[Serpiko]

PROS
-Cheap
-Easy

CONS
-Low detail
-Inaccurate
-No painting references


THE PLANE

This kit represents one of the early Curtiss P-40s flown by the volunteers of the "Flying Tigers" group, who helped China standing against the Japanese invasion.
In particular, the plane is nr. 68 flown by Charles Older of the 3rd squadron "Hell's Angels", based at Kunming in the spring of 1942.



THE KIT

Looks like this is a pre-'90s kit (the instructions sheet says "Copyright 1987"). The little box contains four grey sprues plus one with the transparent parts, almost flash-free. Pieces immediately show a quite basic detail level: panel lines are "recessed", but in some places they are barely visible, and their pattern looks incomplete (i.e. the rear fuselage section is almost fully flat). Besides, there's no riveting at all, gear bay interiors are empty, gun shells exhausts are missing, and so on. Poor cockpit internals too, except for the gauges panel, that is adequately detailed. Anyway, open cockpit isn't an option, since the canopy is one-piece with the windshield and, even if you slice it off, it won't fit properly over the fuselage.
On the positive side, you get pieces for two complete gear sets, either in extended or retracted position. Optional parts include a pilot figure and either a droptank or a bomb.
Decals are for nr. 68 only, with very little stenciling besides the main insignas and arts.


BUILDING

This kit builds up pretty much the classic way. First you make the cockpit block and the propeller, then you put them between the two fuselage halves (don't forget the gauges panel and the radiator intake). Note that the upper air intake is closed, unless you cut it open. Wings are "classic", too, since you get both lower wing halves in a single piece and you need to add the two upper ones; this part goes pretty smooth. No particular problems with tailplans, either.
When it's time to join the fuselage and the wings, here come a few nuisances. The fitting is good enough at the front and on the sides (wing roots), but the rear edge of wings fails to snap in: apparently, the matching edge under the fuselage is about a mm too forward. A little slicing work can fix that but, despite this, a "step" will remain, requiring heavy puttying and sanding to fully flatten the surface.
Then, once the main body of the model is built, a relevant inaccuracy catches the eye: while the P-40 is supposed to have a neat positive wing dihedral (a.k.a. "wings are bent upwards"), this model has not. A front wiew clearly shows that the wings are almost parallel to the ground, more like a Hurricane than like a Tomahawk.



Luckily, this can be solved with little effort and some time. You simply need to literally bend the wings upwards and use some tape to stick them in that position by linking one tip to the other (the picture explains it all). Be careful not to stress the plastic too much! Instead, start with a moderate bending, waiting some time before increasing the tension. The wings should be left several hours "under stress" at about twice the desired angle so that, once released, they'll keep the correct dihedral.



As we've already seen, there are different pieces for either raised or lowered gear. No major adjustments are required here; I only dont' understand why you are requested to add the two rounded "tips" ahead of main gear roots. Couldn't they just be molded with the wings?!
The final bits are the canopy, the two side windows behind it and the two nose MGs, whose pieces are easy to be mistakenly placed upside-down.



Now, before talking about the loadout, I have to say that, by looking at the fully built model, something looks wrong. Even if you manage to correct the wrong wings dihedral, the completed kit will look MORE OR LESS like a Tomahawk, but FAR from accurate.
I compared a side view of the model with a screenshot of a P-40C in IL-2. Some differences are evident: the radiator is too slim, expecially its rear end; the windshield is too much "steep" and the canopy is too thin compared to the upper rear fuselage, the whole cockpit appears to be set slightly too backwards. The bomb/droptank rack is far behind its correct position, too: this, along with main gear legs being clearly shorter than they should be, actually creates a real "ground clearance" problem for the external loads, which are themselves even a little oversized! As you can see, there's barely room for the bomb, and just because I "pushed" it as close to the belly as possible!



PAINTING AND DECALS

Painting this model isn't difficult. The problem is, NO REFERENCE is provided!
The "painting reference" section on the instructions sheet consists in a roughly printed 4-side view of the plane... whose size is about 1/144 scale, without ANY indications about colors, just decals positions are reported. A line states: "refer to box top for additional paint and decal information". Yeah, sure... the box shows the main boxart (where only the nose is clearly visible) and a microscopic picture of a completed model on the side, and they're not even painted the same way! So I just used Light Green and Sand for the main camo, and was happy with that.
Decals are decent, but nothing more. It was quite a pain wo wrap the red line around the fuselage, since it is printed straight while it must be applied around a cone-shaped surface. It also broke while applying, but this wasn't a problem because, oddly, it is much longer than needed. "Shark mouth" decals don't fit with absolute accuracy, but at least they're not too difficult to apply.
Besides, in my decals sheet, the different color layers weren't perfectly aligned (see the "tiger" decal and wing roundels).



CONCLUSIONS

It is clear that, if you're looking for an accurate P-40B/C replica, you'd better look elsewhere. On the other hand, this kit is cheap, quite easy to build, and still better than many re-boxed "antiques". Good enough for beginners and/or kids: after all, a shark mouth is a shark mouth! :wink:

YELLOW light!

[Jambo]

Hi Serpiko,

it's amazing what you can do with a cheap model kit!

Very well done and very nice!

Jambo :wink:

[Deutschmark]

Once again nice review Serpiko and a good looking build as well.

Deutschmark

[Serpiko]

it's amazing what you can do with a cheap model kit!

You're too kind guys :oops: :roll:

Mossie coming next... :wink:

[LeBigTed]

Hi Serpiko !

Thanks for your nice review as always !

I definitely don't like Academy. I did a Tomacat some years ago, and F-117, nothing fitt, a lot of problems with decals...

Academy uses sprew of other kits edited before by other firms, so even if it is not a re-edited scale, you will have inaccurate model, with problems to fit the parts etc...

I don't know about the latest kits they edited but I wouldn't test it...

BTW, the last models I built are the HobbyBoss ones : some cool WWII planes (Me 163, He 162...), easy to build, well detailed

I hope you will have more fun with your Mossie Serpiko ;o)

Ted

[Serpiko]

Hi Serpiko !

Thanks for your nice review as always !

I definitely don't like Academy. I did a Tomacat some years ago, and F-117, nothing fitt, a lot of problems with decals...

Academy uses sprew of other kits edited before by other firms, so even if it is not a re-edited scale, you will have inaccurate model, with problems to fit the parts etc...

I don't know about the latest kits they edited but I wouldn't test it...

BTW, the last models I built are the HobbyBoss ones : some cool WWII planes (Me 163, He 162...), easy to build, well detailed

I hope you will have more fun with your Mossie Serpiko ;o)

Ted

I've experienced alternate luck with Academy models. Among those that I've built so far, none was total crap; although some are undoubtly better than others.

This P40B is one of the "worst", meaning "less good". But I really enjoyed others, like the Hurri mkIIC and Hellcat (see rewiews). In the "generic" section there's also a Zero I did (no review 'cause I was still a nOOb :roll: ), and that was good too.

I still have many Academy kits in my pile. We'll see how it goes! :wink: