Hasegawa
1/48 P-40E
Kit 09086 JT86:09086
The
overall zinc chromate green was applied and the instrument panel was
already been painted and decaled so there was just some detail painting
to do, PE belts
on the seat,
and sticking it all together. I did the instrument panel
differently on this one, instead of all decals I detail painted and drybrushed the lower half and
put the
decals on the top. I put Future over the decal section, and when
that was dry enough I painted around the dial faces with Matte Alclad
II Clear. A person
can do a lot
more with detailng these cockpits, but I find I seldom ever look there
again once the model is done. I did rub some SNJ aluminum powder into the
rudder foot
rails. The only part of the cockpit that gave me any hassle was
the tube frame that the seat runs on, it was fiddley to get in
place. I put the left side, back,
and floor
together, because I wanted the best fit there, and then the seat
assembly was installed. A little was removed from the bottom of
the seat frame before upper
ends
would seat properly. Putting the seat in before either side panel
will likely result in misaligned side panels. You could also
drill out the lowerseat frame holes
and
adjust it that way, not glueing the lower end until the side frames
were installed, that might be easiest. Then again, it might just
be me and my kit!