Kit Review
1:72 Academy P40E Warhawk
By: Timothy Zarco, IPMS Manila, Philippines Chapter*
 

Introduction:

This has been the first plane I’ve built in a very long time (I am primarily a figure modeler) and so I was excited to go write a kit review since I have been pleasantly surprised by the quality of recent Academy Aircraft kits and academy kits in general.

The kit:

The small rectangular box contains two to three grey sprues, a clear parts sprue and decal sheet with markings for three different air plane models. There are decals for two American variants and one British –mostly planes operating in the pacific. One thing about academy which I don’t like though is that the decals are rather thick and are hard to dissolve with one application of Solvaset and so additional patience and care must be taken when applying the kit provided decals. The canopy is relatively well molded and thank god there is no “center line” that would necessitate additional effort in the form of wet sanding and polishing the canopy. Some of the lines on the front portion of the canopy are very difficult to see and can make masking or hand painting this section rather difficult for beginners. The panel lines are rather shallow and those who wish to add extra detail would go for re-scribing most of these. The P40 Warhawk can be loaded with either a bomb or torpedo, both of which come with the kit. For those seeking to do a little extra work you may want to drill out the machine guns or better yet replace them with hypodermic needles for added detail.

Construction:

The kit went together rather well and there wasn’t much trouble in the form of large gaps or seams that CA glue, filling, sanding and re-scribing could fix. I’m rather impressed with Academy since their kits were previously notorious for poor fitting parts but it is apparent from this kit (circa 1999 I believe) that they have improved quite a bit. I put this one together in 2 hours which is pretty fast for me when it comes to a 1:72 kit. Additional detailing added an extra hour and a half but generally this one can be easily put together and modified in one afternoon.

Painting:

I selected the simplest paint scheme since I am practically a beginner again at Air craft.     

The aircraft I modeled was one used in the Alleutians and sports a simple light grey underside and olive drab upper side paint scheme. The technique used for painting my P40E Warhawk was the basic “paint, wash and pastels” technique with some paint chipping effects and drybrushing where necessary. Paints used for this project were Tamiya acrylics, Artists pastels and Grumbacher oil washes. After drying it out for a day I sealed it with a PVA glue mixture that acts as a general protective and matting agent.

Conclusion:  

This is a very nice kit for a beginner or intermediate modeler. There are few parts and some interesting decals but not too many details to work with. Photo etched parts can really improve this kit but so many of the detail like seatbelts and other cockpit details can be made from scratch so why get PE? A very inexpensive kit also… 200Pesos=less than 4$ US.