P-40 Warhawks of 80th Fighter Group in the CBI Miss Frances III.
Nagaghali AB Assam India, May 1944
The 80th FG consisted of the 88th, 89th, and 90th Fighter Squadrons (to which the 459th was later added, the only American fighter squadron to be formed and later disbanded in India, (without being at the center of the war). These planes and pilots fought in a forgotten campaign over the Himalayan ‘Hump’ and in Burma from late 1943 until the end of the war, joining the Japanese Army plane over isolated jungles and uncharted green hell in support of the Chinese troops of General Stilwell’s Chinese Troops and General Merrill’s Marauders.
P-40N Warhawks by Hasegawa .It is a very easy and enjoyable kit. I would recommend it for those who want to learn, paint and experiment with wear. Since there is a wide variety of variations and it served on all fronts of the war with many coats of arms, on its wings. I liked from the beginning the shark mouth he had, as well as the skull
Starting the construction, the kit has a very good cockpit and the only thing that needs improvement is the seat. ,which I changed to a resin one and added belts from Eduard sets. Looking at vintage photos. I decided to do it, with the wireless door open. I had a stock of resin, two wireless ones and it seemed like a good idea. I built the fuselage frame internally, with plastic sheets. As well as shelves and a generator, plus a fire extinguisher. I stripped copper wire and added the wires to the fuselage and cockpit.
In modernism there are no rules on how to work I will show you how I like to make WW2 fighters. After gluing and grouting I went through with a Rivets 0.75mm P-40 rivets, the next stage is to paint the kit with aluminum. I prefer .ALCLAD ALC.101. Because it is very thin and based on polyurethane, it does not chemically react with Enamel or Acrylic paints. I poured the first coat of 155 OLIVE DRAB by HUMBROL. Thinned 2/5 and added a little white to it. When it dried well, I sprinkled it with salt in those places where the paint would burn from the Sun. And again I painted the top of the rivets and the partitions on the panel, with OLIVE DRAB
This time the color is perfect and, as it should be, the dose of the solvent. Having put 0.4 or 0.5 pressure on the airbrush and having the smallest needle and nozzle. I only followed the points where I had passed the pirstinia. In essence, I reverse the opening. And after the color has rested, (Wherever it needs correction) I rubbed it with a fine sandpaper. ( Like on the bases of the wings with the fuselage. It is worth noting that the OLIVE DRAB. It is a strange color. Otherwise we find it in Europe. Otherwise it behaves in Africa and otherwise we see it in the Pacific. Sometimes we find it brown, or oil. Or even yellow or ocher. So, even though the kit is small in size. I decided to mix OLIVE DRAB, with white painting oil and later with dark brown .So I can play with the panels.
I painted the rudder on the vertical fixed with Humbrol’s 86. And the contours on the wings I did with FS-34102 khaki green by Model Master. The whole lower part I passed with fs 36173 Model Master.
Making the bottom part. Because as in the photos from Burma. The airport was a quagmire. I applied ocher oil to the end of the spindle and H 346 Hobbi Color mud to the wheels. I used H 343 Soot, Hobby Color to smoke the guns and as a final touch. With a gray water pencil, I lightened the recesses in the panels. On the left wheel
I added a piece of paper. (From tissue paper) Which coated the base of the rad with the help of the Micro Metal Foil Adhesive glue. In this way, I restored the protective fabric of the wheel which I later painted khaki color.
After I placed the decals from the set (Sky Models Decals 48-047) and sealed with H 20 Flat Clear MR matte varnish. The general wash was done with AK 2073 & AK 2039. The exhaust was done with H 343 Soot and over the top I went over the first half with a Model Master 1706 Sand FS33531 very open and the rest with . Brown 155 matt by Humbrol. If you notice, there is something like running in the exhaust. I did this with a toothpick. With vertical pulls! Gasoline runs were done with Raw Umber oil.
In the end I scraped with an old scraper some spots in the paint to achieve peeling and reveal the aluminum you hide underneath