Amtech P-40E

[FMATAS]

  I recently found an old Amtech P-40E kit I had stored away a couple yrs ago and started working on it. It is proving to be a challanging project. The recessed panel lines are very well done but, there are a number of "mold bulges" on the fuselage that need to be reshaped and corrected. The cowls need material added to them to make them fit correctly.  There is a gap where the fuelage meets the wing. I haven't decided what to do about that yet.
  If anyone has any sugfgestions or experience with this kit...please let me know.

[P-40 Admin]

I am building this kit right now, I enter the point of needing to paint the cockpit and put it into the fuselage so I can glue the wing on. I didn’t have too much problems with the cowls, but I used to some slow setting glue and kept working them in position until they dried, gluing some plastic strips behind it first might make it a little easier. I only have one or two slight mold bulges, I was just going to lightly take my file to it. When I test fit the wing to the fuselage, there was a pretty good size gap by the trailing edge which everyone seems to run into, I will just glue some plastic into the gap and file it smooth and scribe it if necessary. Here are links to really good build articles on the kit, they have some good suggestions on building it. The second one is a K, but it is the E kit with a resin tail. Feel free to post photos of your progress.

http://www.p40warhawk.com/Models/Builds/ScottVanAken/P-40E_1/P-40E.htm

http://www.p40warhawk.com/Models/Builds/FloydWernerJr/P-40K/P-40K.htm

[Mark Joyce]

AMT originally released several P-40 variants, including the short-tailed "F," the "K," and the "N."  AMtech obtained these molds to utilize for its "E," long-tailed "F/L" with the resin nose, and "K" with the resin tail.  For some reason, all of AMtech's releases seem to have those fuselage bulges; none of the AMT releases did.  What I've done with the AMtech P-40's is simply sand down the bulges and rescribe if necessary.

For gaps that aren't too large, say less than 1/8", I'll use either putty (usually Tamiya) or Mr. Surfacer 500.  Once dried, either can be sanded or gently smoothed using nail polish remover (for Tamiya) or rubbing alcohol (for Mr. Surfacer) and a Q-tip.  For larger gaps, I'll use strip styrene (basically the same plastic used in the model) with perhaps gap-filling superglue.  If you try to use putty or the equivalent with larger gaps, it will usually crack.

With AMtech's P-40E, what I've done to reduce or eliminate the gap between the wing and fuselage is first glue one upper wing to the lower wing section, then glue this wing assembly to the fuselage, concentrating on that one wing/fuselage gap.  Once dry, I'll glue the other upper wing to the lower wing section.  I'll then take a long piece of tape, attach it to one wing tip, and pull it tight over the cockpit area and onto the other wing tip.  This usually pulls both wings upward, which helps both with the proper dihedral and to eliminate the wing/fusleage gap.  While the tape is on, I'll apply glue (usually Tamiya extra thin cement) with a brush along the gap and leave it to dry.

HTH,

Mark