1:32 P-40B Warhawk (for GWH kit)

The Tomahawk of the first months of the war

In December 1941 the American army had mainly the Curtiss P-40B to hand in Hawaii. A pair of machine guns of 12.7 mm caliber in the cowling, four smaller ones in the wing and an Allison V-1710 engine without a turbocharger made it a machine that did better than average below three thousand meters and only lost ground higher up. It was on precisely this type that Lieutenants Welch and Taylor took off over the burning harbor of Pearl Harbor. The British knew the same machine as the Tomahawk, and for the volunteers in China it served as the canvas for the famous shark mouth on the radiator cowling.

What the set puts in place of bare plastic

The interior gains a group of very thin decals with raised relief. Besides the front wall with its gauges, the package holds the side walls, the seat straps and small plates whose painting with a brush would mean hours of fiddling at this scale with an uncertain end. The colors are printed fast, so they will not fade even after matting down with varnish. The layers hold on one another by themselves, nothing curls and nothing calls for curing.

What it is for and how to use it

The cut is based on the parts of the P-40B kit from Great Wall Hobby, which is a separate item. Set the accessory to work before you seat the fuselage halves together, otherwise the space under the frame of the canopy is hard to reach. Wipe the plastic with spirit, lay the pieces from the largest area to the smallest and even the overhanging edge up with a new blade.

Anyone building an early Curtiss with an open canopy will appreciate the readable scales above all: at this scale a viewer really does see into the cabin and an empty wall would ruin the whole impression.