[quote="James D"][quote="51fixer"][quote="Wildchild"][quote="mike furline"]With the first picture enlarged and some contrast thrown in, you can see a digital square around the vertical stab. I believe this may indicate an altered image.
I would like to jump in as both a Modeller and as a Bit of a P-40 nut. This aircraft to me looks to be real, the pixilation which as stated occurs at times between changes in colour also occurs when images have been saved a number of times as JPG's.......so I don’t believe we can use that to confirm or deny the existence of this aircraft.
To the aircraft (or not), its most certainly a Kittyhawk I or Ia (H-87 or P-40E-1) a better shot of the fuselage would have been nice, as even without a serial we would at least have a model. The paintwork is about right (what remains of it), showing a A type marking, which would push this aircraft toward having arrived in North Africa before AUG 1942....with that amount of weathering it’s hard to tell if there was any over painting of the markings.
You are also looking at an aircraft that has been modified with the baggage door modification, which leads me to believe this to actually be a real aircraft. Other things in favour of this being a real aircraft is the damage to the skin, the position of the stick to the position of the flight surfaces, and the only missing items from the instrument panel. All the fasteners are of the correct type, and in the correct position, and finally the actual crease in the fuselage is in the exact position it occurs on a real bellylanded Kittyhawk (If you have access look up what a Kittyhawk looks like after the fuselage gives on a belly landing - if not hit me up and I'll try find a couple for you (think I have one or two in my collection)).
Above someone asked if this is a normal way for the gearbox and prop to detach, I will say a big yes.....seen a number of times, and has also been known to happen to other types with a forward gearbox (Spitfire etc)
From a Modelers point of view - The tearing from the Bullet holes in the fuselage is one of the hardest things to get right as a modeler (I believe these to be post crash as well), if this was a model then those bullet holes have been made by someone that makes my skills unworthy of even being mentioned in the same sentence. The loss of rivets below the baggage door is also another clue (we are talking about skills to die for here), the tearing of the skin, the wrinkles etc also point to someone of uber supreme skills. That being the case I can count the known modelers on two hands, and something like this is hard to hide as this would have come out before now. Additionally to even attempt to make a model in such a way the requirement would be of a kit around the 1/32 (which some exist) or even larger (which don’t as yet). The weathering of the skin is also something incredibly hard to replicate in the manner that it is shown, whilst weathering is able to be done, the weathering to the markings and the baggage door markings are uber hard to get right. The actual Mod on the baggage door is also possibly a point to use, as this is not on any kit I have seen, nor do most modelers even know of its existence, again its inclusion would show someone that also knows the aircraft inside and out
Overall, based on what I see I’ll take a punt and say real……..if not an it proves to be a Model I’m giving up modeling and taking up knitting, as I’ll never be able to look at another kit again in the same light.
Buz
Last edited by Buz101 on Fri Apr 20, 2012 7:55 am, edited 2 times in total.