Page 3 of 13
Re: Special Hobby 1/72 P-40K-1, 64FS 57FG, Tunisia 1943.
Posted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 1:26 pm
by LyleW
Lawsy child, life on the frontier! Looks good.
Re: Special Hobby 1/72 P-40K-1, 64FS 57FG, Tunisia 1943.
Posted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 1:40 pm
by speedgraflex
Since the days when the fleet of Columbus sailed into the waters of the New World, America has been another name for opportunity, and the people of the United States have taken their tone from the incessant expansion which has not only been open but has even been forced upon them. He would be a rash prophet who should assert that the expansive character of American life has now entirely ceased. Movement has been its dominant fact, and, unless this training has no effect upon a people, the American energy will continually demand a wider field for its exercise. But never again will such gifts of free land offer themselves.
For a moment, at the frontier, the bonds of custom are broken and unrestraint is triumphant. There is not tabula rasa. The stubborn American environment is there with its imperious summons to accept its conditions; the inherited ways of doing things are also there; and yet, in spite of environment, and in spite of custom, each frontier did indeed furnish a new field of opportunity, a gate of escape from the bondage of the past; and freshness, and confidence, and scorn of older society, impatience of its restraints and its ideas, and indifference to its lessons, have accompanied the frontier.
What the Mediterranean Sea was to the Greeks, breaking the bond of custom, offering new experiences, calling out new institutions and activities, that, and more, the ever retreating frontier has been to the United States directly, and to the nations of Europe more remotely. And now, four centuries from the discovery of America, at the end of a hundred years of life under the Constitution, the frontier has gone, and with its going has closed the first period of American history.
From “The Significance of the Frontier in American History,” 1883
Re: Special Hobby 1/72 P-40K-1, 64FS 57FG, Tunisia 1943.
Posted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 1:46 pm
by speedgraflex
Also, I made a huge mistake—looking at the wrong seat type, the ones that came after... here’s a K-1. Anyone have any information?
Just the top is visible, but this looks more like a painted P-40E seat to me, with stamped metal surfaces welded together.
Re: Special Hobby 1/72 P-40K-1, 64FS 57FG, Tunisia 1943.
Posted: Sat Sep 07, 2019 2:39 pm
by speedgraflex
Re: Special Hobby 1/72 P-40K-1, 64FS 57FG, Tunisia 1943.
Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 8:02 am
by Stikpusher
Looking at the manual page on seats that you posted, and comparing that to the serial number of the aircraft, the kit seat type looks correct. The shape of the top of the seat is the later type. I wonder if the tube framing on the rear could be fitted to both seat types...
Re: Special Hobby 1/72 P-40K-1, 64FS 57FG, Tunisia 1943.
Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 8:18 am
by speedgraflex
That looks like the same framework!
Re: Special Hobby 1/72 P-40K-1, 64FS 57FG, Tunisia 1943.
Posted: Sun Sep 08, 2019 8:49 am
by Stikpusher
Exactly... the later seat on the older framing.
Re: Special Hobby 1/72 P-40K-1, 64FS 57FG, Tunisia 1943.
Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2019 2:17 pm
by speedgraflex
The internet WWII Forums coughed up these nuggets—
Unlike some other manufacturers (like Boeing), Curtiss painted their aircraft directly at the factory.
The cockpit of the P-40 was Curtiss Cockpit Green, which was the Berry Brothers approximation of Interior Green. Reportedly it was a little browner than Interior Green.
The scalloped cutouts inside the fuselage windows aft of the cockpits on P-40D to M models were usually painted the same as the camouflage colour. As the rear windows could be easily detached for re-painting, most field repaints were also performed this way. Earlier P-36 Hawk production practice and some photos of the early P-40D and Es indicate that Curtiss could initially have used a different colour for the cutouts. It could have been the same as the cockpit colour, but the author was not able to find any positive confirmation of this.
The wheel wells had canvas covers similar to that on the Bf 109E. These were in drab canvas colour with brass zips and fasteners.
My current plan is to go with a bare metal finish. I already prepped and painted the seat using Gunze silver. Sorry I can’t remember the color stock number.
I am not planning to add the stamping pattern which looks like this was designed to perhaps circulate air around the pilot’s backside by using a series of channels. Also note the black leather data case. The olive drab seat belt color does not look right to me. I think that ought to be natural color. Basically I think this is very similar to the P-47D’s cockpit. I pulled my set of MiG Ammo US WWII colors which I may use to further adjust the lacquer primaries. MiG Ammo makes a Dull Dark Green that is very nice. The one downside of acrylics for me is their fragility, though.
Re: Special Hobby 1/72 P-40K-1, 64FS 57FG, Tunisia 1943.
Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2019 10:36 pm
by speedgraflex
Re: Special Hobby 1/72 P-40K-1, 64FS 57FG, Tunisia 1943.
Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 1:18 am
by KSaarni
- Kari
