**** DONE: Kittyhawk Mk III James F. "Eddie" Edwards RCAF - Aircraft of the Aces GB.

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You should add more detail!!!




Looks wonderful, I couldn't even see those rivets let alone make em!
 
Here are some more progress shots. Starting with an overall shot, you can see that the main construction is complete with the wings, tailplanes, and rudder on. Some sanding has been done at the joints with the fuselage.



This next pic shows the wing to fuselage joint. After sanding the area, I rescribed the line along the seam as there is a definite panel here where the fairing meets the wing. After a scrub down with a toothbrush and soapy water, I'll give this area as well as the rest of the model a coat of primer and further work on any areas that don't look quite right yet.



Here is the rudder cemented in place with a slight deflection to the right. You can see where I had to add a thin pice of sheet styrene owing to a large gap that appeared at this location



Next is a detail of the underside. I must say I'm impressed with the overall fit of this model. Good thing too because of the many different optional parts that leave seams everywhere.



Now, one thing I noticed while looking closely at the pics of Edwards' plane and others in the 260 Squadron line-up is the small exit louvre on the bottom of the radiator fairing (see circles in the below pic and the following close-up detail of a bombed up 250 Squadron Kittyhawk where this louver is shown in good detail). Comparing with the pic of the model above, it's obvious that this feature has been omitted from the kit. Interestingly, various Kagero line drawings I have of the P-40 don't show this little louvre at all, leading me to think that maybe this was a field mod to facilitate cooling while taxiing. Whatever it is, it looks like this is something I'll need to scratch build and add to make this model a true representation of Edwards' crate.




That's it for today. Next time, I should have that little detail added and a shot of primer on the whole model. Thanks for looking in.
 
Nice work Andy. It's only a guess, but that extra louvre is possibly the exit duct for the oil cooler used, as you suggest, when taxiing in hot conditions.
 
Thanks everyone. Following are pics of the new louvre I fabricated and some shots of the primed model.

We'll start with an overall shot of the prime coated model as it is right now. The primer has revealed several areas that still need attention.



The new louvre was created from scratch. First, I cut a rectangular opening in the rad/oil cooler fairing at a location scaled from photos. Next, triangular bits of plastic card were glued in to form the sidewalls. After those had set, a curved piece of plastic card was placed over the sidewalls and cemented. Once this was set, I trimmed everything with a sharp Xacto knife. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out but the following 2 pics show that a bit of cleanup is needed.




This close-up of the port guns shows that the seam behind the barrels needs a bit more filling.



Similarly, primer has revealed more work needed at the wing root at the leading edge. The horizontal seam shold not be there. Also to be added is a circular opening in the wing root which the kit supplied on the starboard side only. Photos show that this appeared on both sides of the Kittyhawk III.



Finally, the rudder turned out pretty good but there's a slight ridge on the top edge that needs to be smoothed out.



Thanks once again for checking in and for your support.
 

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