P-40 Lineage in 1/32 Scale

By James Merrigan

This is an export version of the Curtiss P-36 in French markings. The model required quite a bit of modifying The new radial engined nose was fabricated out of wood, plastic and spackling compound from the firewall forward, the canopy and landing gear had to be modified. A second cartridge box was added.

This is the Curtiss P-37. The model features a hand carved wooden nose with additional scoops and super charger. The canopy is from a 1/40th? scale Revell snap together P-51. On the bottom of the plane, you can see the super charger.

This is a P-40C, the model required a new nose and modified canopy, actually the fuselage from the firewall forward was changed.

This model is the stock Revell P-40E I built in two versions; the Flying Tiger version was the first 1/32nd scale model I built over 35 years ago. Some time later, I built the 14th Air Force version. Both models are straight out of the box.

This airplane actually reached the mockup stage as proved by a photograph on page 495 of Peter M. Bowers' book "Curtiss Aircraft 1907-1947". A friend who knows of my interest in strange aircraft gave me a set of general arrangement drawings for the twin engined fighter. A new nose and the huge nacelles had to be carved and added.

This is the P-40Q. The model fuselage was radically modified: the forward fuselage was elongated and the radiator was reshaped, the rear turtleback was removed and the rear fuselage was reworked to move the horizontal tail forward, the wings were clipped and P-51 wing tips added. A four bladed prop, bubble canopy and whip antenna were added to complete the conversion.

© James Merrigan 2003

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This article was published on Friday, September 27 2013; Last modified on Saturday, May 14 2016