KittyHawk build

Pictured is the 1/48 Hasagawa P40 E painted to represent an RCAF Kittyhawk. Suffice to say, the kit is accurate and a pleasure to build. The only aftermarket additions were the wheel wells by CMK and the wheels, seat and exhausts by Ultracast. Markings are from the excellent IPMS Canada decal sheet of Canadian P40’s. Paint is from Hannant;s Xtracrylic range. These paints spray and brush equally well, dry in minutes to a rock hard finish and are semi-gloss to aid decaling. Inspite of this, I still used a coat of Future before decaling. The colors chosen were an attempt to emulate the Curtis export colors. These colors were previously discussed in a booklet by Dana Bell called ‘Aviation Color Primers No.1: US Export Colors of WW II” which was available from Meteor. A more extensive and thorough discussion of Warhawk export colours is available on the internet at ratomodeling.com/articles/AVG_cammo/ and is well worth a look. Although open for interpretation, the undersurface of these aircraft appears to have been painted light gull grey FS36440 while a good match for the brown is FS 30219. Some export P40’s may have actually been painted British dark earth. The green is problematic and is said to be similar to FS 34079 or FS 34092. In the September, 1942 issue of “Flying” are a good number of contemporary colour photos of RAF aircraft and a 2 page colour ad by Curtis showing a Kittyhawk in export finish. The brown and grey are good matches to the FS numbers quoted and these were the colours I used. The green in the ad as well as green used on other types of aircraft appears to have been quite varied and not to match the green FS numbers quoted above. I used a variation of FS 34102 which appears closer to the greens pictured but is still not totally accurate. Hical, Allan.