Thank you, Robert. There were some special challenges later on, and I am glad I finished it. More to follow.

A PILOT AND A PILOT SEAT

Before covering the paintwork on the fuselage sides, let me discuss the cockpit and the replacement cockpit seat that I used. But before even that let me discuss the pilot, Greg "Pappy" Boyington.

Here he is, third from the left during his time in the AVG. Note the pistol in his right hand.



As a high school student in the 60s, I of course read his autobiography Ba Ba Black Sheep. I always found it a bit curious that he was almost as famous for his self-description "Show me a hero and I'll show you a bum" as he was for his combat record. I also knew that he had a "bad record" with the AVG.

The below article is a must-read about Boyington's service with The Flying Tigers. Pappy Boyington, Flying Tiger.

The picture it paints is not flattering. Boyington was an alcoholic, and when inebriated was an "angry drunk" known for insisting on wrestling with his squadron mates, and also using a pistol to get his way. From the above article:




He doesn't sound like the kind of guy I'd like to sit down and "have a beer with." However, in his defense, there is his combat record, his acknowledgment of his struggles with alcohol in his autobiography, and for me, the tribute paid to him by George Gay, the sole survivor of VT-8 at Midway. (I never met Boyington but I did have the rare privilege of meeting George Gay in the early 80s down in Harlington, Texas during a Confederate Air Force "Airsho." That is a tale for another article.)

Of course, the people who win wars aren't necessarily "nice," and not infrequently they are societal misfits. We are lucky to have them around when duty calls.

Okay, it is getting later than I thought and I will save discussion of the seat that Boyington sat in and the cockpit of this model, for a later post.

Thanks for this thread Brian - it keeps getting better with the various side trips that offer a lot of flavor . You should think about writing a book... oh wait .. you did !
Keep at it - really enjoying it
Richard

I copy that.

Richard and Robert:

A smile and greeting for each of you. Thanks. I'll try to keep it interesting.

Brian

COCKPIT

This post will be short but informative, I hope. I am no expert on the cockpits of the AVG Hawks, but there is one thing that clearly distinguishes them from USAAF P-40's. That is the seat. Some kind of "export" seat, which I believe was made of wood, was installed in RAF" Tomahawks, and my understanding is these were fitted with the RAF Sutton harness. AVG aircraft had the same seat but a simple, US style lap belt.

Here is what the seat in the Carousel 1 model looked like.



That's a USAAF seat, and it had to go. This is what AVG pilot seats looked like:



Notice the different attachment point to the armor plate bulkhead.

Where to find that?

Well, at one of my favorite vendors: Ultracast in Ontario, Canada.

Here is their product.



Man, that works for me!

When you separate the fuselage from the wings on this model the cockpit exists as a separate, plastic subassembly that's "pretty good" IMO, especially since this model only comes with a closed canopy option.



Hey, I like that instrument panel.

So, how did I extract the old seat?

With a needle nose plyers, a firm tug, and a resolution to fix whatever broke in the process.

It came out more easily than one of my wisdom teeth whose roots had grown in an "L-shaped" curve in my jaw years ago.

Fortunately, the oral surgeon knew what he was doing, and after repeated lateral pulling back and forth with his plyers (and my feeling that I was headed for a dislocated jaw) the offending tooth with its twisted roots came out. (I'll never forget the dentist holding the tooth aloft in the plyers, like a trophy, and exclaiming with pride, "I got 'em, just like I always do!")

No, this seat extraction wasn't that hard, and the replacement fit rather well.


Before installing the seat, I disassembled the whole cockpit. This gave me the opportunity to paint the sidewalls so they weren't just an interior green.



The seat color looks rather garish, but that is just a function of the flash lighting. (It was an interior green too). Here's what it really looks like in better lighting. The color is different, but not glaringly so.



When I look at a photo detail of the pilot seated in # 21, which I showed earlier, I'm pretty sure I see the bull-neck and large head of Greg "Pappy" Boyington seated in that cockpit.



More to follow.

FUSELAGE SIDES

This part of the work was rather routine. After spraying the dark earth primary camo color,


I proceeded to mask off the sections for over-spraying with the dark green. Once again, the biggest challenge was aligning the AML templates.



Boyington's aircraft had a non-standard dark green section below and on the port side forward of the cockpit (see above) which I guesstimated based on the color profile I had at the time.



and fixed later when I saw from the photo that I was wrong.



Also, in the above photo above you can see that I pulled out the rubber post and ring sights. More on that later.