Post by chbessexboy on Jan 30, 2024 10:13:13 GMT 12
Back in September 2021 I wrote about this Airfix Kittyhawk:
I'd painted it as a rather anonymous USAAF P-40E, but now it could do with reworking.
Here it is with the actual bag header:
According to the top left hand corner it was the eleventh 1/72 kit in the collection, and "79c" in the opposite corner tells me I would have purchased it at Bunkers Toys in Hastings. Considering that it's still giving pleasure, it was a wise investment!
But what to do with it now? A gentle de-riveting and a rub down for a new coat of paint would be a start. Then what identity to assume? How about sending it to Russia?
Lend-Lease aircraft in the “Great Patriotic War” hold a bit of a fascination for me. In many cases they were not considered suitable for the European theatre, but they were a big step up from the I-16s that were left after the German onslaught. In the hands of skilled Russians, with the incentive of defending their own country, P-40s were often more than a match for some of the hastily trained Luftwaffe pilots they encountered.
This set of AML decals titled "P-40 in Stalin's Sky" featured five variants: two “K”s, two “N”s and fortunately one “E”.
I started by carefully removing the propeller so it wouldn't get broken. This was followed by the tail wheel (because the gear doors looked like a couple of bricks), the main gear, drop tank, then the cockpit glazing and gun sight - which was massively over scale. Luckily the fifty-year-old glue didn't put up much of a fight. That was as far as I would go, it being just a makeover and not wanting to erase what provenance remained. I decided not to refit the gun sight, but made a more realistic instrument panel top. Some card also produced the distinctive curve to the engine cowling.
I was surprised to discover I had originally painted it as Airfix intended – a Kittyhawk IA of 112 Sqn in the North African Campaign.
Now it was being flown by Lt. Colonel Alexander Andreevich Matveev, commander of 154.IAP, Leningrad Front, summer 1942. He flew 181 missions, had 12 encounters with the enemy and scored 5 victories. And that is as much as I know about him - Wikipedia being unsurprisingly silent with its naturally American bias.
I didn’t plan on having consecutive Soviet fighters featured, but it may come as no surprise that I have a number of builds “on the go” and this was the next to be completed. However, this little P-40E has had much more time spent on its rebuild than it took to make it in the first place.
I'd painted it as a rather anonymous USAAF P-40E, but now it could do with reworking.
Here it is with the actual bag header:
According to the top left hand corner it was the eleventh 1/72 kit in the collection, and "79c" in the opposite corner tells me I would have purchased it at Bunkers Toys in Hastings. Considering that it's still giving pleasure, it was a wise investment!
But what to do with it now? A gentle de-riveting and a rub down for a new coat of paint would be a start. Then what identity to assume? How about sending it to Russia?
Lend-Lease aircraft in the “Great Patriotic War” hold a bit of a fascination for me. In many cases they were not considered suitable for the European theatre, but they were a big step up from the I-16s that were left after the German onslaught. In the hands of skilled Russians, with the incentive of defending their own country, P-40s were often more than a match for some of the hastily trained Luftwaffe pilots they encountered.
This set of AML decals titled "P-40 in Stalin's Sky" featured five variants: two “K”s, two “N”s and fortunately one “E”.
I started by carefully removing the propeller so it wouldn't get broken. This was followed by the tail wheel (because the gear doors looked like a couple of bricks), the main gear, drop tank, then the cockpit glazing and gun sight - which was massively over scale. Luckily the fifty-year-old glue didn't put up much of a fight. That was as far as I would go, it being just a makeover and not wanting to erase what provenance remained. I decided not to refit the gun sight, but made a more realistic instrument panel top. Some card also produced the distinctive curve to the engine cowling.
I was surprised to discover I had originally painted it as Airfix intended – a Kittyhawk IA of 112 Sqn in the North African Campaign.
Now it was being flown by Lt. Colonel Alexander Andreevich Matveev, commander of 154.IAP, Leningrad Front, summer 1942. He flew 181 missions, had 12 encounters with the enemy and scored 5 victories. And that is as much as I know about him - Wikipedia being unsurprisingly silent with its naturally American bias.
I didn’t plan on having consecutive Soviet fighters featured, but it may come as no surprise that I have a number of builds “on the go” and this was the next to be completed. However, this little P-40E has had much more time spent on its rebuild than it took to make it in the first place.