My submission for the AMT P-40 build

[Bill L.]

That looks really cool!!  I look forward to seeing the actual kit!!

Bill L.

[Bill L2]

Wow. Very creative work Ronnie. The picture from the bottom of the aircraft is very nice. Great job!

[Lee_K]

Where does he come up with these wild, creative ideas?  Never change, Ronnie -- you are a true original.  ☺️

Lee K

[Ryan K]

Another Ronnie special, that's awesome.

[Matt C]

That's cool, the underside is really interesting, looks like it's actually a shark stuck on there.

Great work!

[Ronnie Murray]

Last image....instead of the huge cartoon shark mouth with the red tongue I studied loads of images of tiger sharks and have a great appreciation for their coloration.  I may have to try this again in the future on another project.  I tried to make it look like the real thing as much as possible.  The tiger shark does not have the huge and visible teeth like the Great White and Lemon sharks.  Their teeth are somewhat hidden and subdued in appearance so I carried that into the paint scheme.  I know it's not the stuff of gutsy Hollywood movies but it is more accurate.  As usual I wanted to do something creative and completely different from what I expected others would do.  Hopefully you found it entertaining or thought provoking. 

[Ronnie Murray]

The AMT propeller was very thin in my opinion but I don't know if it is accurate in scale or not.  I wanted to have a beefier prop to improve performance so I added a Hamilton Standard prop left over from the B-17 project.  It was nearly twice as thick in chord.  I squared off the rounded tips and put bare metal foil on the blades to give it that fast and slick look.  The model has a battery powered motor that spins the prop but I had the camera in one hand and the model in the other so I didn't have the battery connected to spin it at the time of shooting the images.  The rest of the model was painted a sky blue to try and give the appearance of a shark flying through the air whenever the background is the right blue.   My one complaint about the AMT kit was the dehedral of the wings.  It was flat or actually bent down until I braced it with a section of coat hanger wire.  The overall build went well but I botched the paint scheme a bit compared to how I envisioned it in my mind.   As I was trying to airbrush the tiny details of the tiger stripes a cold front blew up behind me.  I was on the screened porch but continued to paint as the rain and wind made me huddle closer to the wall and the results are less than perfect. 

[Ronnie Murray]

The P-40 performed well at low altitude according to Hal shook but if it was going to be a Reno Racer it would need to have some improvements made with the aerodynamics.  I clipped the wing tips and outer edges of the horizontal stabilizers then sanded down the upper portion of the rudder.  It was very rounded and bulbous but I made it more like the tail on the later marks of the Spitfire...like an elves ear and pointy at the top.  I also removed the rounded landing gear cap that was attached to the leading edge of the wings.  The P-40, F6F and F4U all had the type of landing gear that rotated and retracted backwards into the wing.  Only the F4U had landing gear covers to hide the tires.  I thought that would improve the performance so I added landing gear covers to my P-40L. 

[Ronnie Murray]

Hey guys, sorry I was not able to attend the meeting yesterday but I was putting down some 1/1 scale plank flooring in our bedrooms.  Here are some images of my P-40L modified to be a Reno Racer / show plane.  The P-40 has the distinction of being one of the first US fighters used in WWII.  It's design had some outdated features but it proved to be rugged in combat and served several countries from the start of WWII until the end.  In my mind, the one thing that seperates the P-40 from all other aircraft is how it is associated with the "Shark Mouth" paint scheme.  It was applied to many other aircraft but none wear it quite like the Warhawk...I"ll give the F-4E Phantom a close second.  I based my paint scheme on that factor alone.  This is my simulated Tiger Shark wrap around paint scheme.  Note that I've added the addition of fins connected to the fuselage to give it more of a shark look.