1:32 P-40K

The shark mouth was no joke

The P-40K appeared in larger numbers over China and Burma, that is where the Curtiss had a reputation as a tough and easily repaired machine. Its best-known recognition feature has nothing to do with masking and yet it defines the aircraft: the painted shark mouth on the nose. It began with British squadrons in North Africa, from there American volunteers in China took it over and in the end it became the mark of the whole group. It was pure psychology. The large radiator under the nose gave the machine a shape that lent itself to a mouth, and the enemy was meant to feel that something alive was flying at him.

What the sun did to olive drab

The American pair remained the basis, that is olive drab above and gray below. But olive drab stood up to harsh sunlight badly. Within a few months it turned brown, above the fuel tanks it parted into streaks according to the way maintenance was done, and after patches were painted over, two or three different tones of the same color appeared on a single machine. It is this lack of uniformity that makes the Chinese and Burmese aircraft so rewarding: a model on which the olive drab is the same everywhere looks sterile next to period photographs. Blotchiness is built up with light passes of a lightened shade into the centers of the panels, never across the whole area.

What the set is good for

The framing of the Curtiss cockpit is angular and long, so every uneven edge shows on it. Cutouts in film mask the glass from the outside and the inside. The masks supplied allow the national insignia to be sprayed, and on machines in China these were often supplemented by a further national marking. The set includes neither a kit nor paints.