1/72 P-40N Warhawk – model build

It has already been announced and it surely is a well known fact that Special Hobby is working on an almost complete P-40 family kits in popular 1/72 scale. Using a couple of tooling blocks, we will be producing all Allison equipped versions starting with the P-40E and ending with the P-40N (ie. not those airframes which had  RR Merlin powerplants).  Delighted to say now, the final testshots have just successfully passed our quality control process and the production can be commenced rather soon, the first boxes to be available in your favourite hobby shop about this November.

The common sprue contains, besides the universal wing and tail parts also a pair of fuselage halves portraying the E version.  The tooling block has incorporated option (via two pairs of switches – see pivot-like protrusions on the sprue) to switch off the E fuselage halves and make an advantage of different fuselages of K early, K late, M and N versions. The other sprue with a plethora of smaller parts is also common for any version. There will also be two clear sprues with two different styles of the sliding canopy hood and rear windows. These still need some final polishing, we will share them with you later.

To get you an idea how the model looks like and what you are to find in the kit’s box, our Production Manager and also a Lead Historian and Researcher Alfred Riedel, whom many of you who attend plastic model show surely already know, has decided to build his replica using the final testshots. Although a convinced quarter-scale guy, he took the 1/72 P-40N version and no doubt is to finish it in a colour scheme as operated down under by the RNZAF. He wants to share his photos here with you in an irregular series as the spare time he could devote to his life-time hobby seems to be strictly limited. Starting last nigh half past nine, he achieved some slight progress in the cockpit area.

So, if you also are a P-40 buff, stay tuned to our blog.

the cockpit floor comes with the upper wing surface, as it also was the case of the real airframe

the landing light has a small cavity representing the bulb

the interior sidewalls need to be painted on both sides as their outboard side has the canopy track

the pilot’s seat support frame is to receive some cleaning still and the sidewall details need painting too.