The Hamfisted Modeller: 1/48 Eduard Curtiss P-40N Warhawk - Gloria Lyons - No. 18 Sqn / 4 Servicing Unit Royal New Zealand Air Force

Depicted as P-40N Warhawk Gloria Lyons operated by No. 18 Sqn / 4 Servicing Unit Royal New Zealand Air Force from Torokina, Bougainville, Spring 1944.

NZ3220 was the third RNZAF P-40 to bear the name Gloria Lyons. Gloria was a young patient being treated for tuberculosis at a hospital in Christchurch who corresponded with two mechanics from No. 4 Servicing Unit RNZAF stationed in the Solomon Islands. They had the aircraft with code letter G named after her.

The aircraft, which survives today, is depicted here near at the end of its combat service before returning from Torokina to New Zealand. The bomb and kill markings are said to represent the number of missions flown by all aircraft marked Gloria Lyons

For more details on the Gloria Lyon's story check out these links

For photos of the NZ3220 as she was in 2023 check out my Flickr Album

Being the end of May and having only 2 completions under my belt for 2026 I decided a quick palate cleanser was in order. The newish Eduard P-40N seemed like a good choice as I'd enjoyed building 2 Eduard P-40E's last year. Plus it got a larger box out of my stash as I'd split the Royal boxing with a mate.

Although I'd built NZ3220 / Gloria Lyons using the Hasegawa kit in 2006 I'd long sold it on so I figured I'd build her again.

The Kit

1/48 P-40E Warhawk - Royal Class (Kit No. R0025)

Aftermarket

The Royal Class boxing came 3D printed extras which I used on this build. They were:

Squared topped Seats .
Wheels
Fishtail exhausts
HFM (my) Hydraulic Pipelines for the undercarriage legs (rather use the PE).

The Build

The kit built up pretty much as the 2 P-40E's I built last year . You can read about those here and here.

Remembering the slight issues with the rounded covers on the leading edge of the wings I spent a bit more time dry fitting and experimenting with the assembly sequence. This rewarded me with a trouble free fit here.

The cockpit fit seemed a bit more fiddly than I remembered from the previous builds. I ended up cutting of a cylindrical piece of detail on the sidewalls to get a better fit. I doubt this correct however.

Everything else went together with no real trouble.

Cockpit detail in this kit is excellent

Sub-assemblies ready fit

Painting

Base coat was Mr Color 12, lightened a bit with (something) to get the shade I like. AK real colour and Tamiya Khaki Drab were also used for to add some variation. All these were mixed together and with Tamiya Khaki to mix it up some more. These were sprayed various through splatter masks. I find this a good way to get variation and means that less weathering later on is needed.

For white I usually use SMS Insignia white, but because I'm using decals I used Tamiya flat White to make sure it's close to the decal colours

Topside base Colours

On the underside Mr Color neutral grey, lightened with white was the base colour and then to this was added other colours to get some differing shades

Underside Base Colours

Because Sprooby-doo Models is a huge fan of the P-40 with green splotches I had to paint these. I enlarged the instructions and cut masks with good old scissors. Mr Color 330 , as per the instructions was used, but this was one of my modified bottles which looked a little to green on the OD. To make sure Sprooby didn't bring up his lunch I added some mottling with thinned Mr Color OD via splatter masks to tone it down. Later on I'd regret this

Masking

Green Splotches I toned these down to much. And there is a white ID marking missing - Doh!

Decaling

I used the Eduard decals from the kit . Some people hate then, some love them. I was a bit war of these when they first came out but they have improved over time. And the more I've used them the more I like them so I'm now firmly in the love them camp.

I applied decals using Mr Mark Setter underneath with a couple of applications of Daco strong over the top.

After leaving overnight I softened the carrier film with a liberal amount of artist odourless thinners then after leaving for a couple of minutes used a wooden stemmed sharpish cotton bud to start working on the carrier film on the edge of the decal. Once I had enough raised I grabbed it with the tweezers and peeled it off.

Decals down, film off

I did lose a small bit on the left wing adjacent to gun bay hinge. I trimmed the excess film and re-applied the torn bit. The next day I removed the film and the decal remained - Result!

Even the film over the stencils, which in the past I've found iffy, came off easily.

There were a couple of issues of course. After all look who's building this. Firstly the white bars on the decals on the wings sadly aren't dense enough to hide the white painted markings.

The white on the decal bars are a little translucent

Secondly, and this is something that goes back to even those decals where you couldn't remove the carrier film, is their printing of red test. On small stencils at least, they appear to always print it over a white. And it is always out of register. Thankfully the red stencils on this build are few so I just weathered over them.

Decals - See the registration on that red text. - a perennial Eduard issue

Oh, when applying the decals I realised I missed one of the white stripes on the fuselage... Typical HFM balls-up.

Weathering and Finishing

To fix the white markings showing though the white decal bars by using a White AK marker pen to coat over the decal. The advantage of this is that I don't have to mask over the decal. I just colour it in . I do love craft 😃

The initial washes, before and after decaling, were ABT502 Sepia but this got killed in a later steps with the Mr Weathering Color.

Weathering is done primarily with Mr Weather Color Sundy (not sandy?) wash which sot of killed the finish. I had done this over a Flatter coat than I had intended so there was no way I as getting it off. Oh well just crack on.

I flicked a bit of Mr Color Weathering Wash Stain Brown, Shade Brown and Matt Umber around to try and add some tonal variation. Not sure I pulled it off.

Yellow (zinc Chromate) chipping was first done with a sponge and Vallejo Dark Yellow paint. Then I used a AK Yellow pencil for more. Silver chipping is a Prismacolor pencil.

The green splotches virtually disappeared, some green coloured pencils, moistened with water were used to try and add some life to them. It was partially, at best, successful.

Topside Weathering

Topside - AK Markers for the win here

Topside Weathering - Where's Sprooby's green splotches?

Stains on the bottom were done with ABT 502 Sepia and some random grey oil paint.

You can see my 3D printed Hydraulic Lines

Underside Weathering

Antenna wire is Infini rigging thread with Vallejo paint for the insulators. And with that it was done.

Conclusion

The build took just under 4 weeks from start to finish so it meets my palate cleanser requirement. My conclusions from the P-40Es build are unchanged. The P-40's are still the best Eduard kits I've built.

The only thing that definitely (IMHO) needs replacing are the kits plastic exhausts. Both the tubular and fishtail ones aren't great. The resin seat is a nice extra but I could live with the kit seat and PE belts if I had to. Same with the wheels, nice to have but not essential.