The P-40, with the distinctive shark's mouth painted on its nose, has always been one of the most recognizable fighters of World War 2. It fought in the Pacific against overwhelming enemy numbers, flying in some of the harshest conditions to be found on earth, and held the line for two years, until newer planes could be brought into service.

Because of its achievements, the rugged and dependable, P-40 deserves to be considered one of the most successful fighters of World War II. Now let's see if Flying Styro has done this fine plane justice with it's new foam construction, electric powered, radio control warbird kit.

Optional Upgrades:
Jeti JES 08-3P Brushless ESC
Stridavy PJS 550R Brushless Motor
Kokam 7.4v - 2 cell 1500mah Li-Poly Battery Pack

The next thing I noticed was the rather modest instruction manual supplied. It was just a few black and white pages with no photos, just drawings. It was a somewhat confusing layout with extremely small type, that went on for two pages, and about 2 or 3 pages of practically postage sized line-art drawings. Very difficult to follow. Also, I found the instructions to be written for an experienced builder, assuming you knew a lot of things that a beginner would never have figured out. Sometimes the instructions would switch between the RC version and the static version without really letting you know, so you need to really pay attention.

Another oddity in the manual is that they use an odd "code" for some of the parts. It tells you in the beginning of the manual that "VOP" will be used whenever the instructions are referring to the "Hor Stab/Elev"... "PP" stands for "foam material" and so on. Why the codes, and why not HOR or ELE for Hor Stab/Elev??? You got me. Not a huge deal, but you find yourself having to keep turning back to page 2 to remind you what the heck PSH or OP stands for (of course "OP" stands for tail surface!)

This package also came supplied with everything to finish the RC version, including a transmitter, receiver, ESC, battery, servos, motor and gearbox. The Hitec 3 channel radio that came in this package has one stick for elevator and aileron control, and a "slider" on the back that is your throttle control. I decided to stick with my Futaba 9C to get the more advanced trim and throw features, as well as reduce the number of radios I have to charge and take to the field. Now let's get started on the assembly.

Usually the ground will just spin/push a 2-blade prop out of the way, but it can't do that to a 3-blade prop. The instructions have you glue the blades into the hub, and glue the fragile spinner onto it... you might get a little frustrated if you break a prop, so I didn't glue the blades in... the fit was tight enough. This way I can replace a blade if broken.

MOTOR: Stridavy PJS 550R Brushless Motor

CONTROLLER: Jeti JES 08-3P Brushless ESC

BATTERY: Kokam 7.4v - 2 cell 1500mah Li-Poly Battery Pack

The install is pretty much the same as installing the stock motor. The main difference is the firewall. You'll have to use the original one as a template to cut a new one from light ply. Then offset the hole for the motor to raise it about 9/16" from the stock hole. This accounts for the brushless motor being direct drive, and not having an offset gearbox. Also, the hole will need to be smaller to give you something for the mount screws to screw into.

I mounted the mounting plate on the backside of the firewall and ran the 3 screws forward into the motor base. Of course, you'll have to first solder the leads from the ESC to the motor and battery connector. You need a larger prop adapter for the heavier shaft of the brushless motor, and you'll also need to move the firewall a little further back in the fuse than the stock position.

The instructions completely skip the step of adding the rudder, but you see it in one of the little line drawings. It shows some sort of little wedges joining the fin and rudder, but doesn't make it clear as to what you're supposed to use. I used some scrap foam sheeting that came in the box.

It does mention that you can make the rudder functional, but refrains from telling you how. Take great care here to make sure you glue it in nice and square/straight if you do it fixed. Now we cut the styrene wheels out and get started on the fixed gear.

Now glue in your balsa dihedral brace in the wing halves and join them together. Widen the holes in the wing for the servos and add the light ply servo trays. The built in torque rods get plastic control arms glued on and pushrods are attached from the aileron servo to the torque rods. I often use Z-bends on both ends but decided to switch all connections to Dubro Micro Fasteners to reduce slop in the connections.

There is a slotted vent shroud that glues on over the air exit for motor cooling. I cut out a little extra to make sure there was plenty of exit flow.

However, I went back and painted the "flaked off" areas with silver paint and it really made it look like the paint had chipped away from silver metal... great weathering effect. The kit comes with a pilot and complete cockpit kit for static, but only the pilot, dash and rollover pylon get added for the RC version.

The trick little dash, complete with a gunsight get glued into the removable hatch portion of the fuse and the front canopy section gets added.

Next I ran a small screw into the top of the fuse, just in front of the hatch, and also ran it through a small piece of plastic. This plastic could be rotated over the hatch to lock the front end down, and spun back to remove the hatch.

The instructions tell you to cut a hole in the top side of the wing just in front of the main spar, to allow the battery to recess down into. You are also told to build up a "box" out of foam around it to secure it further. The problem I see here is that you will always be restricted to one configuration of battery (4/4 pack), and cannot really slide it around to find the best CG. I decided to just use Velcro to attach my Li-Poly pack to the wing and adjust it for balance.

Go ahead and finish up all your optional scale details, like the 3 machine guns on each wing, and double-check your balance/CG. It took me a long time to find the CG spec for the P40, which I found buried in one of the little drawings. It says to balance it with a CG range of 35-40mm from the leading edge. As with just about any low wing plane, you check your balance with the plane upside down. Mine balanced right in the front end of the range first try. Personally, I think this plane likes the CG to be a little more forward, so I'd suggest advancing the range by 5mm to a position of 30-35mm from leading edge.

Next you add all the waterslide decals (two decal schemes to choose from). I've used tons of these things back in my old IPMS plastic scale competition days, and they work great for small decals. However, when you try to do very large ones like the P40 has, they don't work too great. You soak them in water until the thin decal "slides" off the paper backing, and with the large ones, you'll usually find them cracking and breaking apart into multiple pieces that you have to reassemble on the plane.

Be sure to wet the decal area on the plane with soapy water before sliding the decal onto it. With the plane pretty much done, I moved on to the weathering phase to make the plane look even more realistic than it already did.

Lastly to give it the final finishing touch, I shot a light misting coat of flat clear over the whole plane. The paint that comes on the P40 has a pretty glossy sheen, and the flat clear dulls it down to a much more believable warbird finish.

I set the control throws to the suggested optimal amounts for my low rates and slightly more than suggested for high rates just in case I needed it. Anyway, after double-checking the CG/balance I was ready to take it out for it's maiden flight.

My partner David "Mordib" Johnson and I each took a shot at flying the Warhawk to get more than one opinion on it's performance. We both had pretty much the same experience and agreed on the overall flight characteristics of the P40...

Handlaunching the P40 we found it was a little unstable at first until it built up some speed and got it trimmed out. It took some right aileron and a good bit of down elevator as it wanted to continually climb. We immediately noticed that with the brushless motor and Lipoly combo, it had plenty of power. Not the "unlimited vertical" that you'd want in a 3D plane, but more than enough for a warbird.

Loops from level flight were no problem, rolls rates were respectable on high rates. Speaking of rates, you'll want to go with at least the suggested aileron "high rate" for this plane, low rates just weren't really enough. Elevator high rates were pretty good too, but too much pull too fast on these rates can make the P40 snap.

The Warhawk exhibited most of the typical flight characteristics of a scale warbird, including the telltale adverse yaw effect when going into a steep bank. It banked great, but without an operational rudder, you can't counter the yaw effect. Keep your banks moderate or your speed up as excessive bank angles at low speed can cause one of the wings to stop flying and produce a snap. The P40 will slow down nice for a landing but it can feel a little unstable at slow speeds. This plane definitely performs it's best at higher speeds.

Overall, we agreed that the P40 is a fine ship for those who are in search of a scale warbird that you can take out to your local park for a quick patrol. It flies very scale like and looks unbelievably realistic in flight. The brushless motor and Lipoly pack are a welcome upgrade and certainly provide a great deal of power to pull through loops and rolls.

My final evaluation is that this kit is a pretty straightforward build, has fantastic scale details with plenty of options, and flies very scale like. I would suggest intermediate building skills and like most warbirds, intermediate to advanced flying skills to handle the typical heavier wing loading, and sometimes unpredictable slow flight characteristics of warbirds. If you are a fan of the smaller electric scale warbirds, the P40 Warhawk from Hobby Lobby would be a fine addition to your fleet!

What about stock performance?

Hobby Lobby has video of the "stock" P40 flying great on their web site. I did notice in their photos of their P40, they did not use the 4/4 cell 720mah NIMH pack that they recommend. It appears they used a 1200 LiPoly pack. From this video, it appears that the P40 will also fly well with the stock Speed 300 motor as well.

I will say however that the plane took me a good 25+ hours to assemble, and that it is not a kit for the beginner pilot. Building skills should be at least intermediate and flying skills... well, let's just say I personally don't recommend the P40 for your first electric warbird.