1/144 AFV P-40 Warhawk and 

1/144 SWEET A6M5 Type 52C Zero

Gallery Article by S K Loh on Jan 18 2017

 

      

Dec 7 2016 marked the 75th Anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack that took place on 7 December 1941. I thought it would be befitting to build something to commemorate the event. I did quite a search on the Pearl Harbor attack. I decided to build a P-40B Warhawk flown by Lt Kenneth Taylor one of the two USAAF heroes of the attack and a A6M3 Type 21 Zero flown by Lt Comdr Shigeru Itaya, who led the first wave attack on Pearl Harbor from the carrier Akagi.  

I managed to get the Taiwanese AFV 1/144 P-40 kit from the local hobby shop. Although there were two kits available, the P-40B/C kit and P-40M kit, I decided on the P-40M kit for my build as it came with retracted main wheel for inflight build. I just had to make the necessary modifications to make it look close to a P-40B variant.  

I was not able to find any 1/144 A6M2 Type 21 kit from the local hobby shop. I chance upon a Japanese SWEET 1/144 A6M5 Type 52C kit from a local hobby shop in Japan when I took a short holiday there. Took the chance with the thought that I might have to do quite some modification to convert it to Type 21 for the Pearl Harbor build.

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Building the AFV P-40 kit was pretty straight forward. Panel lines were crisp. I scratch-built a seat and a added a pilot figure and had the cockpit interior painted interior green shade. I then removed the 3 machine guns on each wing and put in place two per wing as per the P-40B variant. I had to reshape the nose and added the two dorsal nose-mounted machine guns as well. The tail wheel which was molded to the fuselage was removed and closed up with plastic strip. The air scoop for the radiator had to be reshaped and splitter fins added to the intake. I further added in the drop tank braces using stretched sprue. 

The propeller spinner was not rotatable as it is fixed onto a stub which is integral to the main body. I had the stub removed and drilled a 0.9mm hole on the main body. Corresponding I drilled a 0.9mm hole on the spinner and added a 0.9mm stub from a plastic strip and added a stopper to the end of the stub to facilitate the spinning. Aerial cables were then added.

I custom made the decals to depict the marking for the P-40B flown by LT Kenneth Taylor. 

I airbrushed the upper surface with a greener shade of olive drab using a mix of Tamiya basic colours. The lower surfaces were painted medium gray using mix of Tamiya basic colours. Two gloss coats of thinned Future were airbrushed on to level off the DIYed decals with sufficient curing time given. Moderate weathering was applied and followed up with two coats of Mr Hobby flat coat. 

I shall dispense with the details of the SWEET kit as it is known for its fine details that allow an easy build. Fortunately the A6M5 Type 52C kit included an engine cowling for the Type 21 that I could use to convert it to a Type 21. I only had to full up the mounting recess for the machine guns used for the Type52C and drill out the gun ports as per the Type 21. I only need to add an pilot figure as the cockpit details were good enough for me. To enhance its look, I added the pitot tube on the portside wing and the aileron balance on the underside of each wing which were missing. The tail hook was missing with only a recess visible. I used a stretched sprue to depict the arrestor hook for carrier based fighters. The tail wheel which was molded on was removed for my inflight build. 

I custom made the decals to depict the Zero Type 21 flown by LT Comd Shigeru Itaya. Incidentally both aircraft bore the same aircraft number “155”.

I mix my shade of the light gray green used on the Zero fighter using Mr Hobby and Tamiya basic colours. I applied two thinned coats of Future to level off the DIYed decals. Heavy weathering was applied as these Zero fighter had been out at sea for some time. Two coats of My Hobby flat were finally airbrushed on.

I created a simple display base for the two kits to capture that fateful event. 

Here’s a salute to those brave young men and women who showed their valence and even gave their lives in the stoic defence of peace and freedom on that morning of 7 December 1941. 

Overall I was satisfied with the outcome of the build. I created a simple display base for the two kits to capture that fateful event.

Here’s a salute to those brave young men and women who perished as well as those who recovered fast from the surprise attack and showed their valour and even gave their lives in the stoic defence of peace and freedom on that morning of 7 December 1941. 

S K Loh

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Photos and text © by S K Loh