You're right - I looked back at my Carl Molesworth book, it was in the last batch of P-40Es that the enlarged tail fin appeared.

This might help. As previous posters have said, 'Kittyhawk' was the British name for all P-40 models from P40-D onwards. Edited to reflect Vince's comment below about the enlarged tail fin!

P40-D = Kittyhawk 1
P40-E = Kittyhawk 1a (the last batch of 500 had an enlarged tail fin)

P40-F = Kittyhawk 2 (most variants of the F had a longer fuselage)
P40-L = Kittyhawk 2a (all L variants had longer fuselage)

P40-K and P40-M = Kittyhawk 3 (early K variants had an enlarged tail fin, later K and all M variants had original tail fin but longer fuselage)

P40-N =Kittyhawk 4 (all N variants had original tail fin but longer fuselage, they also had a cut-down rear cockpit area for better rearward view)

D, E, K, M and N models had Allison engines
F and L models had Packard Merlin engines (slightly different cowling shape and no air intake on top of cowling)

There's tons of information and lots of drawing on this site in the 'Technical' section.

Trying smaller files this time...

I built the kit pretty much out of the box - added brake pipes to the undercarriage legs and made my own radio aerial. It's not a bad little kit really, but the next one I build...I'm painting the canopy parts first, I hate doing them!!!

I can't seem to get any photos to upload - getting a message telling me the upload folder is full. Any ideas anyone?

There's some good info (photos and schematic diagrams) for the V1710 series here:

http://www.enginehistory.org/Piston/Allison/V-1710Details/index.html

http://www.enginehistory.org/Piston/Allison/allison.shtml

I sure will. I'm putting the decals on just now but the ones that come with the kit are a bit rubbish! Fortunately I have a few Xtradecals spare which I can use to replace most of the Academy ones.

Here in the UK we get PBS America on our free-to-air TV, they have a series called "Plane Resurrection", one episode of which is about the P-40. Lots of archive footage as well as footage of preserved aircraft. Worth a watch if you haven't already seen it.

That's good compared to ANY fast jet! They all glide like bricks.

Well after a long spell away from the modelling bench I have started on this kit. It goes together very nicely, hardly any gaps to fill. I found some very nice acrylics for the top colours which I think will look good, and will be using Tamiya sky grey for the underside.

Thanks for that - I'll give it a miss then. Might go for one of the new Airfix early P-40s instead.

That does look good - and I agree with the others here who have praised the more subtle weathering. Very nice indeed. Must get started on my next P-40 kit... 

I have an opportunity to buy a Heller 1/72 scale P-36, anyone know if this is an OK kit? It's a bit pricey for a 1/72 kit (when I factor in the postage) so I'd rather not buy a complete 'dog' which I will then never build!

At the risk of diverting the thread (or even the whole forum!) the Grumman Wildcat is another of my favourite WW2 aircraft - like the P-40, it was something of a 'Cinderella' type but it did a great job at a time before more famous and more highly rated aircraft were available. The Fleet Air Arm loved them, operating from short-deck escort carriers against long range Luftwaffe reconnaissance bombers, they had performance and firepower easily enough to take them on and win. Eric 'Winkle' Brown said it was a perfect carrier-based fighter and he ought to know!

The Airfix 1/72 scale kits (United States F4F-4 and British Martlet IV version) are superb kits which build up very nicely indeed.

I've just finished reading 'Fire in the sky', a very detailed account of the air war in the South Pacific (Solomon Islands, New Guinea, etc.). Although it is written by an American it deals very fairly with the ANZAC contribution to the air war in that theatre and there is a great photo of an RAAF pilot looking in amazement at the shredded port wing of his P-40 - and he flew 200 miles back to base like that! A real testament to the toughness of the P-40 (as with most US-built aircraft of WW2) and a great reminder that it's always worth making your aircraft tough enough to protect your most valuable asset - PILOTS.

A new P-40 could be built in a few days...a new pilot took a bit longer...

OK, anyone who has read my other posts will already know that (a) I'm not a stickler for absolute accuracy and (b) I like to use Tamiya paints. So does anyone have any suggestions for foliage green, earth brown and sky to do an RAAF P-40? I believe that foliage green was darker than RAF dark green for example? And the sky undersides were more of a grey than RAF sky, which was quite a greeny-grey?

For RAF I use XF81 (dark green), XF52 (dark earth) and XF21 (sky). I'm thinking XF26 deep green for the foliage green. As I say, I'm not a fanatic about colours, if they look about right on the model that'll do for me. I just finished a 1/72 Wildcat using XF18 and XF19 for the standard two-colour US Navy scheme and to my eyes it looks good. Purists would no doubt say otherwise!!!