Tiger's Cartoon P-40 Warhawk - Part 3 (ish)

OK, Hataka paint problems aside, I have been planning my paint scheme for my little 'cartoon' Warhawk. And I have decided to go for a Desert RAF scheme - making it a Tomahawk and not a Warhawk!

Just to remind folk - here's a little data-table I made showing the various models and
nomenclatures for the P-40 fighter series, giving the British alternative names relative
to the US designations.

Actually, this wasn't the end of my Hataka paint problems, because - having decided not to use Hataka paints - I had to go shopping today for replacement Vallejo 'Model Air' versions of the paints I needed for the WW2 desert RAF fighter paint scheme...

Tomahawk Mk.IIb - Sidi Heneish (LG.102), Egypt, October 1941.
Source: Wings Palette web site

I did a quick check online for the Vallejo 'Model Air' paints for this aircraft pattern and the following were generally recommended:

• 71.008 'Blue' (Azure Blue)
• 71.010 'Interior Green'
• 71.029 'Dark Earth'
• 71. 031 'Middlestone'

Luckily my local store had all these in stock, so I am back in business again. But, typically, I just discovered that Vallejo does it's own range of themed military colour sets and - furthermore - has a 'RAF Desert Colour Scheme 1940-1945' set! Du-oh!

Still, I only needed just these four main colours, which cost me £10 instead of the £17.75 price of the full Vallejo set.

The painting begins
A bit of a stuttering start for this project, but now I'm off and running (well, running in terms of my work rate at least)! The cockpit is the starting point and I got the base colours down OK...

One of my biggest issues is what style to paint this model in. After all, it's a cartoon so I have a little more stylistic latitude here - I could do a very 'clean' painting job of this - like a diecast display model - or I could really go wild and carry on the cartoon theme with some over-the-top weathering and panel line effects. I even considered doing a very cartoony 'cel-shading' effect...

(Sorry, was going to put up a still of what a cel-shaded aircraft would look like but came across this short trailer for an animated - cel-shaded - film and couldn't resist showing it here as it's so cool!)

Well, you get the point...(I'll work out style as I go along.)

...In fact, I'll pause here while I sort out this issue of 'style'. May actually have to do a 'practise model' just to clarify this (our local store has lots of discounted Hobby Boss models which would be quick and easy test canvases).