Hasegawa 1/72 Curtiss P-40N Warhawk

HASEGAWA 1:72 CURTISS P-40N WARHAWK

Reviewer: Mark B (SMAKR Webmaster) (smakr1@optusnet.com.au)
Kit Built + Review Submitted: 9 February 2008

Kit Details:

Hasegawa A9:700 series - #00139 - 1/72 Curtiss P-40N Warhawk

Aircraft History:

The P-40 Warhawk could be considered a bit of an enigma as it would not be held as one the greatest "fighters" of World War II, even if you narrow the field down to just American built planes. Yet, after (or with the exception of) the P-51 and P-47 it was the most extensively built American fighter of WW2 with more than 14,000 examples up until the end of 1944.

Construction began as the Hawk 81 in 1938, the last of the Hawk family produced by Curtiss which dated back to the Hawk P-1 from 1925, and the 10th P-36A production aircraft was withdrawn from the line for an experimental version using an inline engine. Other than that the aircraft didn't differ much to the P-36 and the Hawk 81 began life as an XP-40 in 1939. Over 500 examples were ordered by the USAAC, the largest order of any fighter to originate from the US Army in history, at the time. By autumn 1940, 200 P-40's had been delivered to the USAAC.

Various versions of the P-40 began appearing in overseas air forces during 1940 as the Tomahawk, Kittyhawk etc under various lend-lease and other purchase programs. Initially many of them were supposed to go to France but the country fell before the aircraft came off the assembly line and they were diverted to the UK instead. Designations of the P-40 ranged from P-40B to the P-40E Tomahawk/Kittyhawks.

In 1941, Curtiss had begun redesigning the P-40 (Hawk 81A) in order to improve its performance and effectiveness. Changes included upgraded Allison engine, airframe adjustments in order to house the new engine, addition of armour plating, wing mounted machine guns and under fuselage hard point to carry a 500-lb bomb or 52-US Gallon drop tank. This became the P-40D/E model before it was upgraded again with a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine and the P-40F Warhawk was born.

While the P-40F possessed a considerable performance improvement over previous versions, there were still concerns, not least of which was the availability of the Merlin engines. Further production versions, such as the P-40K, included uprated Allison engines as a result and pruning the weight of the aircraft in the P-40L (removing some guns, fuel capacity and armor).

The P-40 proved to have disappointing high-altitude performance but good characteristics for low level and ground attack sorties. By late 1943 it was clear to all that unless something was done to boost the Warhawk's performance once and for all, its days were numbered. Given that it was recognised a new type had to be built rather than another change or upgrade to existing models on the production line, the P-40N was born which was the last production version of the Warhawk and the most extensively built with more than 5,000 examples.

Higher performance was achieved by a combination of weight saving techniques and retention of the Allison engines (or installation of an equivalent) from the P-40M model. Reduction of six wing mounted machine guns to four, fuel capacity and some armor, as well as introducing alloy parts in the oil cooler and radiator improved speed and performance over previous models, plus a change in the canopy as well.

Many P-40N Warhawks went to serve the USAAF in the Middle East and Pacific theatres, but over half of them were allocated to Allied Nations under the lend-lease agreement that included Australia, UK, New Zealand (all Kittyhawk IVs), South Africa, China and USSR.

The Kit:

Inside the box are two cellophane bags, one containing three sprues of 37 light grey parts molded in crisp Hasegawa plastic with finely engraved panel lines and a reasonable amount of surface detail. The other bag contains the decals and the reasonable one-piece canopy.

Instructions:

Following the usual Hasegawa format these are a fold out strip featuring brief history in several languages, a fairly easy to follow 7 step assembly process, information about symbols, paint information from Gunze Samgyo/Mr.Color range, a sprue map and four-view diagrams for the two examples the kit provides for.

Construction:

For once I followed the instructions in putting a kit together, which commences with a basic bucket seat that goes onto a cockpit floor (itself having molded rudder pedals) sitting adjacent to a control column and I painted this in an interior green colour (H78), going against the advice of Hasegawa (khaki green). An instrument panel was painted black and a decal was affixed to this, both were set aside to dry. There is no other cockpit detail such as side wall or side consoles.

The interior of the chin intake which includes bulkhead with molded intake grills and a splitter were glued together and painted in a matt aluminium and medium grey (which matches the aircraft undersides later) and the pilot figure was also painted. Next I assembled the bomb which I preferred over the drop tank which is also supplied in the kit - but I left off the bomb-to-fuselage brackets as experience tells me it is best to affix these later (otherwise the alignment pins may not be positioned quite correctly for the fuselage holes later).

The sub assembly of the upper halves onto the lower wing piece underpiece was next then the fuselage halves went together trapping the instrument panel and intake interior. After these dried, the cockpit was fed through the opening underneath the fuselage and small pins help you position it correctly before the wings were glued into place. Everything fits very well - the most minor gap filled with a dob of glue at the wing roots.

With the main assembly done it was then a case of fitting all the undercarriage doors and the wheels into the underside of the wing (we all know I like wheels-up), the under fuselage cowling lip and various smaller bits. While the wheel wells are boxed in the wings, there is no interior detail at all. The propeller assembly was easy and the canopy fitted very well with just a minor trim on one side after a dry fit run revealed a small concern that was easy to correct. The only other minor fit challenge were the exhaust stacks which I added after painting anyway. Overall construction was a cinch!

Colour Schemes:

You have the choice of two colour schemes. The first, as featured up close on the boxart is a USAAF P-40N, 1944, 46th Fighter Group, 7th Fighter Squadron, New Guinea flown by Lt. J.B.Paris in an upper scheme of dark green and earth over medium grey undersides, dark blue spinner with white strip and a white rear fuselage section encompassing the tailfin with blue circle/star roundel and this was the scheme I chose to do. The second is an overall upper olive drab over Medium Grey undersides and features the bar with the USAAF insignia and a large white skull emblem on the cowling. With it going over the exhaust section this decal will of course have to be cut or applied first.

Decals:

The decal sheet is small and supplies only the emblems, unit badges, USAAF roundels (with and without bar insignia type) and small decals around cockpit. The tail fin band is made up of four pieces, which have to be aligned in 'halves' - a good idea actually so it fits just right (and doesn't matter if two decals overlap slightly) but on the otherhand means a longer decalling session and precision planning/testing. As with most Hasegawa decals, these went on fine, they were a bit on the brittle side this time though (perhaps the kit has been sitting on the shelf for too long) but with care I didn't have any problems.

Accuracy:

The kit is overall a reasonable replica of the real thing, the dimensions are a millimetre or two at most underscale and the shape overall is not too bad. The most glaring inaccuracy is that the model has six machine guns on the wing when the real aircraft has four and which would also be molded a little differently.

Overall Recommendation:

This is a typical older Hasegawa molding that goes together very well without any real issues at all. I've read other reviews that say "you can't go wrong with these second generation Hasegawa WW2 prop kits" or "this is where the term throw in a tube of glue, shake the kit, and the model comes out complete" and I would have to agree with these sentiments. Very easy kit to put together for all levels of modelling skills. Recommended!

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