mike_cyul
SOH-CM-2025
Just a few more pics to share, as work comes along. I was fortunate enough to spend a day with a real (and flying) P-40N a couple of weeks ago, which was great. The pilot has also tentatively offered to beta test the model - I say tentatively, because although he is in fact very enthusiastic about doing this, his real-life schedule takes him away for some periods of time. If it works out, I'll let you know who it is. 
He has been through the model's VC, and has been very helpful there.
Below, the factory-fresh Warhawk out for a flight. No bump mapping, weathering, etc., and still a few details missing at this point, but it does look like a P-40N-5! Essentially just making sure the texture mapping and basic colours are how they should be.
Taxiing. This version of the P-40N (essentially model P-40N-5 and up) has the slightly smaller (and thus lighter) wheels, 27 in. versus 30 in.. No bomb racks mounted yet. The wing guns you can see are not the 50 cal. machine guns themselves, which did not in fact protrude beyond the wing leading edge, but rather their blast tubes. The gear swivel mechanism during retraction has been replicated inside the wheel wells. The final release will also have versions with belly and wing bomb racks and wing drop tanks.
Accurate cockpit colours have been a challenge, even with factory drawings and specs. Earlier P-40 models appear to have been all-zinc-chromate or cockpit green, but most if not all later models had a different sytem. Very few colour photos exist of original, unrestored P-40N cockpits, but those that do exist show that the canopy frames, painted before final assembly, were in the familar green, while the inner fuselage and most components were the blue-green shade, which came about from the system to ensure proper coverage: first coats in zinc-chromate green, the second in a blue-green tinted version of the same paint, to make visually sure these areas received the proper number and thicknesses of coats. I'm not sure if the hydraulic pump shaft was blue-green or not, I'm still looking into it.
The seat in the later versions like this one was made of plywood. Colour photos of these are very hard to find, but black and white photos appear to show the seats were painted in at least the same tone of colour as the cockpit. However, the aircraft assembly manuals show a much darker colour, while an original seat that came up for sale on Ebay was painted in what looked like neutral grey. Hard to know what to do, but for now it's in the cockpit colour as I assume the seat's metal components would have needed the same corrosion protection as the rest of the cockpit.
Gunsight protection pad and headrest in these versions were not made of leather, but of neoprene/hygar/ameripol. I'm guessing this was to avoid decay in hot and humid climates such as in the Pacific theatre.
Mike
He has been through the model's VC, and has been very helpful there.Below, the factory-fresh Warhawk out for a flight. No bump mapping, weathering, etc., and still a few details missing at this point, but it does look like a P-40N-5! Essentially just making sure the texture mapping and basic colours are how they should be.
Taxiing. This version of the P-40N (essentially model P-40N-5 and up) has the slightly smaller (and thus lighter) wheels, 27 in. versus 30 in.. No bomb racks mounted yet. The wing guns you can see are not the 50 cal. machine guns themselves, which did not in fact protrude beyond the wing leading edge, but rather their blast tubes. The gear swivel mechanism during retraction has been replicated inside the wheel wells. The final release will also have versions with belly and wing bomb racks and wing drop tanks.
Accurate cockpit colours have been a challenge, even with factory drawings and specs. Earlier P-40 models appear to have been all-zinc-chromate or cockpit green, but most if not all later models had a different sytem. Very few colour photos exist of original, unrestored P-40N cockpits, but those that do exist show that the canopy frames, painted before final assembly, were in the familar green, while the inner fuselage and most components were the blue-green shade, which came about from the system to ensure proper coverage: first coats in zinc-chromate green, the second in a blue-green tinted version of the same paint, to make visually sure these areas received the proper number and thicknesses of coats. I'm not sure if the hydraulic pump shaft was blue-green or not, I'm still looking into it.
The seat in the later versions like this one was made of plywood. Colour photos of these are very hard to find, but black and white photos appear to show the seats were painted in at least the same tone of colour as the cockpit. However, the aircraft assembly manuals show a much darker colour, while an original seat that came up for sale on Ebay was painted in what looked like neutral grey. Hard to know what to do, but for now it's in the cockpit colour as I assume the seat's metal components would have needed the same corrosion protection as the rest of the cockpit.
Gunsight protection pad and headrest in these versions were not made of leather, but of neoprene/hygar/ameripol. I'm guessing this was to avoid decay in hot and humid climates such as in the Pacific theatre.
Mike
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