Pros

• Finely detailed

• Good interior

Cons

• Ventilation hole in wing root missing

• Canopy is wrong in shape and framing. It is too high and the windscreen angle is too vertical when viewed from the side. I used the Airfix canopy: the framing is also wrong but the windshield angle is right.

• Fuselage is too high behind the canopy.

• RAF pitot has to be scratched (crank type)

In hindsight, if you're willing to add an aftermarket interior, the Hasegawa P-40's look to be more accurate.

Click here for the SMAKR review of this kit

P-40E (Airfix)

Pros

• Pilot figure

• Accurate shape

• Good canopy

• Cheap (under 5 USD)

• Markings for 112 Squadron (Egypt 1942) and 77 Squadron RAAF (Australia 1942)

• Cons

• raised panel lines

• Studded with rivets

The kit is completely outclassed by more modern offerings. I bought it for the pilot and the desert sharkmouth RAF markings. GA-Y was flown by Clive Caldwell. (You can also build his P-40C, Spitfire Vc, and Spitfire VIII). The accurate canopy was a pleasant surprise when I encountered issues with the Academy kit.

The RAAF 77 Squadron machine flown by Dick Cresswell is also depicted by Academy. It sports a beautiful 4 flag marking on the port side of the nose, which is poorly rendered in decal form (kit decals have hard colors and fall down on shaded markings). Follow this link for an analysis of the markings of this plane on Hyperscale. Both Airfix and Academy have missed the squadron leader flag on the starboard side. I sure hope PynUp do a 1/72 version of their 1/48 sheet.

Click here for a more complete SMAKR review of this kit

P-40F/L (MPM)

This is an early MPM production. I stumbled upon it by chance in an store. I didn't even know they had one. The kit is typical short run with thick details and tree-sized sprues. It seems accurate though. This link shows that you could easily marry the typical Merlin engine front to a standard P-40N from Academy or Hasegawa. Marking are for an F during Operation Torch and a L in 1943.

P-40N (Hasegawa)

Despite the bare interior I find the Hasegawa P-40's more accurate than the more recent Academy models. My main gripe with this kit is the cream colored US markings. I suppose Hasegawa's way to prevent decal yellowing is to provide them already yellowed.

• http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com/Gal2/1601-1700/Gal1607_P-39_Bahr/gal1607.htm

• http://www.geocities.com/cewentzel/Airacobra.html

• http://web.ukonline.co.uk/jonathan.mock/iac/reviews/p39.html

• http://vvs.hobbyvista.com/Modeling/Bell/P-39/Academy/Grinberg/index.php

• http://modelingmadness.com/scotts/allies/us/p39q.htm

Very good level of detail but some major shape flaws. Not worth the price/effort of correcting (wings, tail, engine...)

Pros

• Good cockpit

• Cheap and easy to find

Cons

• Wings are too narrow by a couple mm

• Tail is too narrow. Fin is missing 3mm in height.

• Engine too small and low on details

• Guns line up with wing. They should be horizontal, in a line parallel to the ground. Cut them off, drill new holes, add new gun tubes form plastic rod. The originals are much too thick anyway.

• Undersize details (vents, exhausts, etc)

• Misplaced panel lines

• Stiff decals (half a bottle of micro-sol needed to get the checkerboards to settle)

P-47D Bubbletop (Academy)

Same as above with new fuselage. The transparent canopy has incorrect framing. It should be deeper around the middle part of the canopy.

Superseded by Tamiya kits

P-47D Bubbletop (Revell)

This kit has received rave reviews but I find it as bad or worse than the Academy kits.

Pros

• Very good level of detail (engine and cockpit)

• includes dorsal strake for D30 and later versions

Cons

• Too long by 4mm (just forward of the tailwheel door, according to my reference drawings)

• Belly too deep by 3mm just forward of the wing.

• Shape flaws very hard to correct

• WingMasters reports that the French decals are incorrect, the roundels and rudder tricolor being too small

P-47D Bubbletop (Tamiya)

I couldn't resist buying the Tamiya Thunderbolt to act as judge between Revell and Academy. The verdict is in: if Tamiya is reckoned to be accurate, then Academy is a close second. The two kits match well, wing and fuselage, with Tamiya having a better larger rudder.

="

VF-17 on the USS Hornet

This is a pretty good kit of the Hellcat with some correctable flaws.

Pros

• Choice of bombs and rockets

• Correct outline

Cons

• Tricolor lights missing on fuselage bottom

• Most plans show the engine clearly tilted towards the bottom in side views. The kit engine does not.

The 4 kits have obviously been designed together as a lot of the sprues are shared. Unfortunately Italeri has made a mess of it as indicated in the table below:

Other comments

• All late corsairs have 4 blade Hamilton paddle props. The ones in the kit are too skinny. Use spare ones (from P47) or buy Aeroclub spares if you care.

• The new wings on the -5 and later have single blue landing lights on each wing, instead of the earlier tricolor.

• The exhausts look funny on all kits. I left them off my F4U-7 as they protruded too much. The kits all show closed cowling vents so the exhausts should be almost flush.

• The canopies are very thick: they have a magnifying glass effect.

• The engraving is a bit on the thick side. It's OK after painting.

• Color scheme is Glossy sea blue for everyone! I sprayed a coat of flat to tone down the sheen. They look like toys otherwise at this scale.
  Argentinean F4U-5s were gray and white in the early 60's.

• If you include a pilot for a Korean war or later period, make sure he has a crash helmet, not the WWII leather or cloth types!

• There is conflicting doc on whether the F4U7 had the lengthened fuselage. It looks from photos that they had but Detail and Scale claims the contrary.

References

• F4U Corsair In Detail & Scale Part 2 (ssp8256): great references series, a boon or a bane for the modeler as no model can live up to the close-up they provide.