1:72 P-40 Kittyhawk Lend Lease (wet decals)

Soviet Kittyhawks from the Lend-Lease deliveries

The Curtiss P-40 reached the Soviet Union as early as the autumn of 1941, mostly by the northern route through Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. The name Kittyhawk belonged to the British orders from the D version upward, but in Soviet regiments the E, K, M and N machines all stood on the same apron. The airplane did not shine at high altitude, yet down low and over the sea it took rough handling, carried heavy armament and its airframe stood up to operations from muddy field strips north of the Arctic Circle.

The subjects are sixteen specific aircraft. Beside the machine of the twice Hero of the Soviet Union Boris Safonov of a Guards regiment of the Northern Fleet you will find the aircraft of Major Pokryshev of the 154th Fighter Regiment, machines from the Leningrad Front, examples from the air defense of Moscow and one P-40C found much later in the northern taiga.

Contents at a glance:

• sixteen options with fuselage numbers, stars and lettering
• a thin carrier film, practically invisible once dry
• the sizes match common P-40 kits in 1:72 scale

Soviet machines were often repainted at unit level, so the shades do not match factory charts and tolerate a freer reading. A gloss base before application is worth the effort, because air stays trapped under a matte varnish and silvering appears. The sheet is no substitute for a model on its own; it is an accessory to the kit.

It pays to think the choice of option through before you reach for the glue. Regiments modified their machines in service, repainted numbers and added lettering, so two subjects from one unit may look different. A period photograph of the particular machine is therefore the main guide, and the sheet is best treated as a stock of markings to choose from.