This is my Academy 1/72 P-40E Warhawk, which is an easy kit to build and goes together without too much fuss. To make a more accurate E version, I eliminated the aerial post; added the aerial wires (hair strands), rearview mirror on canopy (plastic card), brake lines (beading wire), and seat harness (drafting tape); and drilled out the gun barrels & exhaust stacks. 

Painting and Weathering
The model was airbrushed using Model Master paints (olive drab & light gray). Weathering was kept to a minimum and consisted of an overspray of olive drab mixed with flat white, a light dusting with black pastels, some paint chipping with a silver pencil, and applying some exhaust staining (drybrushed Humbrol Panzer Gray). I used the kit decals, which, all-in-all, worked okay. The white diagonal stripe behind the cockpit faces the wrong way, so I had to reposition it with the bottom slanting toward the front, which resulted in the decal being a little short on the underside. Some flat white paint was used to "bring" the decal ends together.

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The Base
The base is from a local craft store. To simulate the gray volcanic ash of the Aleutian Islands I used charcoal ash from my outdoor grill that was still sitting at the bottom from the many uses of this past summer, ha! There were some larger black ash pieces mixed in with the gray ash so my suggestion is to sift it through a filter to separate out those pieces from the finer gray ash. I spread Elmer's glue over the base piece, sprinkled the ash directly over it, and blew the excess off. I used silver-gray fiberglass screen from the local hardware store to simulate the pierced steel planking tarmac, which was then glued in place using Elmer's glue. After that dried, I used more Elmer's glue & ash to simulate places where the volcanic ash had blown back onto the tarmac and made some puddles using Artist's Loft Gloss Gel Medium. 

The model represents a P-40E "Aleutian Tiger" Warhawk of the 11th Fighter Squadron, 343rd Fighter Group stationed in the Aleutian Islands during 1942-43. 

References:

• P-40 Warhawk In Action No. 205, Squadron Signal Publications, 2007