Airfix 1/72 Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk

AIRFIX 1:72 CURTISS P-40E KITTYHAWK

Reviewer: Myself (smakr@bigpond.com)
Kit Review submitted: 27 January 2002

Aircraft:
The P-40 series of fighters were the ultimate versions of a successful range of 1930's "Hawk" designs. The P-40 went under a few different names depending on the variant and the country using it, which included Kittyhawk, Warhawk and Tomahawk. The P-40E was known as the Kittyhawk Ia in the hands of the British and Commonwealth forces. The Kittyhawks were supplied to the British under a lend-lease agreement from the US and first went into action in the Western Desert against Rommel's forces in 1942. Most famous of the Kittyhawks were the No.112 SQN who were the pioneers of wearing shark mouths on the aircraft.

The Kit:
Since I have already posted an INBOX review (see link below) on this site I will just go through the basics, copied pretty much from that review.

This is an Airfix "Series 1" Kit #01038, Curtiss P-40E Kittyhawk. There are 33 parts in typical soft light grey Airfix plastic, most of which are contained on one sprue, while upper and lower wing halves have small attachment trees and fuselage halves float loosely. Three clear parts (all scratched!) on one sprue float inside the plastic bag that contains all the parts. Raised rivet detail is excessive although not too large, and raised surface detail throughout. Very minor flash on the intake, and on the edges of the wings, propellers and other small pieces - no problem in cleaning off.

As with most Airfix kits nowadays the box has information for the modeller including skill level, number of parts, versions in the kit, dimensions of the model and a brief history of the aircraft.

Instructions:
Comes in two parts - one A4 sheet for the brief history, explanation of symbols etc. Then folded A3 sheet for six assembly steps. Reasonably easy to follow, includes the last step split into two parts - one for wheels up and the other for wheels down, which is good. Two pages devoted to the two versions produced, four-view diagrams of markings provided. Colour call outs are provided for individual parts as well, but is provided with Humbrol numbers only, so if you use another brand you will need a handy cross-reference chart!! Overall the instructions are quite good, but having Humbrol numbers only, as always is not good.

Construction:
This was a very easy model to put together and since it was intended to end up in my son's bedroom as a play thing, I did not go to great lengths to worry about intricacies with this and that - or detailing the cockpit. Talking of which well you might as well say this area is non-existent with literally only a pilot figure and three-way bent plastic part excuse for a seat! No panels, no floor, no sticks - nothing. However, there is a gunsight HUD to attach to the dashboard. The pilot and his seat are attached to large locating pins on the inside of the fuselage halves.

The propeller unit is assembled with the shaft trapped between the fuselage halves - you must test fit the spinner and shaft with stopper against the fuselage half first. If you simply add in the propeller and leave the spinner off til later then the spinner won't attach flush against the propeller blades. Basically the shaft needs to only go into the rear stopper a small way and stick further out the nose in order for the spinner to be flush, and render it still moveable. A series of test fits overcame this small obstacle.

A bit of flash had to be removed from the chin intake and then a rear bulkhead plate is attached between the fuselage halves, which ensures you can't see very far in. The instructions are vague as to the exact position (ie: behind, on top of or in front of the alignment rail inside?). I stuck it in front of the rail flush against the intake mouth, so of course there is effectively no interior. The fuselage halves go together easily, trapping the non-cemented propeller shaft and they only needed to be held tight for a minute or two to clasp without any gaps.

There is not much detail to speak of in this kit, which isn't surprising considering it is marketed as a series one kit. The wheel wells are holes in the wing section, no detail and are not boxed in. A small spike jutts out to put the wheels on [for wheels up version] so they are lying flat in the well, which is what I did. Unfortunately the spikes are not geometrically exactly in the centre and the wheels are both off-centre - in different directions at that - only minor but noticeable on scrutiny. It may be advisable to remove the spikes, glue them in the wheel holes [so they look like axles] and attach the wheels in the centre of the well.

There is a provision of a tailwheel to glue onto a triangular mounting plate at the rear, as the rearwheel was retractable. For the wheels up model it also includes a door, which fits well. The main gear doors are in separate halves (leaving the wheel exposed of course) and need trimming and test fitting to fit well. The wings are in upper and lower halves and simply go straight onto the fuselage - as do the one-piece tailplanes. Both fit well with only a very minor gap around the main wing roots to be filled and sanded. I simply used a little bit of glue and dabbed away the excess with tissue and no sanding was required.

Exhaust stacks, tail fin and wing mounted guns are already molded onto the fuselage so it was a case of adding on the rear fuselage windows and the main canopy. With careful trimming and test fitting the rear windows fit well. The canopy is one piece so no provision for having it open. I found it difficult to fit it perfectly onto the aircraft, there was an ever slight small gap between the windows and canopy.

To complete assembly a pitot tube was added to the port wing tip and a fuel tank added to the centreline fuselage. The tank is in halves and rather than having pylon struts either side of the tank attached to the fuselage, both pylons are actually one-piece in an inverted "U" shape and you trap it between the tank halves - makes it very easy to affix, although leaving to set in place is a must.

Once the painting in the cockpit was done - construction took all of about 10 minutes - it really was very quick and easy and this was intended as a bit of a kitbash to get rid of a bit of AMS.

Versions:
Two P-40E Kittyhawk (1a) examples provided. A shark-mouth version from No.112 Squadron, RAF, Western Desert, North Africa, Mid 1942 in upper Earth and Brown-Yellow camouflage with Azure Blue undersides. Second example is an RAAF No.77 Squadron, Livingstone, Australia, November 1942 wearing an Ensign insignia on the port nose/intake. This wears upper Dark Green (read Foliage Green) and "Brown Bess" camouflage with Sky blue undersides. Naturally I chose the RAAF example and used the Humbrol numbers as quoted (149 and 170 respectively) for the upper camouflage. I ignored the Humbrol combination call out it called for the undersides and simply painted it Duck Egg Blue (H23).

Decals:
The decal sheet is split into two sections, one for the RAF and one for the RAAF examples. The red in the RAF roundels, shark mouth and RAAF fuselage code looks more brown than red. The Blue/white wing roundels on both examples are scratched, with one or two edged in white and imperfect rounding on the circle. If you are building the RAF version, you [in practice] have six of these roundels to choose from where you only need two so you should be able to scrounge a workable one out. The RAF fuselage roundels have the yellow circle around the outside, and you can see some white edging creeping through. All the red dots are added separately which is something I am in favour of.

Using the RAAF decals in the kit was my choice and in the main these went on fine. One of the serial numbers would not budge when it landed on the model surface and tore before I rectified the problem. They are thin and won't take much to tear. White edging bled through on all the roundels so they should be replaced if trying to produce a decent replica.

Accuracy:
Marketed as a skill 1 kit and being Airfix, then one can't be too toted on accuracy! This kit gives you a decent profile of the Kittyhawk in general outline and is easily identifiable. But that is where the pleasantries stop. The kit has a number of inaccurate flaws - especially when you consider it as a specialist E version. It is underscale by a centremeter or so in both areas and simply it omits all the small minor indications that make it an E - for example the sufficient notice of the cooling gills, some aerials, (accurate) gunsight, rudder hinges etc. The rear of the intake is almost molded as if it didn't exist, fin shape and wing shapes are not quite right for this variant, and the nose is also not correctly portrayed after comparing with plans. Don't buy this kit if you really want an E!

Overall:
My general impressions from the INBOX review proved spot on - and it should not be a kit intended to be showpiece in the display cabinet for an accurate P-40E depiction [well not out of the box at least]. Where the kit is a winner is for AMS Therapy, building with the son (or daughter) and a ten minute kitbash fulfilment. I am not trying to be condescending with that last statement because it really is a quick and very easy build, with the fit of all the parts in the main excellent. So long as you know it is not an accurate E and you can't really expect to produce a high quality competition example out of this without a hell of a lot of elbow grease then it is worth the meagre $$ to spend on having a bit of fun. If a beginner needs something to slap together to produce a Kittyhawk then this is a great start.

Note: the following related reviews links have not been updated since early 2000's - more kit reviews of this aircraft may now be on SMAKR, not reflected below. Refer to the Index for other kits of this type.

Related Reviews:-

Related INBOX Reviews:-

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