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Planet 1/48 XP-40Q

That's looking fine John, I like the work on the spinner! Quite a difference in size of the nose and the body!
 
Thanks, Mike and Warren. Bob, I'm sure the old wing didn't help, but I would expect that some of the difference came from better high altitude performance of the particular type of Merlin the P-51 used.

The kit comes with two canopies made from a good thickness of material. I cut the first one to the lines molded in, but it didn't really fit that well, too short along the cockpit sill and there was going to be a gap left open. I looked at more photos and came to the conclusion that the canopy frame actually had a smooth curve from the windshield frame back, so I cut the second canopy in that fashion, on the left in the photo below. Fit was very nice cut that way.

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Had to scratch build a pitot mast and tube, none was in the kit. Wire, plastic, and CA did the job. As usual, the pitiless eye of the camera shows some places to go back to. I just finished installing the exhaust stacks. Each one of the 12 is an individual part to cut from the pour block, clean up, and then try to align correctly. I used 5 minute epoxy. Very fiddley and not entirely evenly aligned.

Here's where it is now.

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Thanks, Luiz and Paul.

Looks like the lead horse is past the finish line here. My way of saying that there are a few spots I should go back and mess with, but it's at that point where if I mess with it anymore I will likely make a mess of it! The areas that may benefit from improvement in the kit are the size of the prop blades, the size of the nose piece with the chin scoop, and the shape of the lower line of the canopy. I would remove the molded seat belts and replace them with Eduard parts. There are no parts for the pitot tube that was on this airplane in the scheme I adopted, and there was no representation of the position lights. The decals were excellent, although missing the Curtiss Electric logos for the prop. All in all a fine resin kit by Planet.

I made the dorsal antenna out of fine transformer wire, it is straight right now but very delicate. Do they make .005 music wire? :-\

I thought it would be interesting to get pictures with the last Mustang variant with the last of the P-40's, so I brought out the Collect Aire P-51H I built some years ago. I also took some with my Monogram P-40B, first and the last. It would be fun to put a P-36 in the picture too, but the only P-36 I've built so far is in 1/32 scale.
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Nice John (y) (y) looks like a Mustang wannabe ! As for those whip antennas I find cat whiskers work well, no help if you don't have a cat I guess and no I don't cut them off the cat, they do lose them naturally and when I find them I put them in a jar on my work bench.
 
Old Dog said:
Nice John (y) (y) looks like a Mustang wannabe ! As for those whip antennas I find cat whiskers work well, no help if you don't have a cat I guess and no I don't cut them off the cat, they do lose them naturally and when I find them I put them in a jar on my work bench.
Click to expand...

Like these two cats I have are ever going to give up a whisker for me.... but thanks for the tip, Gary.

Thank you too, Swordsman.
 
Great looking build. Sure is a departure from the original P-40 that we are used to seeing. (y) (y) (y) (y)
James
 
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