Kit: No. 02228
Scale: 1/32
Manufacturer: Trumpeter, distributed by Stevens International, P.O. Box 126, 706 N. White Horse Pike, Magnolia, NJ 08049, 856-435-1555
Price: $49.95
Comments: Injection-molded, 227 parts (19 photoetched, 1 wire, 1 photo-film), decals
Pros: Excellent detail, fine engine, separate flaps and control surfaces, accurate shapes
Cons: Sloppy wheel/strut attachment, sloppy rudder hinge, cockpit details undersized
Trumpeter's new big-scale P-40 comes in a nice sturdy box with five sprues of gray flash-free parts, one sprue of clear parts, one fret of photoetched parts, and photo-film instruments. The molded-in detail is outstanding, with 75 parts dedicated to the engine and its accessories.
The control surfaces are separate, and except for the rudder, they don't rely on tricky photoetched hinge tabs like earlier kits in this series. The photoetched parts that are provided are for seat harness hardware (you must provide paper or tape belts), intake grilles, a gunsight, and the fuselage panels exposed when the flaps are dropped.
The decals provide markings for one Royal Air Force Tomahawk in the temperate scheme and one plain U.S. Army Air Corps P-40 in olive drab and gray.
Assembly starts with the engine. Each exhaust pipe is a two-piece affair. The parts for the left-side bank of pipes didn't fit too well. I had to cut off the locator pins and file the mating surfaces for a proper fit. The right pipes fit fine - go figure! The completed engine is a jewel, but the only way you can see it is to leave off the top cowling, and even then you can see only the top of the engine.
The cockpit detail is good, but everything seems undersize. There are separate trim wheels, cockpit lights, and assorted side-wall components, but the throttle is molded into the left fuselage side, and is not as prominent as it should be.
The engine assembly and cockpit fit snugly into the fuselage. The photoetched hinge for the rudder ended up working sloppily, so I glued the rudder in place. The other separate control surfaces go on with locator pins. The elevator and aileron pins are molded to be posed in the down position, so I had to score and bend them to properly position one aileron up.
The landing-gear struts are nice and even include the rotating gears. The main wheels and tires have inner and outer halves and separate brake drums. The holes in the brake drums are larger than the strut axles, and the wheels will sit cockeyed if you're not careful.
Trumpeter supplies nice .30-caliber machine guns for the wings, but with no options to open the gun bays, they end up buried. The landing flaps can be installed raised or lowered, but they have several hard-to-fix ejector-pin marks on the inner surface.
When I attached the wing to the fuselage, the left wing sat a little high at the wing root. Once it was painted and a wash applied, the mismatch wasn't noticeable.
The chin scoop (part No. A10) sat proud of the bottom of the fuselage, so I sanded it flush and rescribed the seam. The cowl flaps can be installed open or closed, and I chose open.
The fuselage machine guns have long barrel extensions that protrude through the top of the cowl. The top cowl panel can be removed to show the guns and the engine, but when it's in place, the barrels don't allow it to lay flush with the rest of the fuselage.
All the glass parts fit fine. Early P-40s had a one-piece windscreen with the armored glass suspended behind it. The kit's armored glass fits onto little ridges molded inside the windscreen, but it doesn't look bad.
Handling the tiny clear formation lights was tricky. Cleaning off the sprue attachment points without launching the little bits into the carpet was a challenge.
I chose the British markings, only because I will want to refinish my model as a Flying Tiger when aftermarket decals appear. The finished model looks good and, even more important, looks right compared to photos in numerous publications. It took only about 25 hours to build with few problems. This would be an easy build for someone with a few years' experience.
I hope Trumpeter will come out with a later P-40 variant in this scale. That would make a nice pair!
- Larry Schramm