If you have been holding onto your Mauve and AMT P-40s in hopes of a new decal sheet for it, your wait is over. These two schemes were taken from the book 'P-40 Aces of the CBI', by Carl Molesworth, which you can read a review of by following this link. The book is a great read and if you have any interest in the CBI, a must for your bookshelf.

The P-40 lasted as a front-line fighter longer in the CBI than any other theater of operations the US fought in during WWII. It wasn't until a few months from the end of the war in the Pacific that they had finally been replaced by Mustangs. The reason for this was that the P-40 was a very capable performer as a low level fighter and fighter-bomber. They were more than able to take on the opposition in China and Burma, which was mostly Ki-43 and Ki-44 fighters. 

To do the first plane on the sheet will require some creative kit usage. If you recall from the AMT P-40E  I built a while back, I used the K kit. This kit has the long fuselage needed for an early N and is what you should use for the first scheme. I seem to remember that the P-40N-1 also only had two guns per wing, so do your research on this one. Anyway, it has the very nice skull marking of the 80th FG based in India in early 1944. No kill markings on this one as there was very little contact with Japanese aircraft by this time of the war.

The next is a regular P-40N-20, so use the Mauve kit for this one. This is from the CACW, which was the Chinese-American Composite Wing. This unit had an equal number of US and Chinese personnel (and that includes squadron commanders). Contrary to what you might have thought, the Chinese were excellent and aggressive pilots, racking up a number of kills and having a few aces of their own. This particular plane was flow by the CO of the 7th FS, William Reed and has a number of kill markings, most from his earlier days with the 23rd FG. You'll have to dig up an ADF loop antenna for this one!

There are enough common markings to do both planes. Either will make a great model.

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