1:48 Curtiss P-40

Five unexpected coats for one airframe

The Curtiss P-40 was built in such numbers that it ended up in the service of countries that never ordered it. It is exactly this side of its career that the sheet aims at. It opens with a machine of the E version that ended up in the hands of a Japanese research institute at Tachikawa near Tokyo and in 1942 and 1943 served for trials of captured hardware.

The second choice belongs to a late N version with the 78th Fighter Regiment of the Soviet naval aviation of the Northern Fleet, which in 1944 operated from the Vaenga base near Murmansk over the convoy routes. The third is an early machine of the B version from the 77th Squadron of the 20th Group of the US Army Air Forces at Hamilton Field in California in 1941.

British terminology on two continents

The fourth marking carries a Kittyhawk IV flown by Squadron Leader John Waddy of No. 80 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force on the island of Noemfoor off New Guinea in 1944. The five are completed by a Tomahawk IIb of the 3rd Turkish squadron from the Gaziemir base near Izmir, 1944 again.

The sheet is a printed accessory for a kit in 1:48 scale, and the airframe of the aircraft itself is not in the package. Before applying a decal, go over the area with fine abrasive paper and clear coat it with gloss so that no air stays under the film. Once dry comes a matte overcoat, which hides the edges of the carrier film. It pays to put the fifth machine with the Turkish insignia off until later, because the overlap across the wing panels calls for a steady hand.