Special Hobby EN

Tony, who is a famous aeroplane modeller and historian from the UK, has sent in a handful of images of his Kittyhawk Mk.IV models to be shared with the readers of our blog. He built them using SH72374 P-40N Warhawk kits, adding some aftermarket decal sets turning them into the British variety of the famous US fighter.

  Patrick Branly, an excellent French modeller and a jolly fine chap too, has been so kind as to allow us to showcase his latest models here on our blog. The finished models are our two Curtisses, the P-40N Warhawk (SH72371) and its British cousin, Kittyhawk Mk.IA (SH72377).   More photos and a full review to be found in the next edition of French Tamiya Model Magazine.

Standa Hajek, an extremely talented artist and our long-time collaborator, has recently finished boxarts for the first two P-40 kits which are to hit the market later this year. The very first P-40 release will be the P-40N version (cat.no. SH72374), shortly followed by the Kittyhawk Mk.Ia (SH72377). The Special Hobby team are also working on several resin upgrade sets for the P-40 family, these will be available under our CMK label.

Last week, Fredy Riedel managed to finished his test build of our new 1/72 Curtiss P-40N kit. The excellent weathering, shading and the wear and tear were done using lightened camouflage colours, various mixes of artistic oil paints and watercolour pencils. Chipped colour showing the bare metal underneath at the wing roots was emulated with a silver pencil, exhaust and gun smoke stains are freehand airbrushed. In contemporary photographs, it was clearly seen that the real P-40N Snafu was quite a worn off machine with huge patches of dirt on the fuselage and tail. Fredy’s aim was to make these stains as life like as only possible. While at Afflingem Plastic & Steel show in Belgium over the weekend of 14-15 Oct, Fredy entered the contest with his freshly finished model. There were not many models in the 1/72 category, still it made Fredy obviously quite happy to have won the Golden Medal with his diminutive masterpiece. And rightfully so, to our opinion. ...

Almost on the finals now, the fixed parts of the clear canopy attached, having been bathed in Future clear gloss varnish to make them really clear (the tooling blocks have not been finally polished yet). The builder has also changed his mind about the colours, he is going to apply a Dutch P-40 scheme.

Another series of P-40N work-in-progress photos, all major parts assembled, putty applied (just very lightly in very few spots) and all ready for a session with an airbrush. The fit overal was exceptional, standard type of putty needed just around the air intake and in very small amount. Tamiya liquid putty used in other places.