To say Charles Older was an overachiever is an understatement. Excelling in every endeavor he undertook, he was one of those rare individuals whose life reads like an old Paul Harvey “The Rest of the Story” radio broadcast. Eagle Scout. Student council president. Marine Corps aviator. Flying Tiger. Army aviator. Triple Ace. Air Force aviator. Law student. Attorney. California Superior Court Justice. As a young UCLA student in the late 1930’s, he enlisted in the Marine Corps, was commissioned a lieutenant in the Reserves and earned the gold wings of a naval aviator. Prior to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and lured by unforgettable adventure and a bigger paycheck, he resigned his commission in the Corps and joined the ranks of Claire Chennault’s American Volunteer Group, the famous Flying Tigers. Older's quiet demeanor hid well a competitive spirit that manifested itself in the front office of a fighter plane. Mild-mannered and quiet on the ground yet hellishly aggressive in the cockpit of a fighter plane, it is only fitting that he was a member of the AVG’s 3rd Pursuit Squadron, the Hell’s Angels, whose very name speaks of this duality. Flying against the invading Japanese fighters and bombers before and after the United States entered the war, Older plied his trade in the rugged, shark-mouthed Curtiss P-40B “Tomahawk” from the dirt strips and uncertain skies over China and Burma.
With the likes of Tex Hill, Greg Boyington and a cast of more and lesser well-knowns, Older became a double ace with the Tigers, finishing his tour with 10 confirmed kills and was personally decorated by Chiang Kai-shek.
And now, for the rest of the story: When the Flying Tigers were absorbed into the Army Air Forces in 1942, Older accepted an Army commission and ended the war as a P-51 pilot with a tally of 18 confirmed kills and 5 probables. Upon returning home to California, he got married and enrolled in law school at the University of Southern California. When the Korean War kicked off, he once again answered the call and flew B-26’s with the 452nd bomb group of what was now the United States Air Force. After his tour and back home once again, he eventually finished law school and became a practicing attorney. He bought a small bungalow near the UCLA campus where he and his wife Catherine raised three daughters. Older flourished as an attorney, culminating in his appointment as judge on the California Superior Court in 1967 by then Governor Ronald Reagan. Then, on two consecutive August nights in 1969 in the affluent suburbs of Los Angeles, a group of young, crazed killers viciously murdered seven innocent people, including a beautiful young actress and her unborn child. Their communal "family" leader, a demonic racist and failed musician, was tried for the hideous crimes. At one point during the trial, the accused man bolted from his seat and tried to violently attack the judge who, by all accounts, did not flinch or bat an eye. The judge calmly and quietly had him removed from the courtroom… and later sentenced him to death. After the gavel fell, convicted mass murderer Charles Manson was escorted to death row in shackles while the judge removed his robe and returned home to the quaint bungalow near the UCLA campus, where Charles Older lived happily with his Catherine until his death on June 17, 2006.
THE MODEL: Trumpeter’s 1/48 scale P-40B Tomahawk was big news when it was released a few years ago, mainly because that aircraft (actually a Curtiss Hawk 81, tagged with British specs for the lend-lease program) had a rather dismal showing on the kit market in that scale. The alternatives were, and still are, the Hobbycraft and the ancient Monogram kits. Both are awash with design flaws and outdated tooling (although the Monogram is very retro and possesses great lines). Not wanting my build to turn into a complicated sculpture project, I waited for the anticipated release of the Trumpeter kit. When it came out, I bought it and stuck it on the shelf in my basement closet (otherwise known as “The Hangar”) with the dozen or so odd kits waiting their turn on the bench. I tend to wait before building brand new releases, as finished builds start popping up on the net and problems are immediately brought to light. Not show-stoppers, mind you, but scratch-your-chin problems. For about a year, I absorbed what I could from fellow enthusiasts’ reviews and finally pushed it out of the hangar, blew off the dust and opened Pandora’s corrugated box.
For starters, I hate recessed rivets lines. Well, most of them, anyway. It’s a personal thing I guess… from spending a career inspecting and flying real military aircraft, I can tell you that most 1/48 scale recessed rivets are the equivalent of a hole so big in the actual aircraft that you could stick your middle finger in up to the first knuckle. For some reason though, I can accept them on other kits. Life is weird. Anyway, the Trumpeter is overdone with rivets. Rivets everywhere. But I had an idea… more on this later.
I knew I wanted to build Charles Older’s White 68, but was not impressed with the available decal markings for his aircraft. Most of them are ill fitting to the new Trumpeter kit, and most decal companies portray the Chinese 12 point star insignias in a garish cyan blue. The ones available of higher quality did not include Older’s markings. I finally found a set manufactured by a company named Stardust. Perfect registration, authentic colors, accepting of setting solutions, and one of the best carrier films I have ever used. (Note: Although great decals, a significant printing/spelling error was discovered after I had completed the model. See the note at the end of this post.)
The actual build was pretty painless. I am a sucker for aftermarket cockpits, so I threw one together, painted and detailed it, and slapped it in the fuselage halves. Wing joints and stabs went together without much effort and required little or no sanding. I chose to model the flaps up as there were some fit and finish problems with the interior flap detail. Trumpeter’s plastic seems soft. I didn’t really notice it until I sanded the mold lines off of the landing gear struts. I lost a lot of detail during that process and ended up with a pair of struts that were slightly out of round and appeared a little lumpy.
The canopy was the most technical and difficult part of the entire build. The P-40B had a flat bulletproof pane of glass installed inside of the exterior windscreen. This interior pane has a painted frame. Trumpeter does a wonderful job with this detail, but leaves it to the modeler to engineer how to go about it. The clear plastic pane has slots that fit over tiny ridges on the interior of the windscreen. I decided to dip the pane in Future, let it dry and paint the tiny frame bordering it. When the windscreen was duly dipped and allowed to dry, I carefully tacked the pane in place with Future. When all was said and done, my technique worked. The rest of the canopy was masked and painted and set in place with clear Elmer’s school glue.
As I mentioned earlier, the AVG’s P-40 aircraft were “acquired” from a lend-lease shipment to England. Because of this, specs included a British-type “crank” pitot tube. The Trumpeter kit comes stock with the inline American pitot, so this presented a problem. I ended up robbing the oversized British-style tube from the old Monogram P-40 kit and with a little sanding and re-shaping, I was satisfied with the result and mounted it to my Trumpeter kit.
When all was assembled, I readied it for paint. Here was my first real chin scratcher. The rivets. They looked like acne scars. And then the light bulb turned on. Instead of 40 watts, it came in the form of a $3 bottle of White Out (correction fluid) with the press-pen applicator. I pressed a dab of WhiteOut in every rivet hole on the model. The Tzus fasteners on the cowling and access covers I left alone, as they are modeled relatively well and look pretty cool. When the WhiteOut dried, I sanded the rivet lines flush with the surface, being careful not to sand away parallel recessed panel lines. The beauty of this technique is that White Out shrinks a bit when it dries. This left slight dimples where the rivets were and takes away the harshness of the out-scale-effect. In other words, the rivets are still there, but not really. Also, this technique gives a slight stressed skin look to the model. A win/win situation in my book.
Now for the paint. Again, my Paasche VL with Polly Scale British Dark Green, Earth and a home brewed mix of grays and tans to reproduce what I assume to be a close approximation to the color used on the belly of Britain bound P-40’s. There are a lot of discussions and downright arguments on this particular color. British Sky? Medium Sea Gray? US Gray? Bottom line: They were British spec colors painted by American aircraft factories using mostly DuPont paints. Do the research, draw your own conclusions and throw the dart. The hard edge camouflage was my second chin scratcher. I chose to draw the pattern on sections of 3” blue painter’s tape from scale drawings. The pattern was then cut on a glass pane and applied to the model over the dark earth base coat and then sprayed with dark green. I did this in segments, i.e., left wing, right wing, left fuselage, etc. On both upper wings, the remnant circular shapes of the original British roundels were incorporated into the green/brown camouflage pattern. To portray this, I used a circle template in addition to my freehand drawing of the pattern. After the base camouflage pattern and underside were painted, I masked and painted the red squadron stripe and put the airbrush away for awhile.
I glossed the model with Polly Scale gloss acrylic and applied the aforementioned Stardust decals. They went on without a hitch, to include the two-piece shark mouth. I took care in weathering Older’s White 68. Photos show it was continuously dusty, a bit faded and covered with oil and fuel spills.
My thoughts on weathering are “less is better” when dealing with scale. I portrayed the weathering and paint as accurately as possible with super thin paints and washes. I dirtied everything up with a burnt umber oil wash and wiped main panel areas clean with a piece of cotton t-shirt slightly dampened with thinner. After the perquisite streaks and spills were portrayed to my satisfaction, I sprayed on a couple of thin layers of Polly Scale flat. IMO, here is the money-maker as far as realistic weathering goes: On flat painted surfaces of real aircraft, oil and fuel spills are actually absorbed into (and stain) the paint. With the model flat-coated and essentially finished, I take the smallest pointed artist brush and dab on highly-thinned grimy oil washes to key areas such as cowlings, fuel and gun panels. The flat coat immediately absorbs the grimy wash and spreads it uncontrollably, like touching a wet brush to a napkin. This requires planning and patience. Do not over do it. The effect is amazing, but remember, a little goes a long way. It’s like watercolor painting… once it hits surface, your job is done.
When all was done to my satisfaction, I added the two blue position lights on either side of the mid fuselage sides. A shout-out here to the guys at http://www.ww2aircraft.net/ . In building this model, I was not convinced Older’s aircraft (or any British spec P-40 for that matter) had the position lights installed. Sure enough, with the suggestions of some great modelers at WW2 Aircraft, I came across an-flight photo of White 68 with the position lights. Check out their website… they are a great group of guys and enjoy assisting anyone with research, technical questions, modeling and all things WWII aviation. So, there you have it, folks. I’ve got another model on the bench, almost ready to go and I’ll post it as soon as I finish it up. Please leave comment right below the pics, I appreciate the feedback. Once again, thanks for stopping in!
