Trumpeter Curtiss P-40B
Reviewed by Brad Hagen
Photos by: Raymond Chung, Vernon Rabbetts, Scott Murphy, Buz Busby

Development history of the early P-40’s

Curtiss knew that their radial engined P-36 couldn’t be developed any
more, so to increase its life they decided in July 1937 to install an
Allison V-1710 inline engine with integral supercharging. Curtiss gave
it the designation of Model 75P and the USAAC gave it the designation
of XP-40.

In order to adapt the liquid cooled Allison, a considerable amount
of replumbing needed to be done. The carburetor intake for the single
stage supercharger was installed on top of the nose between the nose
guns, the oil cooler was mounted under the nose, and the radiator was
located under the fuselage just aft of the wing.

The XP-40 flew for the first time on October 14, 1938, the early flight
trials were disappointing and the radiator was gradually moved forward
until it reached its final location. The new radiator intake was designed
to include both the oil cooler and the two coolers for the ethylene/glycol
engine coolant.

On January 25th, 1939 the manufacturers were invited to submit proposals
for a new pursuit aircraft, Curtiss submitted their XP-40 and were up
again such planes as the XP-39, the XP-43, and the XP-38. Even though
the XP-40 couldn’t match the performance of some of the other types,
it was chosen because it was based on already proven airframe, it was
less expensive, and could reach production in quantity at least a year
ahead of the others so on April 26, 1939, the Army ordered 524 production
versions under the designation P-40 (Curtiss Model 81).

The P-40 was armed with two .50 machine guns in the nose and one .30
machine gun in each wing. Flush riveting was used to reduce drag. Since
the P-40 lacked armor for the pilot, self sealing fuel tanks, and a
bulletproof windshield, it was not considered suitable for combat and
was pulled from combat duty on October 22, 1942.

There was no P-40A, although one aircraft was later given that designation
when it was converted to a photo reconnaissance plane at Bolling Field
in March, 1942.

In September, 1940, 131 P-40B’s (Model H81-B) were ordered by the Army
and the first P-40B flew on March 31, 1941. This model received an additional
.30 machine gun in each wing, armor plating, and externally covered
self sealing fuel tanks. The British ordered 110 for the RAF and they
went under the designation Tomahawk IIA (Model H81-A2).

The P-40C (Model H81-B) first flew on April 10, 1941 and there were
193 built. It received improved self sealing fuel tanks as well as a
52 gallon drop tank. The British ordered 930 and designated this version
Tomahawk IIB (Model H81-A2) and they replaced the wing guns with four
0.303 Browning machine guns. The IIA had British radio’s installed,
the IIB had US radios. 23 of the IIB’s went to the Soviet Union, and
an unknown number went to Turkey and Egypt, 100 went to China, the rest
were used heavily by the RAF and South African Air Force in the North
African theatre where the 112 squadron of the RAF with its shark mouth
insignia became famous.

The Flying Tigers gave the P-40 everlasting fame, but there has been
a lot of confusion as to whether they used the P-40B or P-40C. It turns
out that when the British deferred part of their order for the P-40C,
Curtiss received the order for 100 planes from the Chinese and they
had a number of the P-40B self sealing fuel tanks left over which they
installed. Since the Chinese order didn’t specify drop tanks, they were
left off. Even though they were technically P-40C’s, they were actually
closer to P-40B’s in how they were equipped.

Introduction

Christmas came early for me when I received the new Trumpeter 1/32
scale P-40B to review. Our Associate Editor Vernon Rabbetts received
the kit from William Wang, the president of Trumpeter and he took it
over to Raymond Chung at Lucky Model to photograph and then willingly??
(I’m still trying to figure out the deep finger indentations in the
box!!) let Raymond and Sylvia Lo send it off to me which they did by
air mail and I received it very fast, thanks guys!!

The kit comes in the typical very sturdy Trumpeter box with artwork
of a British P-40B flying over the White Cliffs of Dover. Upon opening
the box you find it packed full of six sprues of light gray plastic,
one clear plastic sprue, decals, each of these is in its own separate
bag to minimize scratching, and in another bag is a sheet of photo etch,
acetate instruments, and a hinge for the rudder. There is a 12 page
construction book. I didn’t see any flash and very few injector marks,
and those that were there would either be easy to take care of or wouldn’t
bother, and I didn’t find any sink holes.

I compared the kit to the best P-40B drawings I could find which were
from the In Action book and it matched the drawings, I also compared
the 1/48 Monogram P-40B to the same drawings as the kit is known for
its accurate outline and it also matched the drawings. If someone knows
of better P-40B drawings, I would love to get a scan of them or information
on where to buy them. According to Janes Fighting Aircraft of WWII the
following applies:
Length: 9.66 Meters – Trumpeter is: 9.664 mm
Wingspan: 11.37 Meters – Trumpeter is: 11.36 mm
This means that if a real P-40B was reduced down, Trumpeter would be
off by 0.125 of a millimeter in length and 0.355 of a millimeter in
wingspan. That’s about his close as you can get! Now on to the details
of this kit…

Engine

The Allison V-1710 in this kit looks to be like a little jewel of its
own, it is easily the most detailed Allison I have seen yet. Instead
of just having all the detail molded on, it is made up of a good number
of parts, the cooling pipes and wiring harnesses are all separate parts.
Each exhaust pipe is a separate piece and each pipe is made up of two
pieces and when glued together the pipes have a hollowed out look. The
oil cooler and the two coolers for the ethylene/glycol engine coolant
is made up of a number of pieces including photo etch screens for the
front for a more realistic look and mounts underneath the engine in
the middle. The front air intake has the air ducts going back to each
cooler, but it will be very hard to see anything through it. The engine
attaches to the firewall which attaches to the cockpit making it one
large piece. There are no clear pieces for the cowling in this kit,
I am wondering how much of the engine will be visible when the model
is finished, I will cover this more when I get to the fuselage.

Cockpit

The cockpit is a mixture of good and not quite so good. The instrument
panel is clear and uses Trumpeter’s usual sandwich method with acetate
instruments, the instrument panel looks to be pretty accurate. The rudder
pedals connect to the instrument panel and look to be an accurate representation.

The floor is completely flat in the kit while on the real P-40, the
floor had a slight downwards slope going towards the rear of the cockpit
because the floor was the wing. This really isn’t much of an issue as
in 1/32 scale, you really wouldn’t notice it and most of the slope would
be underneath the seat area.

The sidewalls are separate items from the cockpit which will make things
easier if an aftermarket company makes a cockpit or if you want to scratch
build one. The kit sidewalls look to be an adequate representation of
the P-40B sidewalls except it doesn’t look like they got the map case
right, although it will be easy to cut out to cover for the map case
out of plastic or brass and add it. There are a number of items to add
to them which will change their look, but I looked at the sidewalls
and put them underneath the parts of the trees where they would go on
the sidewalls, they look like they will be good OOB once you fix the
map case. Add some detailing and it will really stand out as the real
P-40B had a sparse cockpit (remember it was inherited from the P-36
giving it mid-30s technology).

The
seat has an accurate framework behind it, but the seat just does not
look right. I can’t quite put my finger on it and I don’t have the measurements
for the real seat, but it either looks to small or to short, part of
the problem is it has what looks like (if it was the real seat) a rod
welded all around the outside of the seat and that may be part of the
problem. I might try sanding off the rod around the outside of the seat,
but it might be easier to use Rogerio “Rato” Marczak brass
technique in which he built a seat for his Scratchbuilders P-40B
conversion. There are photo etch buckles, the four belts are printed
on the instructions for you to cut out, but the instruction paper seems
a little too stiff for that and most will use their favorite material.
Here are some photos of a restored P-40B cockpit, the seat is not close
to original.

The cutouts behind the cockpit are separate pieces for each side. The
instructions say to paint them Interior Green, but from the research
and color photos I have seen it looks like they were painted whatever
the camouflage color was then the glass was installed, when the British
repainted them in the field, they didn’t remove the glass so the area
behind the glass stay the original camouflage color.

Fuselage

The fuselage is really good, there are a couple minor issues that should
be very easy to fix, there is one problem that will be somewhat noticeable
and harder to fix. The fuselage has fine recessed panel lines with light
rivet detail which is good because the real P-40 had flush rivets, looking
at these two photos of a restored P-40B show that very close up, you
can see the rivet detail, but stand back a little ways and the rivet
detail disappears, I also noticed that on the real P-40’s I have seen.

The fin and stabilizers look like Rosie the Riveter had a bad hair
day, it’s not that the rivets are too deep, there are just WAY too many
of them. What I will do is tape off the rivets along the panel lines
and fill in the remaining rivets with filler or primer and sand it smooth
to give it a uniform look with the fuselage and wings.

On the port side of the fuselage is a hand hold and baggage door, instead
of having them as recessed panel lines, they are raised. The hand hold
will be easy to scribe around and gently sand off, the baggage door
will be a lot harder to fix. The only options I can think of (other
than leaving as is) is scribing around it, sanding it flush and replacing
the rivet detail and the handle, or opening the baggage door and building
the compartment inside. This was the biggest error I could find on the
kit.

The rudder is the only movable part of the kit, other reviews and build
articles of Trumpeter’s kit’s have questioned the longevity of these
parts and most suggested gluing them in place. The rudder hinge looks
like it will be fairly sturdy, but only time will tell and you may want
to glue it in place also. Trumpeter must have been listening because
all the other parts are fixed in place, but they give you a choice of
which position to install them. The fabric detail on all of the parts
is a little overdone, but is not grossly exaggerated like some older
kit’s. It isn’t so much that there is sag between the ribs, as the fabric
is recessed, but they do show off the framework of all of the fabric
parts very well. I have read other reviews where the reviewer’s suggested
a light sanding, that might work here are also, I haven’t decided if
I will do that or not. The actuating rod for the rudder trim tab is
a separate piece.

Moving on to the nose of the plane, the cowling on top of the plane
back to the firewall is one piece and removable, the part behind the
cowl over the cockpit has the .50 machine guns attached, it’s not clear
in the instructions if that is to be left removable, the guns are just
glued into holes and the guns aren’t overly detailed, if left removable
it would give a lot of area to super detail. The barrel extensions are
actually hollowed out which is a very nice touch. The backplate is installed
inside the nose of the fuselage. The spinner has a plate installed halfway
into the spinner just like the real P-40, then the propeller is installed
and then a plug to hold it all in place. The instructions are not clear
as to what is to be glued and what should not be glued, I won’t know
until I build the kit and get to that point whether those parts will
hold the lower air intake in place. If it does that will be really nice
as you will be able to disassemble the nose and see the majority of
the detail on the engine, if you can’t and can only remove the top of
the cowl, a lot of the lower detail of the engine area will be lost.
If you can remove it, detailing the inside of the cowl area will make
a show stopper. A number of modelers have said they would prefer not
to have the clear pieces for the nose, but with the cowl panel arrangement
on the P-40, it would have been a nice touch to show off all the detail.

There are clear parts for the navigation lights for the sides of the
fuselage and the fin. The guns sights on top of the cowl are too plastic
pieces, you also have the option to use a photo etch piece for the rear
ring sight.

While this kit is a P-40B, all that is needed to convert it to a P-40C
is a 50 gallon drop tank and the shackles to hold it, hopefully an aftermarket
company will come forward for this.

Wings

The wings are nicely detailed with fine recessed panel lines and subtle
rivets. The flap detail is very good, but there are injector marks between
a number of the flap ribs, but all of them on my kit were recessed which
will make them a lot easier to fill (if you want to show your P-40 with
the flaps down, they were rarely parked that way unless undergoing maintenance)
then it would be to sand off raised injector marks. You need to choose
whether you want the flaps in the raised or lowered position when you
get to that stage in building to make it easy for you to get the flaps
in the correct position if you want them lowered, they have tabs on
the flaps that will make that simple, if you want them raised, you just
remove the tabs and glue them in position. The area between the flap
and the aileron on the lower wing half has a very narrow separation
piece, take good care not to break it off as it looks very fragile.
That is not a problem of molding, but the level of detail in the wings.

The wheel well detail for the most part is very good, considering the
P-40 had a simple wheel well, putting it simply, once the wing was sheeted,
a hole was cut in the wing for the tire to fit, the landing gear laid
against the skin of the wing and the faring covered the landing gear
leg. The top of the wing has the stringers molded in and then you have
the pieces to make the box inside the wing. From the factory they came
with a canvas cover that fit inside the wheel well, they didn’t last
long once in the field as they became a maintenance nightmare. Inside
the faring for the landing gear leg there should be rows of heavy rivets,
but the model doesn’t have any, they will be easy to add using a pin
and some white glue if you want to go to that detail level. The landing
gear covers on the faring have good detail on the outside, but not any
detail on the inside.

The .30 machine guns are OK in detail, but there are no open panels
to display them, so all you will see is the last half of the barrel.
The wings have clear pieces for the navigation lights which will make
it easy to paint them a clear color.

Landing gear

The
landing gear is excellent! The main gear is very nicely detailed, the
supporting struts and both gears are separate pieces, the gears have
one fully round gear and one partial gear which when added will really
make the landing gear looked realistic. I have only seen photos of the
tail gear, but the kit gear looks very good and better than a lot of
tail gears I have seen in other models.

The tires in this kit are plastic, no rubber tires here, again, Trumpeter
must be listening as a lot of modelers have requested plastic tires.
They give a good representation of the smooth tread that the P-40’s
used on their tires until at least well into 1943. The outside hub which
is smooth and the brakes are separate pieces and very well molded.

Clear parts

Other than the clear parts I have indicated above, the clear parts
also include the two pieces for behind the cockpit, the port side has
the two holes in them for the fuel and oil fillers, the canopy, the
windscreen, and the bulletproof glass. The bulletproof glass attaches
to mounts on the windscreen and looks like a gigantic HUD. The clear
parts are very thin, very clear, and the framing is nicely subtle. I
held the clear parts up to the light to see if I could see any of the
little cracks that people have noticed (I have a small one in my F-105D)
but I didn’t see any in these pieces. There is a very fine mold line
down the center from top to bottom on the windscreen (it’s even shown
on the instructions).

Photo etch and small parts

Here
is the small metal rod for the rudder, the acetate instruments, and
the photo etch sheet that includes the cooling grills, gun site, buckles,
the hinge for the rudder, the flat plates at the top are for the flap
area.

Decals

The
box states the markings are for the British 26th Squadron and the American
markings are for the 18th PG at Pearl Harbor. Vernon told me that the
British markings aren’t completely accurate, the codes for the sides
of the fuselage should be mid grey, the tail band should be sky blue,
they are white on the decal sheet. The paint call outs are Testors MM
and Gunze Sangyo and call for grey on the bottom of the aircraft which
should be sky blue and the spinner should also be sky blue.

From my research I don’t believe the American markings are correct.
They show the red circle in the white star on the blue circle which
is correct for that time period, but they have the markings on each
side of the fuselage, lower port wing and upper starboard wing, there
shouldn’t be markings on the fuselage but there should be markings on
both the top and bottom of the wings like in this photo.

This could be accurate for a later date when they used to P-40B’s for
training. Hopefully the aftermarket companies will come out with a number
of markings as there were some colorful P-40B’s. Here are a couple profiles
by Vernon Rabbetts as an example:

Conclusion

While I pointed out an area that would be hard to fix, the decals are
a letdown and I did a bunch of nit-picking, I really like the kit a
lot and the good points WAY out do the bad points and I would recommend
this kit to anyone. It is the first 1/32 injected P-40 since Revell
released theirs in the late ’60s, it’s been a long wait, but it was
worth it because this really is a great kit. I had just started to scratch
build a J-3 Cub, but after looking this kit over, everything else got
pushed off and this is on my building table. This is also one of the
very few kits I would ever build more than one of, I like it that much.

I would like to thank Trumpeter
for the sample kit and for Raymond and Sylvia of Lucky
Model for getting it to me so fast, three days from Hong Kong
to Minnesota. Also thanks to Scott Murphy for his use of the restored
P-40B photos (his
website), and Buz Busby for his original photos.

© Brad Hagen 2003