The Waffling Wombat

[Old Wombat]

Ooh, look! I've done a thing! I've started a blog!

 

Obviously, like most others, it's going to be a place to vent, rant & provide (slightly) personal updates.

However, I think I'll also use it to document my RW builds (few that they are), as I don't frequent any RW model building sites & (given the reported nature of most of them) I don't actually want to.

So, just a heads-up; I'm just starting a RW P-40M of 112 Sqn RAF based in Italy ca. early-1944.

Just cleaning stuff up at the moment, & preparing for a few upgrade sets (wheel wells, guns, exhausts & seat belts). The wheel wells are the biggest effort but I'm over 2/3 of the way there.

Anyway, gotta go to bed, now (it's almost 4am, Friday 20th, here), & I want to get this build done quickly (for the SA Plastic Model Expo in 8 days).

[DogfighterZen]

I don't care if they're RW or whiffs, glad to see this and looking forward to see WombatWorks products in the making.     

[kerick]

I'll be glad to see your RW works any day. P-40s are always good.

[Rick Lowe]

Welcome to the Madness That Is Blogs... we don't bite, much, and only when asked... 

RW or not, looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[Pellson]

... we don't bite, much, and only when asked...

Speak for yourself..  

Looking forward to see what's shown - and said(!) here as well.

[Wardukw]

This had me excited to see ya RW builds to ..but like the other blokes ...don't care if it's RW or wiffy 

Funny you went to sleepy land at 4am Guy cause that's when I got up this morning..extremely loud thunder and lightning and of course..the rain ..like hammers hitting my roof ..no chance of sleeping thru that .

[zenrat]

Eight days?   
Good luck.   

[NARSES2]

Welcome to World of Blogs 

I assume the P-40 is 1/48th ? But who's kit, or is that a secret for the time being ?

[Old Wombat]

Thank you, Chris, & of course it's 1/48!  

Pic's of progress below:

What I'm going to be building;

(Click for Bigger View)

How accurate it's going to be is ... questionable, because 112 Sqn lost three P-40Ms (Kittyhawk Mk.IIIs) with the squadron code GA-M in a six month period between October 1943 & April 1944, & there aren't a lot of photo's I could find of any of them (& none very clear).

I've written on the painting guide that the one I'll be building (FR861) force landed north of Trogir in Croatia on the 22nd of March, 1944, after suffering Flak damage during a mission in support of Yugoslav partisans.

I chose the Trogir one because I was there on my Euro trip in 2018, & it's a beautiful place.

Bits chopped up to fit the Aires wheel wells;


Starboard (right) wheel well taped in situ for a test fit;


Add top wing;


Add half-fuselage;


Bits primed & drying ready for interior painting either later tonight or late tomorrow (SWMBO has decided I need to do "things" other than model building tomorrow);


They don't tell you quite how much cutting you really need to do, there's no mention in the destructions of cutting out part of the fuselage floor or making a larger space in the wings. Actually, pretty standard for all the parts I'll be adding from this set, they don't tell you half of what's required to get things to fit correctly.

[Rheged]

Photos of  work in progress are always of value, whether real world or whiffworld.  I will continue to watch with interest.

[Old Wombat]

 

[NARSES2]

Glad to see I'm not the only one who writes the colours name next to the code on the instructions. 

[Old Wombat]

It may have had something to do with the fact that the colour descriptions were rather inaccurate (wood brown = dark earth; light blue = azure blue; etc.).



Some more prog shots;








(2nd time through the paint shop for the wheel wells, screwed up the first attempt, so everything's running a bit behind schedule.)

[NARSES2]

Coming along nicely 

US interior colours throw me I must admit. What with various shades of "Interior Green" and then the puzzle as to whether wheel wells etc were "Zinc Chromate" , the aforementioned green, or even bare metal.

[Old Wombat]

Coming along nicely 

US interior colours throw me I must admit. What with various shades of "Interior Green" and then the puzzle as to whether wheel wells etc were "Zinc Chromate" , the aforementioned green, or even bare metal.

It gets more confusing when you realise that there were at least two different zinc chromates used, one more "green" (generally used on USAAF aircraft) & the other more "yellow green" (usually used on USN aircraft), then each manufacturer had their own, slightly different, take on "cockpit green".

I'm using AMMO by Mig's A.MIG-220 FS34151 Zinc Chromate Green & a custom mix of Tamiya XF-4 Yellow Green & XF-58 Olive Green (2:1) to try to simulate the Curtiss version of "Interior Green" (moderate success, but tweaking it will just make it more difficult to replicate in the other two P-40s in the stash).