Trumpeter's 1/72 scale
Curtiss P-40B

by Bill Kopos

Trumpeter's 1/72 scale P-40B is available online from Squadron.com

Let me start by saying that I do not usually build 1/72 scale. However, to those that do, I wish to pay my respects for your patience and boy, you must have small fingers.

But I love P-40's and when I saw this little cutie on the shelf I figured I'd give it a shot.

Surprisingly, there aren't that many good 1/72 Hawks out there, and precious few B models. Why Tamiya sees fit to continue ignoring this aircraft is beyond me. This kit isn't bad at all. but still has some of Trumpeter's weird P-40 foibles. Instead of a drawn out wordy story, I'll just list what I think are the good points and bad points, show you some pics and let you decide.

Bad points are more (evil) fun so they be first.

1. The shallow cockpit is still here, as in the 1/48 and 1/32 kits. The seat ain't bad, sidewall detail is OK, but it still looks silly being not deep enough. The cockpit floor should be the top of the wing.

2. For wing guns, it has four little stumps where Browning .30's should be. I replaced these with 1/72 Quickboost Heinkel He 111 barrels I had. (This is where you need the tiny fingers).

3. The radio hatch still stands out from the fuselage, instead of being flush.

4. Rudder hinges on both sides of rudder, should be left only (just cut the right one off).

5. The canopy, as with so many other kits, does not fit. It's lumpy looking with overdone framing, and even after a lot of trimming, still had to be pushed down over the spine to look right, risking cracking. At least the canopy is in separate parts, the windscreen is OK, with nubs inside for the flat gunsite glass peculiar to early P40's. This is not provided, though, and I made one from acetate.

6. The pitot tube is a strange lumpy thing, that no way looks correct. A new one was made and installed.

Now to the good stuff:

1. Overall shape and lines are good, matching up well to 1/72 drawings.

2. Engraved detail and rivets are delicate enough.

3. Fit is very good overall. Fuselage halves, wing and landing gear all held together, even without glue. Seams were easily cleaned up with sanding sticks.

4. Exhausts, prop and landing gear all neatly done.

5. The decals, which I persisted in using for this review, turned out to be OK. They totally resisted Solvaset, but snuggled down on their own. I do believe the "Sharkmouth" is a bit small. Markings for a 23rd Fighter Group transfer plane are given ,as well as a Russian and a British craft.

6. In general, it built into a nice representation of a P40B Tomahawk. The profile I found in Osprey's "P40 Aces of the CBI" says this is an ex-AVG ("Flying Tigers") machine handed to the 23rd Fighter Group upon the AVG's disbandment. It bears the Tiger logo of the 23rd FG. Osprey says it had U.S. stars, but I used the kit's Chinese insignia, again to try the kit decals. I'm sure the plane looked like this somewhere in there, so the markings police be damned.

And speaking of Tomahawks, a nitpick. On the box, it says it is a model of a P40B-C "Warhawk". On the decal/painting guide, it is a P-40B "Kittyhawk". No where anywhere is it a "Tomahawk". Research, anyone? In the end, I'd say buy, build and enjoy.

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Oh, by the way...

Recently there was a thread on HyperScale's Plane Talking forum about Die-Casts being so good they were a threat to built models. Thanks to my buddy Steve Martens I have some pictures of a 1/72 Die Cast Tomahawk for comparison. We forgot who the manufacturer was but it was no doubt made in China. There are similarities, like panel lines and some shared parts. But overall it is a simplified version. The worst appearing part to me is the bottom half attachment to the fuselage. This has a big gap that wrecks the overall appearance. It has some good points, like the more delicate canopy, nice decals, and a beautiful camouflage job with soft edges any airbrusher would kill for. (how the heck do they mass produce that?) However it in no way comes close to what the average modeler can do with an average kit. I would say for the guy with no time who just likes to collect warplane replicas (our favorite stuff after all), they are darn good lookin things to have on the shelf. But we AMS types will go on slaving away, And LOVING IT.

The hobby is safe.

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2008 by Bill Kopos
Page Created 16 January, 2008
Last Updated 16 January, 2008

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