1:48 Curtiss P-40E Warhawk 52gal drop tank

The tank without which you did not get there

The Warhawk had a decent internal fuel load, but over the Pacific and over the desert it was not enough. A drop tank of fifty-two gallons was therefore hung under the fuselage. The pilot drew from it first and dropped it before combat, so that the machine did not lose its agility. Metal ones were welded up in the field and their surface showed it - with a lengthwise seam, with unevenness and often in a different color from the rest of the aircraft.

What the modeler gets

The tank comes as a single part, that is with no glued seam to be sanded along its whole length. The attachment to the fuselage and the shape of the tail match the ones supplied with the late production of this machine.

• An under-fuselage drop tank of the fifty-two gallon type
• A single part; the seam along the whole body falls away
• 1:48 scale, an accessory to a Warhawk kit
• Suitable for showing machines on long-range flights
• The surface takes a suggested welded seam and slight unevenness

When painting, it is worth treating the tank differently from the airframe. Replacement ones were often fitted from a different batch and their shade differed from the aircraft, which gives a model credibility without a single extra part. It pays to reinforce the attachment with a wire drilled into the fuselage, because a glued joint on its own may not carry the weight of the part.

A small thing that is often forgotten: a fuel line and a vent ran to the tank. A thin copper wire bent into an arc takes a couple of minutes, and on a finished model it is exactly that which shows the builder knew what he was doing.