Curtiss P-40B to M Seat

Hearns Workshop, 1/32 scale

Hearns Hobbies is a long established Melbourne hobby shob that is located beneath Flinders Street Station.

Hearns has now expanded into 3D printed products under the Hearns Workshop brand. At this stage the range includes diorama accessories, bits and pieces, figures (civilian and military) and a couple of aircraft accessory releases.

One of these is a 1/32 scale seat for the Curtiss P-40B to M variants.

The P-40B to M featured a pressed metal seat with a subtly curved back and a rounded top. The later P-40N had a simpler seat with a squared-off top.

The shape of the P-40B to M seat looks good and detail is excellent.

The seat is produced by 3D printing. The final product is perfectly produced. My big studio lights hide some of the finer detail in these photos due to the translucent nature of the printed material, but it looks great in real life!

The 3D printed seat is attached to its mount by multiple fine trees. These should be carefully removed with small sprue cutters or a new hobby blade.

Hearns' website states that the seat is designed specifically for the Hasegawa kits, but it will really shine in the Trumpeter P-40 E, F and M kits.

The Trumpeter 1/32 scale P-40E and M kits are really not too bad overall. They even have a few advantages over Hasegawa in that they are not designed with big inserts for the rear canopy or the tail sections. However, the cockpit is poorly detailed for the scale and the shape of the seat is particularly bad. It really needs help.

Trumpeter has placed an each-way bet and provided the same seat in all their 1/32 scale Kittyhawks (including their P-40N) that looks like neither the early nor the late versions. Trumpeter's seat top is partially rounded off at the edges. The kit seat also misses out on key details and the reinforcement strips have been "pressed" from the wrong side (facing inward instead of out).

The photo below shows the assembled Trumpeter kit compared to the Hearns seat.

The seat in Hasegawa's P-40E, K and M kits is pretty good but I have always thought it looked a bit squat. Compared to the Hearns seat, the Hasegawa seat appears to be a little thick and the sides lack detail. For comparison, here is a photo of my Hasegawa cockpit under construction in 2008 with the kit seat painted silver.

The P-40 has a big cockpit and the seat will be highly visible in the finished model. At AUD$19.99, Hearns Workshop's seat is not cheap but it will be a very noticeable improvement.

I bought three!

Hearns Workshop's 3D printed P-40 seat is an easy and very noticeable upgrade for your Trumpeter and Hasegawa P-40B to M kits.

Purchased by the reviewer

Review Text and Images Copyright © 2020 by Brett Green
Page Created 24 September, 2021
Last updated 24 September, 2021

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