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| Special Hobby P-40 kits; Mini inbox review | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 29 2018, 04:06 AM (300 Views) | |
| jvenables | Mar 29 2018, 04:06 AM Post #1 |
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Hawk
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I received a package from Hannants late last week which included a couple of the new Special Hobby P-40s: one of each version so far released. I was originally in two minds about picking up any of these, as my stash is already quite top heavy with P-40s from other manufacturers, but I am supremely glad I went ahead and grabbed a couple! I'll now be aiming to get some of their "Simple" sets when they are available too. What fabulous model kits! They are beautifully done with heaps of detail with plenty of options. The common sprue contains all of the smaller detail parts, including two types of propellers, two types of drop tank, three types of instrument panel, two types of seat armour, two types of seat, two types of exhaust, and two wheel hub options. Naturally, some of these options are specific to either the 'E' or 'N' variant, but they will nevertheless provide plenty of goodies for the spares box. Although two types of wheels are included (spoked & covered hubs), Special Hobby missed the smaller, lightweight wheels that were fitted to most P-40Ns, so for a truly accurate 'N', the SBS Model aftermarket wheels will be required. That said, the visual difference between standard and lightweight wheels is not remarkable and I have always suspected that some 'N's were probably fitted with standard wheels in the field, so reference checks may be necessary. The tyres are not "weighted". In the P-40E kit, the fuselage halves and flying surfaces are included on one sprue. The P-40N kit clearly shares the same sprue mold, but the fuselage halves are blanked off. The 'N' fuselage halves thus come on a separate, smaller sprue. It is fair to assume Special Hobby have a P-40M forthcoming which will use a similar sprue arrangement... and I guess the third instrument panel is for the 'M' (though I am not familiar with the exact differences to be certain). All of the ejector pin marks are logically out of the way, and whilst the molding is mostly clean & sharp there are a few tiny dags of flash here and there and the mold seam lines are rather enlarged on some parts (eg. undercarriage legs), requiring diligent clean up. The transparent parts are quite thin and crystal clear. There is no rivet detail (fine with me as I am not keen on rivet detail in this scale) except on one of the drop tank options, which seems a little odd to me. In my opinion, the fabric surfaces are slightly overstated; there is no exaggerated sag of the fabric but to my eye the underlying structure is a little too heavily embossed. But it's not something I'll lose sleep over. The surface texture is very slightly grainy on all major parts, though the 'N' fuselage is mostly smooth. That texture is only very subtle and should disappear under a coat of paint. To my eye the panel engraving on the fuselage of the P-40N is not as fine, nor as sharp as that elsewhere on the model, nor as that on the P-40E. The instruction booklet is very nicely printed in colour on quality glossy paper. The assembly instructions are very clear and the parts layout diagrams have a solid red "X" over the parts not needed for each variant. The colours and markings diagrams are beautifully done. The colour and markings options in each kit are interesting (but of course, may not appeal to everyone; never mind, as there are plenty of aftermarket options out there) and the Cartograf printed decals are beautifully done. The only other comment I'll make is that the assembly section of the instructions contains a table of colours (only in Gunze Mr Hobby & Mr Color ranges, which is fine for me, as Mr Color are my paints of choice) for the interior and other detail parts to be painted during construction; colour callouts are given as 'A', 'B', 'C', etc. The last few pages of the instruction booklet contains the overall paint & finish section and each example has its own colour reference, again in 'A', 'B', 'C', etc callouts. But each of the colour tables is unique, bearing almost no similarity to one another. This is not really a problem but for anyone who suffers a brain-fart moment (as I did) when first perusing the instruction booklet with excited anticipation (as I did), it can be a little confusing initially. Oh... and for those who seem to think the packaging is important: the box is the tray and lid type with the former being very sturdy. Cheers, James. PS: Apologies for no photos, but I have not yet signed up to a photo hosting site after the Botophucket debacle. I must get onto that! |
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James from Brisbane, Australia Now living in Laos Nil illegitimi carborundum | |
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| Chuck1945 | Mar 29 2018, 05:01 AM Post #2 |
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Hero
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Well said. These appear to be excellent kits. Over on Britmodeller there was a discussion last month about the 'N'. It was pointed out that the 'N' had 27" wheels compared to 30" for all the others in the P-40 family. In 1/72 that is .417" compared to .375". Your surmise about usage is correct too. In the booklet on the AVG/23FG in China, mention is made of replacing the smaller wheels with the larger size because the older style was more readily available through supply channels than the new smaller ones |
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Chuck Eastern WA, USA Finished 2018: Eduard Spitfire IXc, VIII, Monogram/Starfighter BFC-2 On the active bench: Eduard Bf 110C, Hasegawa B-24D, SH P-40E | |
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| Tommy | Apr 10 2018, 11:20 AM Post #3 |
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Beast
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Hi James Not wanting to interfere with Joe's build, so offering a possible answer to your question about the circle here - there are images of the P-40M (and K) which appear to have these circles so maybe it's for the M version. Cheers Chris |
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