1:72 Curtiss P-40 Warhawks

Girl designs over Sicily and Italy

The year 1943 meant for the American fighter units in the Mediterranean a move from the African coast across Sicily to the Italian mainland. The Warhawks that accompanied this advance served mainly as attack aircraft with a bomb under the fuselage, and at low altitudes their pilots contended with antiaircraft defense more than with fighters. The set covers two such machines, both in the form with a license-built engine, which lacked the large intake above the nose and had a slightly different cowling shape.

What set the two aircraft apart

The aircraft with the tail number X26 belonged to the 85th Squadron and its nickname alluded to a dancer who can kick her leg high. The machine marked X44 served with the 86th Squadron and carried a design of a girl with butterfly wings. Both units came under one fighter group, and the common hand of the paintings gives away that they came from the same man of the ground personnel.

The color side of the matter

• a pair of markings for 1:72 scale
• the tail numbers X26 and X44 in the uniform style of the group
• the designs match period photographs from the Italian campaign
• suitable for models of the version with a license-built engine

British paint supplies in the Mediterranean meant that many American machines got upper surfaces in shades originally intended for desert operation. Before you reach for a brush, check against photographs whether your machine was among those oversprayed. The decals are then applied onto a finished finish sealed to a gloss, so that the edges of the film do not stay visible.