Dale Mabry Field, Florida - Summer 1944. A trainee pilot with the newly formed 3rd Air Commando group is shuttled out to his Warhawk for another training flight. His crew chief casually sips his coffee while the young pilot wonders if his next flight might be taken from an airfield in France or the Pacific....
A little build I started back in March, the P-40N is an F-Toys Gashapon model. These are Japanese kits that come precoloured but requiring assembly - they can be made up as push-fit, but work much better with cement.
The prepainted finish varies in quality - in this example from the VS9 boxing, it was very poor, the olive drab was a weird shade and the Chinese army tail stripes (which I had been hoping to retain) were terrible.
On some of the better quality models I will keep the original finish and just touch up on any filler and gaps. Instead, after building, I gave the Warhawk a full new coat of Tamiya OD.
The scheme chosen is from the excellent Shelf Oddity sheet of Training P-40s. Three stateside based models are covered, making for a rarely modelled side of the war.
https://shelfoddity.com/index.php?route ... uct_id=308
The build went together smoothly - except a late realisation that I hadn't added the Curtis colour fringe, which I fortunately caught before sticking the model down.
The base is in my new standard format - a 13x13cm wooden canvas base with a scenic aperture. Reference pictures of the airfield show a straight forward concrete slab setting for this one.
The vehicle is a combination of 3d prints - the tractor and trailer are from Ray Rimes Minatures, while the figures are from eBay seller 3djson.
With a nameplate from Nameitplates to set the scene, it was complete.
