The project that got my foot in the door for Pacific Fighters, the P-40 stemmed from my fondness for the lines and history of the early 'smallmouth' P-40 Tomahawks, such as those flown by the Flying Tigers during their presence in Nationalist China, Burma, and the other nearby UK eastern colonies.  It was a sweet-flying plane, and has rightful claim to being The Original Shark-mouth Plane--the profile and contour of the nose and 'mouth' is a dead ringer for an actual open-mouthed 'maneater' shark (such as tigers, makos, and bull sharks), helping the war paint mesh psychologically.
     Aside from being one of my favorites, the P-40 was also one of my earliest projects, which meant many, many passes to rework and improve the overall cut and polish.  A crash-prone installation of Max 4.2, of course, only added to my hair-yanking.
     My major learning process with the P-40 was texture mapping.  The IL-2 engine had some very convoluted, poorly documented, and rarely logical mapping formats and conventions.  Learning to squeeze every last bit of control and functionality out of Max 4.2's archaic UVW mapping system was the main knowledge I gained from the process.  Close behind it was a far sharper understanding and practical application experience of the basic theory behind detail and geometry distribution, and a story about a certain 12-sided 5-inch tail wheel.
     The P-40 also began my eternal curse to always land projects with few to no easily available references.  When I began working, exactly one restored 'smallmouth' existed--in Pensacola, FL.  Curtiss, the company that designed and built the plane, does not exist in the same form (they now build parts for submarines and hydroelectric plants).  Only 200 or so were built in the first place, before production migrated to the vastly different 'largemouth' P-40E models.  The smallmouth P-40s were used in the years just before Pearl Harbor and for only a very short time afterwards, so most pilots who flew them are at the older end of the veteran age spectrum, and most are gone.
     I scoured libraries, scale modeling websites, museums, and the international kinship of warbird restorationists for anything and everything.  I even came into contact with Chuck Baidsen, who was an armorer with the Flying Tigers.  While I kept searching (and still do, sometimes) for further references and pictures, I managed to scrape enough together that by the time I was finished, I truly knew the plane inside and out, and could not only name every control and instrument in the cockpit, but could explain what they did and how they worked.  I honestly think I could get one in the air AND back down again, if I had the opportunity.
     A day before my deadline, the Seattle Times ran a front page-and-then-some feature in the Local section on Paul Allen's new Flying Heritage Collection, which was to open within days, about two hours drive from where I was living.
     Occupying almost the entire front page was the unmistakable leer of a smallmouth P-40, wearing British Green / Dark Earth camouflage--and a shark's mouth.
     Of course.

     Ironically, as of 2008, I still haven't traveled the two hours to see it.