A Bare Metal P-40E; Part Two by Rodney Williams

A Bare Metal P-40E; Part Two
by Rodney Williams

"The Aft Fuselage Section"

For some reason, Hasegawa made the fuselage with two front half and two rear half section's. I forgot to take photos of this operation. I glued the two rear fuselage section together, and left off the stabilizers' and rudder in step #5. I glued this rear section to the front fuselage section, and finalized the sanding of the entire fuselage. The 3 piece wing had been glued together and sanded, so it was attached to the fuselage. It was more sanding, checking for flaws and re-scribe several panel lines. The final step was to add the stabilizer/elevator combinations, then sand some more. The rudder will be attached on final assembly.

"Making My Frisket Film Painting Mask's."

The entire model was painted with Tamiya's Titanium Silver, which gives the model a slight dull appearance. Then the flat black Tamiya paint was added to the top front section of the model for its' "anti-glare" panel.

Now it's time to make my Aussie insignia spray patterns. This is a very easy operation as I have done it many times before. I calculate the size of my fuselage and wing roundel's, then cut out the circles on my "frisket film." This low tack film is applied over very dry paint, then you just burnish it down "very lightly" and spray on your color's. I applied Tamiya XF-1 Flat White first and let it dry for about 5 minutes, then I positioned my small circle in the center, then airbrushed on a dark flat blue Tamiya paint which was a close match to my AeroMaster British decals.

My next project is making the wing and fuselage antenna post's. Of course this is easy for me to do as I have made these posts for dozen's of other models. I just drill in a .013" diameter hole into a .020" diameter round styrene rod and insert a .010" dia rod. When I push in the .020" dia. rod into my pre-drilled .021" dia. holes in the wing and fuselage, the little .010"dia. rod keeps the bigger rod from going all the way in and out of sight. When I get ready to attach my human hair antenna wires, I just pull out the little .010" diameter rod. Old age has set in and I have "shaky hands" these days, so it's a bit of a problem getting the hair into the hole. Once the hair is in the holes, I tie it and then apply a tiny "micro-dot" of super glue. The hair is stretched tight at the other end, and more glue is applied. Next, I "CAREFULLY" cut off the excess hair.

These few photos show the underside of the model. REMEMBER THIS: If you enter your model in a National IPMS/USA contest, we judges pick up "ALL" the models. If you expect to win an award, then the bottom of your model "MUST" be as good as the top side. I have judged at 11 National USA show's, and I have seen lots of bad stuff on the models' bottom........these models never get into the winning circle. Lot's of modeler's flatten the bottom of the tires, but forget to "RE-GROVE" them...............so out goes the model from the winners circle.

"IT'S FINISHED"

The rest of the photos show the finished model. I added some light black oil weathering to the model. Look hard at my photos as you may be able to find a few flaws on it.

Enjoy !

Rodney in snowbound Colorado