# Looking for P-40 decals



## CorvairJim (Dec 16, 2011)

I'm looking for a set of decals for a 1:48 P-40 "Warhawk" "Flying Tiger" fighter for a "tribute" car model I'm already building. The 1:25 scale 1966 Corvair body has had it's top removed and the body itself shortened about 9 scale inches, and there's no provision for a top so it's a true roadster. The kit's optional custom seats have been modified to replicate the seats from a WW II-style bomber, and I've cut the steering wheel down to replicate a (surprisingly convincing!) bomber control yoke. The instrument panel has been modified to look more like that out of a WW II-vintage fighter plane. As it sits now, the body is painted olive drab, with the lower part of the sides in light gray. The iconic "Shark's Jaws" and "Leaping Tiger" markings, along with the starburst roundels are the main sticking points to my completing this project, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

http://www.squadron.com/Search.asp


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## CorvairJim (Dec 16, 2011)

Thanks for the tip. I didn't find anything at first under "Flying Tigers", but when I tried "P-40", I got a ton of hits! Unfortunately, none of them have what I'm looking for.


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## Disco58 (Apr 10, 2011)

CorvairJim said:


> Thanks for the tip. I didn't find anything at first under "Flying Tigers", but when I tried "P-40", I got a ton of hits! Unfortunately, none of them have what I'm looking for.


I have a couple of the Revell/Monogram 1/48 P-40 Flying Tigers kits if your interested


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

What are you looking for? Pretty much any AVG group decal sheet will have the teeth and eyes. Note that in 1/48 scale they are only about 1 inch long.

Here is one sheet although its out of stock...

http://www.squadron.com/NoStock.asp?item=EL48031

You might try Hannants in England as they stock a huge amount of decals. Often decals are limited run and come out in conjunction with a new kit. Gone are the days of a standing inventory of decals like the old 1970s and 80s Microscale catalogue. Now its you snooze you loose...


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

There's a new decal company advertised in Fine Scale Modeler. They have some:
http://www.kitsworld.co.uk/

Specifically:
http://www.kitsworld.co.uk/index.ph...=137&STKNR=137&STRH=3332&ORDN=2632&RNZ=966721


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## Disco58 (Apr 10, 2011)

Jim you have a PM


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## CorvairJim (Dec 16, 2011)

Friends, I thank you for the help! This is why I like HobbyTalk: So many people out there who want to help out. Of course all the ideas, tips, and pointers are good too, not to mention all the great models I can't see anywhere else! I'll be sure to post pics of the completed model on this forum as well as the car model forum, since it has a military aircraft theme to it and you guys have been so helpful.

(Nick, 1" is just about right. My Corvair model is in 1:25 scale, so it's only about 7" long. I'm planning on putting the shark jaws behind the front wheel arches, and 1" from there would go back to nearly the midpoint of the door. The eyes will go forward of there above the body's character line, the leaping tiger behind the door and the roundels on the quarter panels behind the rear wheel arches and on the front trunk lid. I still need to think about where to put the other markings - any ideas?)


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

BTW, I had a '65 Corvair ragtop in high school. Looking forward to seeing your build.


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## djnick66 (May 2, 2008)

One thing to consider... if you buy decals for a Hawk 81 aka P-40B the mouth decals will be designed to wrap around the cylindrical nose of the airplane and will not look the same just laid out flat on the side of a car. You will have to chop off at bout 1/4 of the decal to get it close to the wheel well. If you buy some shark mouth decals for the later P-40s like the E or N they will fit the slab sided nose of those later planes and your car better. You may also consider 1/32 which is bigger and will give you some room to cut them back a bit. And again in 1/48 the little leaping tiger, red angel, etc will be perhaps 1/2" tall which might be kind of small.

You know there were kits like this? Aurora sold some of their sports cars with WW2 decals


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## CorvairJim (Dec 16, 2011)

I had never heard of the Aurora/WW II kits! (I learn something new every day... ) I'll keep your Hawk kit/early version warning in mind when I'm shopping around. At this point, I want to see what I can find and get this one out of the "To Finish" lineup and onto the shelf. It's been bugging me that it's dragged on for so long because of bad preparation on my part. 

You comment that the tiger is only about 1/2" high. in 1:25, that works out to just a little over 1'. That is a little smaller than I had in mind, but in 1:32 it would scale out over 2' high. That's most of the height from the rocker panel to the car's beltline.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

The Aurora WWII fighters could best be describes as "sort of looking mostly like the subject."


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## CorvairJim (Dec 16, 2011)

John P said:


> The Aurora WWII fighters could best be describes as "sort of looking mostly like the subject."


I can see that I'm gonna have to Google these things - might be good for a laugh! I hope my "Tribute Car" will turn out better than "sort of looking mostly like the subject"!

(Do you think that six fake machine gun barrels mounted in the front bumper under the headlights might be overkill???  )


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## Disco58 (Apr 10, 2011)

CorvairJim said:


> (Do you think that six fake machine gun barrels mounted in the front bumper under the headlights might be overkill???  )


Hmmm, boy.... Maybe. I see a real fine (and hazy) line there between tribute to the AVG and one to 007.


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## CorvairJim (Dec 16, 2011)

Disco58 said:


> Hmmm, boy.... Maybe. I see a real fine (and hazy) line there between tribute to the AVG and one to 007.


Bond had a single machine gun behind each headlight of his Aston Martin, while the Warhawk had a trio at each wing root. The Corvair's bumper is vaguely airfoil-ish, hence the fake guns. Hey, what the heck, it works for me, and they're already there now! Maybe I'll give it tail#007 - a Corvair with a license to kill... Hey, I like it!


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## Disco58 (Apr 10, 2011)

CorvairJim said:


> Bond had a single machine gun behind each headlight of his Aston Martin, while the Warhawk had a trio at each wing root. The Corvair's bumper is vaguely airfoil-ish, hence the fake guns. Hey, what the heck, it works for me, and they're already there now! Maybe I'll give it tail#007 - a Corvair with a license to kill... Hey, I like it!


FINE, be that way! How about putting a gun camera on it, then it would be "A ViewTo A Kill"?:thumbsup: HAHAHAHAHA I'm just too funny for my own good!


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

I have a gun camera on MY car (well, a dash cam), but alas, no gun.
I caught this stupidity yesterday:


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## CorvairJim (Dec 16, 2011)

John P said:


> I have a gun camera on MY car (well, a dash cam), but alas, no gun. I caught this stupidity yesterday...


Oh, to be a cop! Will these idiots never learn? OK, so the guy cut him off when he ran out of room in the right lane. Be an adult about it and back off, give him space. Don't up and do something just as stupid by passing him in the wrong lane, cutting him off, THEN BRAKE-CHECKING HIM!!! Is it worth taking the chance on someone getting killed just because you're BOTH behaving like children with 2-ton toys?

I see things like this happen every so often, and that thought above, "Oh, to be a cop" goes through my mind every time!


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## CorvairJim (Dec 16, 2011)

One more thing: Thanks to my good friend Disco58, I now have the decals I need for my project! I am constantly amazed by the great bunch of people I've met here on HobbyTalk. Michael, I can't thank you enough. Everyone else, I thank you too for your input on the project. As soon as I get a model finished that I have committed for delivery to a friend for her father's birthday at the end of the month, the "Flying Tigers Tribute Corvair" will be the next model in line for completion. I plan to post it both in the Model Cars thread and here in the Military Planes threqad too so that you all can see how it comes out.


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## CorvairJim (Dec 16, 2011)

As promised, here's an update on my "Flying Tigers" tribute Corvair model. As mentioned before, my thanks go out to Disco58 for hooking me up with the decals for this build. I realized something last night after I had finished shooting the final Dullcote over the decals - I had no idea where most of the rest of the model had gotten to in the year or so since I had last worked on it! If you look closely, you can see that the body has been shortened about 9" scale behind the doors, and I had already shortened the chassis to match. I'd modified the front bumper by building in half a dozen dummy guns, three beneath each pair of headlights. The instrument panel was modified to resemble an aircraft panel, the steering wheel a bomber-style control yoke, and the scratchbuilt shifter a fighter's stick. I can do all of this again - if there's anything I have plenty of in my workroom, it's Corvair kits and kit parts! I'd just hate to redo all that work just to find the originals a couple of months down the road. By that time I won't have any use for them! Anyhow, this is how the body came out with the decals applied over the typical O/D-over-gray P-40 paint job:










Let me know what you think...


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## Disco58 (Apr 10, 2011)

Oh, it's ok I guess.....:devil: :thumbsup::thumbsup: Now if that were a hardtop you coulda cut it out like a T-top and painted the framing to match the OD to look like a canopy..... Gonna put the radio gear in the back seat too?


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## CorvairJim (Dec 16, 2011)

No radio gear, Disco. The cockpit controls mimicing those in the fighter, along with a bomber-style steering yoke, are about as far as I'm taking the theme. I was a little concerned when I saw the first part of your comment, until I realized it was made with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Thanks again for your help in making my fantasy build a reality.

Any other military aircraft builders out there are welcome to comment too! I welcome criticism and any suggestions as to how to make my build the best it can be.

I decided to get going on replacing the instrument panel of the Flying Tiger Corvair this evening, so here's what went into it so far:

First, here's the kit dashboard and steering wheel before I really did anything with them except mark out the portion of the wheel to remove.









Then I roughed out the new instrument panel overlay. this photo also shows the newly cut B-17 style control yoke. The arrangement of the 1969 Corvair steering wheel's spokes made this conversion pretty straightforward. You can see that I also removed the radio and smoothed the area. I'll probably make up a factory-style blanking plate for the area. I also added a filler panel to go back up the new instrument panel, between the existing panel and where the radio used to be.









And finally a quickie rough mockup in the model's body. I've measured out and drilled the holes for the instruments as well as the turn signal and high beam indicators (at the top), the headlight and wiper switches and driver's side kick panel vent knob (down the left side), and the heater controls (down the right side. I also added a bracket for the passenger's side vent knob under the dash under the glove box. These knobs, as well as the lighter will be straight pin heads.









The dashboard top and center panel, along with the top panels of the doors will be Olive Drab to match the "fuselage", the instrument panel and glovebox area will be flat black, as will the floor and the seat cushions, and the door side panels and seat backrests will be semi-gloss gray. The "steering yoke" and shift "stick" will be semi-gloss black. I realize the instrument panel isn't even close to what is in an authentic P-40, but that wasn't the intention. First and foremost, this is supposed to be a practical car. It really doesn't need an altimeter, a turn-and-bank indicator, an artificial horizon, etc! I figure it can get by just fine on a speedometer, tachometer, and gas, head temp, oil pressure gauges, a voltmeter and a clock.


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## Disco58 (Apr 10, 2011)

You're more than welcome Jim, and I'm glad I could contribute to this masterpiece! Just as a FWIW, if you should ever have a notion to do something like this to a 1:1 'Vair, there is a company that makes auto gauges that simulate aircraft instruments. It's somewhere in TX I think. I can check with my EAA buds if you're interested. Michael


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## CorvairJim (Dec 16, 2011)

I doubt that I'll ever do anything like that, but it's something to keep in mind. With my family's aviation background, it would be a cool touch for a hobby car, even if it doesn't wind up with a complete fighter plane theme.

Here's a question for you (and anyone else) concerning those gauges: Would I be correct to assume that they should have the usual white markings on a black background and white needles? I cut the backing sheet for the instrument panel this evening and I'd like to get it detailed before I stick it behind the fascia. (I attached the panel to the car's dashboard and faired it in tonight too.)


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