Four gun P-40's - Request for info' please?

[Derek B]

Hello All,



Need some help from you P-40 guru's here? I have got some more new P-40 stuff master patterns on the go for Eclipse Model Design, but I need to understand something about the four gun variants of the P-40 before I can continue on some of them.

I am aware that early P-40N's and P-40L's had four .5" Brownings instead of the normal six (and maybe some field modified P-40F's as well).

My questions are these; Did they remove the inner or outer gun of the trio on each wing? (there seems to be some confusion on this, although I suspect that it may be the outer guns?), and was there any alteration to the underwing access hatch as a result of this change in armament?

It may be that field moded aircraft simply had the outer guns removed (with local manufactured wing leading edge muzzle aperture plate applied) with no change to the gun access hatch, whereas the factory produced version may have proper true two gun apertures in the wing leading edge and altered access hatches to match?

Many thanks

Derek

[Mark Joyce]

Derek,

All the information and photographic evidence I have indicate that the outer .50 caliber guns were removed, at least for the 4 gun variants from the factory.  Field modifications that involved the removal of a .50 caliber gun might have differed; but again, the photos I have indicate the outer ones were removed  For the L's and N's with 4 guns, the underwing access hatch was the same as for the 6 gun versions.  However, the early P-40D's that had only 4 .50's apparently came from the factory with an access hatch for only 4 guns.  I can email you photos of both the guns and access panels if you would like.

Mark

[Derek B]

Any photographs or other information that you may have with regard to the gun bays and hatches (four or six gun) would be useful to me, as I am looking at making some AM stuff for this area.

Many thanks

Derek

[Vince_M]

Mark is correct, the underwing access panel was "stock" - unchanged from the standard six gun configuration.

[P-40 Admin]

Hi Derek!  I've been looking through my books and other resources, as others have said, it was normally the outer guns that would have been removed keeping the weight more towards the inside of the wings.  Also looks like they kept the same gun cover under the wing, doubt they would have gone through the expense to retool.  Still looking for any good, clear photos.
 
Do you have the P-40 manuals?  If you don't, I could even e-mail them to you or throw them on my server for you to download.
 
I don't know if you have seen this video, it's been awhile since I have watched it so I don't remember if they show the gun area, but maybe it will be of help for anything else you would want to do for the aircraft.
 
http://www.zenoswarbirdvideos.com/P-40.html