Hi all,
I've never really been a fan of the early, long-nosed P-40s but when Airfix announced their 1/48 kit I decided it looked too good to miss out on. So I bought one and built it using the kit decals for George Welch's Pearl Harbor machine which, coincidentally, is the same markings as
AK295, the P-40C restored in New Zealand for oil baron Rod Lewis. I never got to see it fly, although I did get to see it during the restoration. It flew a couple of weeks later:
the exhaust stacks to the top left of the photo are on the DH Mosquito I was standing under, no big deal 
Because I was building a restored aircraft it made colour matching/references infinitely easier. AK295 was one of the aircraft covered in top NZ warbird photographer - and my former boss - Gavin Conroy's
first book Precious Metal, so I had a bunch of high-quality photos at my fingertips to check various little details. The big cockpit photo was an especially big help.
At the beginning of the year it was almost done, but I had a dust disaster when clear-coating the canopy and windscreen. Cue a long wait for Airfix to get the spares in stock - they then sent the whole clear sprue instead of just the two bits I asked for, thank you Airfix! - and then she was finished. This kit had me smiling quite often because it was a literal joy to build. Beautiful fit, lovely detail, and a good price to boot. Bravo Airfix. Bring on the Sea Fury and Phantom!
She looks right at home with my growing collection of 1/48 warbirds:
I used the kit decals (still need an extra stencil for the tail to match the restored aircraft), Tamiya acrylics throughout (main scheme XF-62 over I think XF-53) followed by Humbrol Glosskote and then Humbroll Satinkote.
