Curtiss Hawk 81-A-2 1:72 Airfix. American Volunteer Group, Kumming, China, 1942.美国志愿者组织,中国昆明。

Flown by Flight Leader Charles H. Older, Third Squadron. A very colourful bird as you can see, which is what attracted me to this build.

This is my rendition of the Curtiss Hawk by Airfix. I have displayed a 1:48 Warhawk on my site elsewhere so wont go into too much detail here.

However, this is the information that came with the kit from Airfix:

The P-40B, in its various incarnations, served the United States Army Air Force throughout the Second World War, fighting in Europe, across Asia and in the deserts of North Africa. The first model to see active service, the P-40B proved to be an effective and tough low level fighter. While not as manoeuvrable as the Japanese Mitsubishi Zero, or as fast as the German Messerschmitt Bf109, the P-40B still proved to be a tough opponent. Pilots liked the fact it could often get them home after sustaining heavy damage, as well as being able to inflict it with its armament of six machine guns. The P-40B became synonymous with the shark mouth motif, due to both its use with 112 Squadron and the American Volunteer Group i China. Today the P-40B continues to fly in the UK as well as its homeland of the United States of America.

Speed: 350mph

Armament: 4x.30 cal Browning machine guns, 2 x .50 cal Browning machine guns: range 730 miles

For this scheme, I used Vallejo acrylics: Tan Earth, US Dark Green and Gull Grey. I highlighted a few of the panel lines and rivets to show all the fine detail of this superlative kit.
Box art
Don’t make movies like this anymore!

2 thoughts on “Curtiss Hawk 81-A-2 1:72 Airfix. American Volunteer Group, Kumming, China, 1942.美国志愿者组织,中国昆明。”

  1. Great looking aircraft and a top job on the model. Good to see a model of a far Eastern conflict not widely known or mostly forgotten about now to most Europeans.Might have to get one myself.

Leave a Reply to Michael Hrycyszyn Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *