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Project Notes

#648 P-40B Flying Tiger in 1:72

Building the most excellent Airfix P-40B H81-A2 1:72 in Flying Tigers livery.

No electronics in this one.

Build

Notes

The Hawk 81A-2 is an export version of the P-40B, with 110 aircraft produced for the RAF as Tomahawk Mk.IIs and Mk.IIAs. Apparently some ended up with the Flying Tigers in Kunming, China.

The aircraft depicted in this Airfix A01003 1:72 kit was flown by Flight Leader Charles H. Older, Third Squadron, American Volunteer Group, Kunming, China, 1942.

It sports the roundels of the Republic of China, and a “Flying Tiger” insignia that was created by the Walt Disney Company.

Paint Scheme

To the extent I kept track of this…

Feature Color Recommended Paint Used
cockpit Pale Yellow Humbrol 81 Vallejo 70.824 German Camo Orange Ochre
prop tips Matt Trainer Yellow Humbrol 24 70.952 Lemon Yellow
lower fuselage Matt Camouflage Grey (approx DuPont 71-021) Humbrol 28 70.986 Deck Tan + 70.993 white grey ~4:1
  Matt Black Humbrol 33  
upper camo Matt US Dark Green (approx DuPont 71-013) Humbrol 116 70.893 US Dark Green
upper camo Matt US Light Earth (approx DuPont 71-009) Humbrol 119 70.921 English Uniform w/ 70.824 German Camo Orange Ochre ~ 3:1

Build Log

I love the way Airfix designed the cockpit to be built up on the wing, with the fuselage fitting neatly over the top.

build01a

I seem to have not taken any more WIP shots. So straight from painting and decaling:

build02a

build02b

build02c

build02d

With an antenna aerial rigged:

build03a

build03b

Although just simple decals, the cockpit dashboard is nicely visible through the canopy

build03c

It does look quite menacing if you need to stare it down!

build03d

The Airfix 1/72 Flying Tigers P-40B joins its little brother - AFVClub 1/144.

flying_tigers_2

Credits and References

About LEAP#648 scale modelsCraft
Project Source on GitHub Project Gallery Return to the LEAP Catalog

This page is a web-friendly rendering of my project notes shared in the LEAP GitHub repository.

LEAP is just my personal collection of projects, usually involving an Arduino or other microprocessor in one way or another. Some are full-blown projects, while many are trivial breadboard experiments, intended to learn and explore something interesting (IMHO!).

The projects are usually inspired by things found wild on the net, or ideas from the sources such as:

Feel free to borrow liberally, and if you spot any issues do let me know. See the individual projects for credits where due. There are even now a few projects contributed by others - send your own over in a pull request if you would also like to add to this collection.