did all p-40's in this production block get the medium green markings, or just some.

I've added another photo from RAAF Camouflage and markings vol 2 that shows an RAAF example. I hope the scan is clear enough to see.

Cheers

 

[Airframes]

Hi Oz. This is only a guess, but I think the wheel hub covers were probably painted the same colour as the spinner, which looks about right if the tonal values in the pics are compared.
Again a guess, but I would think that all aircraft from the same production block would have the medium green blotches, up to the time the practice ceased, unless resprayed in the field. With the latter, as far as I know, any re-spray would probably be in 'local' paints, for example, Foliage Green.

 

[ozhawk40]

Airframes

Thanks for that. I'm starting to sort this out. Got hold of a copy of Peter M Bowers Book "Curtiss Aircraft 1907-1947 today and here's what it said on page 491, bearing in mind that A29-1140 is aka 44-47891.

"The final P-40N-40 variants dispensed with the camouflage finish starting with
44-47860 and used 30-in (76•2 cm) wheels and metal-covered ailerons."

So that is interesting. I would then guess/presume that the final camo was done after delivery, and would explain lack of splotching. It's also very convenient as I have a set of 30in resin wheels on hand, not the normal 27in for p-40N's.

Drum roll - here is a picture of 44-47860 looking VERY factory fresh.

Cheers

 

[Airframes]

Now that's a 'clean machine'! Nice pic Oz. I remember seeing colour pics (RAF I'm afraid) of P40's with the wheel hubs in the same colour as the spinner, so I think it's a fairly safe bet on that score. I might have seen RAAF ones also, and I'll have a dig in my piles of junk (my reference libraries!) to see if I can come up with anything.

 

[FlexiBull]

Plenty of images here

Kiwi Aircraft Images - P40 Kittyhawk

Still can't find the site for the image I posted, may have to upload them individually.

 

[109ROAMING]

Great link Flezibull

Looking good Ozhawk