Like most of us modelers, we rushed out to see the movie "Pearl Harbor", then spent a couple of weeks moaning about the inaccuracies. My nine-year-old son saw it as as plainly a "cool movie" (don't worry, I took him out for popcorn during the "parachute hangar" scene!). He asked a lot of questions about the history of the event, and we spent a couple of hours talking about that fateful day. A couple of days later we were cruising the hobby shop, when he excitedly pointed out the 1/48th Hobbycraft "Pearl Harbor Defender" P-40B. He asked that I build it for him, so off I went - an armor guy building an aircraft! I did some research on the P-40B, but couldn't come up with much, so I did some creative guess-work. For example, there was much disagreement in the documentation (both on-line, and hardcopy) about interior and undercarriage colors. There was also some griping about the kit's outline accuracy, dimensions, etc. - but what do I know, I'm just a dumb tread-head. Armed with a little knowledge (and we know how dangerous that can be!), and my nine-year-old's enthusiasm, we started on "our" kit. I tried to stick to some simple detailing, to try to keep this project manageable, but of course, that's how we ALWAYS start. But this time, my only foray into the aftermarket was True Details (TD) P-40 interior. This set is designed for the Mauve P-40 kits, but I figured, for $3.00, what the heck! I'm not sure if the cockpit details are 100% accurate for a -B model, but it sure beat the molded-on details provided in the kit. If nothing else, get the True Details set for the seat alone! I started construction by filing and scraping away the kit's interior crossmembers and "boxology". The True Details rear cockpit wall wouldn't fit, and the kit's rear wall (part C25) has a large hole molded in. I'm not sure how accurate the large gaping wound is, as I couldn't find mention of it in any references. So, using the kit part, I used it to trace a solid rear wall from sheet styrene. I installed my improved rear wall first, as a gauge to see how the True Details cockpit sides would fit. After letting the rear wall dry in place, I dry-fit the TD cockpit sides. The cockpit sides fit without any alteration, except they wouldn't exactly match the fuselage contours. This left a sizeable gap at the top of the cockpit walls, which I filled in with styrene strip. I also added some strip styrene to the back of the TD pilot's seat, to simulate the seat mounting mechanism. Next, I tried the TD cockpit floor. It was a little too wide for the Hobbycraft kit, but with a little saw and file work, I got the floor to fit. I attached part of the kit's control stick (C30) and radiator handle (C29) to the TD cockpit floor, as the TD set recommends using the appropriate Mauve parts. I discarded the TD rudder pedal bulkhead, as I couldn't get it to fit the outline of the Hobbycraft fuselage. Now that most of the interior work was done, I proceeded to paint it. As I noted before, there was much disagreement about the interior colors of the Pearl Harbor P-40Bs - some suggested silver, some recommended interior green. I stuck with the interior green for two highly technical reasons - I had a bottle of interior green on hand, and armor guys hate painting natural metal! I then hand-painted the small interior details, and used a little wash and highlight to top everything off. This pretty much finished up step one of the instructions, the interior. I skipped step two, which is the mounting of the propellers to the nose-cone-spinner-thingy. With my foray into aircraft interiors virtually complete, it was time to slap the fuselage halves together - the dread of us armor guys/aircraft guy-wannabes. To my surprise, the halves fit surprisingly well - despite what I had heard about Hobbycraft kits! There was just a little seam work to clean up, and a couple of spots of superglue filler. The radiator fairing was next, and again, a surprisingly good fit. The fairing is glued along natural panel lines, so a minimum of sanding was required. A small gap was evident along the top of the cockpit rear wall, which I filled with strip styrene. It was now time to install the Hobbycraft instrument panel and the TD cockpit floor from underneath. I had to saw off the rudder pedals, as I couldn't get the instrument panel to fit with the new cockpit floor in place. I also had to move the location of the instrument panel further forward than the kit's recommendation. This is not totally accurate, but it was the only way to fit the instrument panel in. In hindsight, I should have cut the front of the TD floor to make room for the instrument panel and rudder pedals. Don't let this happen to you! Anyway, I was now complete with steps 3 and 4 of the instructions. I skipped ahead to step 7, the assembly of the wings. Like most typical kits, the two top wings are glued to a single large bottom half. This also fit exceptionally well, with just a little seam clean-up required. I did not install the wing machine guns and pitot tube at this time. I thought the kit pitot tube was over scale, so I replaced it with one made from brass wire. I proceeded with step 8, the attachment of the wings to the fuselage - another dreaded aspect of airplane guy-wannabes. This did not fit as well as the previous components. I used strip styrene to shim the small wing root gaps, and used stretched sprue to fill in the gaps in the front and rear of the wings-to-fuselage mounting areas. A little scraping and filing cleaned this all up - this was by far the hardest part of the kit construction, but would probably be pretty easy for you REAL airplane guys! I then went back to step 5, which is when you add on many of the detail pieces. I drilled out, then installed, the nose machine guns (parts B1 and B2). I also drilled out the exhaust pipes, but left them off until later. I replaced the overscale kit gunsight (part C7) with a Grandt Line lifting eye. I then added some stretched-sprue cross hairs. I also replaced the gun sight "pipper" (part C6) with some stretched sprue. I added the tail planes, and faired in the gap with some more stretched sprue. I also left off the leather headrest pad (Part C16) until after final assembly and painting. After detoxing from the burning plastic fumes from so much sprue stretching, I proceeded on to Step 9. Step 9 was the assembly of the main landing gear. It probably could have used some brake lines and a little extra detailing, but I left well enough alone. The kit also comes with flattened wheels, which I thought was a nice extra touch. I painted and weathered the main landing gear, and then left aside to attach until after final painting. Step 10 has you attach the main and tail landing gear and gear doors. Again, I left this off until after final painting. At this point, all of the main assembly is complete. I then painted the rather boring OD-over-neutral-gray-scheme, with a white propeller spinner, as per the kit painting instructions. After the paint dried, I sprayed on a gloss overcoat, in preparation for decaling. This is where my relationship with the kit soured! Despite the gloss undercoat and overcoat, and Micro-Sol/Set treatment, the decals silvered badly. I didn't think they were overly thick when I applied them, but, boy, did they silver! Maybe a stronger decal solvent, like Solva-Set, would have helped. I talked to Mike Gawell, who built the same model, and he didn't have the same problem. Maybe "operator error" on my part! Unfortunately, there aren't any aftermarket decal sets that I'm aware of that portray these Pearl Harbor P-40s. In hindsight, most the markings are pretty easy to cobble together. Basically, there's the four-position national insignias with red centers, "U.S. Army" under the wings, the distinctive large white "stencil" style fuselage numbers, and black 18" 18th Pursuit Squadron numbering on the tail - all easily available from different sheets, I would guess. After recovering from my brutal decaling experience, I overcoated with flat. I then added all of the goodies from before: landing gear, gear doors, canopy and windscreen, wing machine guns, prop and spinner, and headrest. I kept the weathering light, as I figured peace-time aircraft would be pretty well maintained. All I did was use some thinned oil paints in all of the recessed panel lines. Overall, here's my impression of the kit: good assembly and "looks right" outline; replace the kit interior with the True Details set; and for gosh sake's, get rid of the kit decals!

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