The P40B Warhawk was a sturdy and rugged aircraft that saw combat in almost every theatre in
World War 2, but was overshadowed in historyby more elegant
and advanced designs.
Join me in this video, as i build and review the Airfix plastic scale model kit of this
unassuming, yet important aircraft.
Hello and welcome to Model Minutes!
Today's video is a Beginner's guide to the Airfix Curtiss P40B Warhawk in 1/72 scale,
which comes as part of the Pearl Harbour dogfight doubles gift set. This video
is the second part of 3 in this mini-series, where in the previous episode i built and
reviewed its adversary, the Mitsubishi A6M2b Zero that is also included
in the set, and the third and final part will bring the two kits together on their display
stand.
Before we start the kit, As always, remember that adult supervision may be required due
to the use of sharp tools and toxic paints and chemicals! Airfix recommends
this kit for those aged 8 years old and over.
Normally in my videos, I Assume that people watching have a little understanding of model
kit construction, but for this one i'm going to break it down a bit more
for those of you who've been out of the modelling hobby for a while, or are thinking of getting
started for the first time!
So let's take a look at the kit!
The Gift set consists of 2 model aircraft kits,an unassembled display stand, 8 acrylic
paints, two paint brushes, a tube of poly cement, a set of decals, and an a4
instruction booklet.
For the purpose of this video, i'll only be focusing on the components required to build
the P40.
2 light grey plastic sprues contain the main components of the model, and an additional
clear sprue features the cockpit canopy. The sprue is the extra part of
the kit containing all the main components, and these parts will need to be cut away from
the sprue in order to assemble the model kit.
The sprue can then be recycled or re-used, depending on what you want to do with it.
The instructions consist of an A4 booklet, which contain information about the actual
P40B Warhawk, safety warnings and general information about how
to read the instructions and prepare the parts for assembly.
Make sure you spend a little time studying the instructions, as the steps and diagrams
for assembling the model can be confusing at times, patience will be key here!
Make sure you put the sheet of water slide decals to one side safely as we'll need them
later! These are the little sticker-type things, but we'll cross that
bridge later.
From the included paints in this kit, you'll need the Humbrol 11 silver, 33 matt black,
128 compass grey and 155 olive drab for the final finish.
Some of the other paints may be required for internal components such as 81 pale yellow,
but that will be clear in the instructions.
I do recommend some extra paints, but we will get to that later. It would also be worth
getting a few extra tools too, such as a scalpel or hobby knife,
some tweezers to hold fine parts, some clothes pegs to hold parts whilst they glue together,
a nail file and some extra paint brushes of different sizes.
Also, the green mat you can see in my video is a self healing cutting mat in A3 size.
I use this to protect the table that i'm working on from damage from cutting
tools and accidental spills of paints and glues - which sometimes happen!
So, with all that out of the way, and a better understanding of what's going on, lets start
building the kit!
The first step I chose to complete was to wash the plastic parts in warm soapy water.
The instructions recommend you do this in order to remove any oil or grease
left over from the moulding process. This will help give the cement and paints a better
surface to stick to.
Once clean, leave them to air dry. Don't use any cloths as this can put dust or fibres
on the model and spoil the finish.
When the parts were completely dry, i then started assembling the two fuselage halves
and painted the cockpit walls. The parts were cut from the sprue, using a sharp
scalpel, and then any rough parts or unwanted plastic were filed using an nail file. the
parts were painted with Humbrol acrylic 81 pale yellow which was thinned with
a drop of water. These were then left to dry and I moved on to the propellor assembly.
Again, these parts were cut from the sprue and cleaned up with a file, then a small amount
of poly cement was used to glue them together.
I opted to paint the propellor assembly before attaching it to the model as it could be more
difficult to do at that point. The blades are painted silver on the front,
black on the rear, and the nose cone is Matt olive drab. I again thinned the paints, but
I'll talk more about that later.
When these parts were dry, I cemented the fuselage halves together, and they align really
well due to the design of the kit. This is a newly tooled kit, and goes
together really well. No filler is required at any stage in the assembly.
Next, i remove the bottom wing half from the sprue, again cleaning up as needed. It's at
this point that the holes for the display stand will need to be opened up
if you choose to use it. I used a scalpel to open the holes, but a 2mm drill bit would
work as well.
The internal cockpit components are attached to this bottom half of the wing, prior to
installation to the fuselage.
The parts were cut, sanded and glued together prior to painting.
This can be a fiddly step, due to the small size of the parts, so some tweezers might
be a useful tool at this stage.
Having completed this step, I then cut out the decal for the control panel inside the
cockpit.it was soaked in warm water, which enables it to slide off the backing
paper, and it can then be positioned in the correct place on the relevant plastic component.
I'm using humbrol decalfix here in order to help the decals to stick to the relevant plastic
components.
I go more into detail about decal application later, so stay tuned!
The pilot was installed at this point as I thought it would be easier than at the stage
the instructions recommend. He was painted Olive Drab all over, with
his life jacket picked out in yellow, his face in an appropriate flesh colour, I used
humbrol 61, and his goggles in silver.
Make sure, when you cement parts together, that you remove any paint as it will help
with the glue bonding the two parts together.
The fuselage can then be placed over the top of the cockpit and cemented to the bottom
of the wing, the upper parts of the wings can then be attached.
At this point, all that is left of the main assembly are to add the tail surfaces, and
the landing gear.
I'd like to point out that you are given the choice of raised or lowered landing gear,
but as I had already decided in my previous video to pose these models on
the included display stand in a flying pose, I opted to model them raised.
Whilst you watch me finish the general construction of this model, I'll tell you a little bit
about the actual P40B Warhawk.
The p40 was a fighter aircraft designed in the late 1930s. It was utilised by many Allied
airforces in the early days of World War two, and was the main fighter
aircraft of the United States Army Air Force in 1941.
The P40B Warhawk had 2 .50cal machine guns in the nose, and 4 .30 cal machine guns in
the wings. This formindable firepower, its rugged design and its good handling
characteristics at low to medium altitudes meant that it was a capable aircraft in the
early stages of the second world war.
Due to the lack of supercharger in the engine, it was found to be underpowered above 15000
feet, and as a result was replaced by newer aircraft as the war progressed.
The aricraft that Airfix have decided to depict in this model kit, is that of a 2nd lt George
Welch of the 47th pursuit squadron based at wheeler field in hawaii during the attack
on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941.
With the majority of construction complete at this stage I then primed the model with
Humbrol number 1, grey primer as a base for the acrylic paints.
The reason I did this, was because i'd tested the included paints and they failed to stick
to the plastic correctly.
When the primer was dry, I moved onto the underside of the model and painted that first
with 128 US Compass grey. When that was dry, the upper side of the model
was painted 155 olive drab.
To get the best results with acrylic paints they can be thinned with water - although
specialist thinners are available.I thin my enamel paints with white spirit,
as it is cheap and easily available, but once again, specialist thinners can also be sourced
for enamel paints.
I tend to do about a 1:2 ratio of thinner to paint but you may have to experiment with
what works best for you.
The reason the paint can be thinned is in order to avoid leaving brush strokes on the
finished model, keeping the paint more fluid until it dries will result in fewer
visible lines.
My general rule of thumb is to start with the lightest colour first, then progress to
the darker colours. I find that it's always easiest to paint a dark colour
over a light one rather than the other way around.
Next, i applied a varnish coat over the top of the model. I used Humbrol 135 which is
a satin varnish
A satin or gloss varnish should be used as the base for the application of decals as
this prevents the decals from appearing sliver and shiny on the model.
The decals were soaked in warm water and then gently applied to the kit - which had already
been given a coat of humbrol decalfix solution in the relevant
position. The decals are positioned and left to cure - the solution allows for the decals
to conform to the complicated contours and details of
the model and look like they're painted on. Once applied to the model, and you're happy
with them, don't be tempted to move them around again, as the solution will
make the decals very sticky and they could end up folded over or in the wrong place,
and if this happens its quite difficult to fix the problem.
For more information on how to apply decals, I made a video on this topic, so i'll add
the link below!
The next step was to apply a further coat of Matt varnish Humbrol 49 to the model which
ensures an even finish and helps blend the decals in to the paint scheme.
When that coat of paint was dry, The cockpit canopy was then installed, I used a general
purpose glue as it wont react with the plastic and fog it up, which
poly cement has a habit of doing.
Humbrol 11 silver was then dry brushed over the model to give it a light metallic effect
and highlight the details; I removed the majority of the paint off the paint brush
onto a paper towel, then, with the residual paint, I brushed it over the model and Only
the raised details will collect the silver paint and make them look slightly
chipped, as if revealing the bare metal underneath.
I applied a dark wash, which i made from humbrol
33 matt black, water and a drop of washing up liquid. This was then painted onto the
model, and then removed again using a damp towel. The surface
of the model is wiped clean but the panel lines and sunken details collect the wash
and it highlights the details. I didn't want too much of a wash left on this
kit however, so removed most of the black wash with the cloth.
I decided to add stains from the engine exhausts and gun ports. To do this i again used a black
pastel, but instead this time, i rubbed it into the relevant
area of the kit, then dragged a dry paint brush over the top in the direction of the
airflow whilst it is in flight. this drags the dust away leaving a realistic stain
I then added the exhasuts and the pitot tube which had been painted on the sprue. They
were left until the end to make painting them easier.
The final Improvement was to install the radio wires. I used my standard method of stretching
the left over sprue, by heating it up over a candle and then drawing the
two ends away from each other to make a really fine wire. Be super careful with this step.
for more information on this method, I've got a video featuring this tecnique on my
channel, so why not check it out?
These fine wires were then cut to length and a small dot of poly cement used to glue them
in the correct place on the model. They were then painted grey to
blend them into the model. I did struggle with the wires to the wings however, so decided
to leave them off for now
And that's as far as I went with the construction of this Curtiss P40b Warhawk model kit. And
here are the finished results! I found it didn't take too long to complete,
and realistically the kit can be constructed in about 8 hours with a little
patience.
It's quite easy to build, but perhaps a little fiddly at times especially if it's your first
kit, but practice does make perfect!
As this is a more recently designed model from airfix, it has a good mould quality,
fine detail and a good fit during construction.
This kit was easier to build than the zero in my previous video, so If you've got this
set, i'd suggest building this one first.
If I were to build it again, i'd add the wires i'd left off this one, and also build it with
the wheels down and perhaps as part of a diorama. What do
you have planned with your kit?
This kit has been available in different versions, either as a part of this gift set, a starter
set, or on its own, which comes with different decal options.
You can find a video of the starter set in Raf desert colours as a timelapse build on
my channel, and also the earlier version in RAF Battle Of Britain colours as
a review, I'll add the links under the video.
Airfix have a habit of constantly releasing this kit in different paint schemes, and this
particular version does seem to be currently out of production,
but there is usually a P40 in their range. I'll add the link to the latest version at
the time this video is made, underneath the video if you want
to see for yourself.
The gift set retails for about £20 in the United Kingdom, which is a reasonable price
in my opinion, but as always I do like to try and find a deal,
so managed to get it cheaper! As previously stated, airfix don't seem to currently be
producing this kit, but stocks may exist in other retailers.
I'm impressed with the kit of this rugged aircraft from Airfix, and more than happy
with the finished results i've acheived with my Curtiss P40B Warhawk!
Don't forget that the next video in this mini-series will feature a build of the display stand
and a final review of the set, Where I finally bring the two
aircraft together, so make sure you check that one out too!
As always, let me know what you think of my build, techniques and finished model in the
comments below. And if you're just starting out in the hobby, or returning
after a break, i'd be eager to hear what you've got planned for your first builds!
I'm also keen to hear your suggestions as to other kits that you'd like to see me build
on my channel, so feel free to post that too!
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if you enjoyed it!
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