Reno Racer!!

I prefer the simplicity of this color scheme. With either light grey or light tan under belly.

Originally Posted by Razer8811

Diamond... Are we supposed to email the scheme in or post it here on the boards?

Email to support@diamondhobby.com
Subject P-40 Color Scheme

I have 30 suggestions as of this morning.

Just sent this one.

Mike

I have to have a Flying Tiger in my fleet and the 980mm won't work where I fly. Build one flying Tiger and one all green with no decals applied.

Originally Posted by mike2663

Just sent this one.

Mike

It needs to be a P-40B

Originally Posted by FieldofDreamsFlyer

It needs to be a P-40B

Agree. I see a lot of E's and N's.

Anybody know the answer to this:

To the P-40 knowledgeable people; were the P-40's in the Phillipines E models and not B's in 41 and early 42?

Originally Posted by GiusedtoBe

Agree. I see a lot of E's and N's.

Anybody know the answer to this:

To the P-40 knowledgeable people; were the P-40's in the Phillipines E models and not B's in 41 and early 42?

I have a special P-40 only issue of Flight Journal that has an article about the Phillipines raid and Clark Field and it states that both "B" and "E" models were present. One in-flight picture is of a few "B" models and the markings are very generic, star in a blue field with a red center and a white number on the nose, black letters one the wing bottom U.S. ARMY.. This is scant material, possible that more colorful ones existed and the web site with color profiles might show more.

Here's an interesting question. The underbelly drop tank was not introduced until the C model. So would this really be a C instead of a B?

Pat

Time to give British aviation some credit and some love <3

Originally Posted by crxmanpat

Here's an interesting question. The underbelly drop tank was not introduced until the C model. So would this really be a C instead of a B?

Pat

That's a good catch. The P-40C is basically a P-40B with a belly tank, and enlarged interior fuel tank, so they would look the same, but it would be a C model if you used the belly tank. From what I read, there were only 193 C models produced.

Originally Posted by crxmanpat

Here's an interesting question. The underbelly drop tank was not introduced until the C model. So would this really be a C instead of a B?

Pat

There is a possibility that some B models were field modified to take the external tanks. It was practice too with various kinds of bomb, rocket, and external wing fuel tanks. None of the pictures I have of the P-40s at Clark Field in the Phillipines have external tanks and are also referred to in the text as Bs.

Originally Posted by crxmanpat

Here's an interesting question. The underbelly drop tank was not introduced until the C model. So would this really be a C instead of a B?

Pat

That is a good catch and I would suggest to the FMS folks to market this model a a P-40B/C to cover what all it could represent.

For instance, in the book I have detailing production and the nitty figures shows that the Flying Tigers got Curtiss models H81- A2 and A3s which were Tomahawk IIBs, equivalent to P-40Cs. The figures state that there were 193 C models built and a total of 828 TomahawkIIBs for the British, from that order the 100 airplanes were diverted to the AVG.

I noted reading also that by March, '42, there were only 20 or so of the original order still combat worthy and thirty E models arrived that month as replacements to keep them effective.

I find it kind of amusing to see that people on this thread are picking up on details such as whether or not the P-40B had a drop tank and no one has mentioned anything about the people that are suggesting P-40E and P-40N color schemes for this model. There is quite a difference between a P-40B/C and all of the others.

SMRTIC -

Could be that for so long, P-40 versions kind of all got lumped together in the minds of many and now with the advent of the one coming from H-K, the small FMS, and now this one, it's showing.

I see it as 'coming out in the wash' eventually, just pass over it to sort itself out. I think there are more folks becoming acquainted with the various P-40s that passed over them in past years due to the airplane supposedly being "inferior" to the rest. Thing with that is, the industry was making advancements so rapidly that it was bound to push the earliest examples into a less worthy status but the comparisons were hastily applied. These early airplanes had some fine qualities that kept them effective throughout the war, though not with the glamor associated with the performance of the later piston engined types.