I built Hasegawa's
recent Curtiss P-40E kit with Eduard's photoetched detail set. There are two
frets in the PE set, one being their color "Zoom" item. The instrument
panel, placards, seat belts, and dials are nicely rendered. None of the interior
green items are painted, so color-matching or repainting is not an issue. I
really like the placards, and wish that Eduard would release frets of these.
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Much has been said
on the internet about Hasegawa's use of plugs on the fuselage to facilitate
molding of multiple versions of the P-40 from the same basic molds. I glued
these plugs to the fuselage halves, aligning them with the panel lines. A little
filling was necessary, but there were no "steps" when I assembled the
fuselage halves. The gun inserts for the wings needed filler also, but nothing
major.
I really can't say enough about
the Eduard details. They include the radiator flaps, all the gear doors, the
mechanism that rotated the undercarriage during retraction, separate supports
for the drop tank or bomb, the ring and bead sight, and all of the trim tab
actuators. It is a marvelous detail set.
I removed the sighting glass from
the reflector sight, and added pieces cut from thin clear sheet. The
"headache pad" was cut from styrene, and painted a leather color.
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I used decals from Eduard to
model an "Aleutian Tiger." The decals conformed to the surface detail
well, and the fuselage band actually fit. The tail numbers were translucent, so
I carefully overpainted them with a sharp #000 brush.
The finished model
captures the look of the P-40E very well, in my opinion. The kit and detail set
are a great combination.
Bill
Visit my website to see other
models of mine, I also build models on commission. http://www.pix.prettyneatinc.com/
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