| Colonel Robert L. Scott’s P-40E “Flying Tiger”; Part Four by Rodney Williams |
| These photos are all I had of the underbelly cowl flaps. What size were they? I used the kit cowl flaps as my guide, and it was the same old “bullshit.” CUT AND FIT, UNTIL IT FIT, AND IT LOOKED RIGHT. I have enclosed a rough drawing of some parts, and you will note there are some measurements written in “RED.” I think they are the final measurements for the parts. I made that little “A” Bracket , as I call it 3 times. The first one was way to big, so it was reduced by 50%, which was too darn small. The third one was made about 1/2 way between both of these. You will note that the final “A” frame piece is made using my “pin-hinge” system. They needed to move up and down, so I could install the cowl flaps, then align up everything correct. I love to say this: When it was finished, it looked like the flaps on the real aircraft. Sad to say, but this drawing, along with several others, were never finished, thanks to the IPMS/USA Journal editor, David Von Almens “refusing” to print my first eight drawings, which you have reviewed in Part One. |
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| When it comes to building the water and oil coolers, including the air scoop intake, and exhaust system, I saw no way of doing it, using the two half sections of the fuselage. Again, I put my “p, c.” to work, the one behind my eyeballs, called the brain. I clicked on “think”, and here is the end results of a few hundred hours of labor. I always use two kits to build my models, so I glued the front sections on one kit together, and then cut it off the rest of the fuselage. I cut the top half section loose on a horizontal line in two places. Now I can build in the air scoop, the exhaust stacks, and the rather complicated oil and water radiators in the one piece bottom section. |
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| As mentioned in Part One, all I had was the “cut-a-way” drawing to use as my guide for the coolers. As I look back on this model, and if I built another one today, I would not change a thing, as to how I went about building all these parts into this model. I was not going to use the engine at all, but found out that when you look up inside the model, when the cowl flaps are down, you can see part of the engine. I justslapped the engine together, and painted the sides and oil pan. I made a “master” exhaust stack, then had Roy Sutherland, |
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| This other odd looking lower fuselage section was removed from the bottom of the wing. I added white styrene stock to the front and sides, then trimmed it to shape. I have no idea what this somewhat pointed item is, that extends inside the cowl flap area, but it looks like the real thing. |
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| It’s real easy to make round holes using my method. In this case, I used copper tubing, but you can use brass and aluminum. I lightly coat it with “3 & 1” oil, and/or household vaseline. Just put it in the oversized hole, add a tiny bit of thick super glue, and align the tube before the glue sets. After it sets, add more thick and thin superglue. Let it dry for a day or more, then take some pliers, and get a good grip on the tube, and turn it. It will break the bond, then carefully twist the tube, while pulling out on it. It will come out of the hole. |
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| I made the running lights using clear acrylic rod. I chucked them into a pin vise, then cut and sanded then to size. They were polished, and dipped into Tamiya’s clear colors several times. I used plain white bar stock for the white lights on the fin. Once sanded down to #2000, and polished, I dipped them into future floor wax several times. They do look real. On the restored P-40E, the owner added some additional antennas to |
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| Go to part five |
| © Rodney Williams 2002 |
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