1/48 Accurate Miniatures P-400 Airacobra

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
1

I picked up this kit from the discount shelf at Hobby Lobby several years ago. When I get a new kit I always open it up to inspect for anything that may be missing and to remove the instructions and decals to store in a folder that I keep inside my house. I never got around to noticing that this was a repop of the Eduard kit. This one does not include the photoetch or the nose weight that came with the Eduard profipack kit.

This build represents a P-400 Airacobra, BW-156 “Fancy Nancy” belonging to the 35th Fighter Group based at Henderson Field, Guadalcanal in 1942. This is a Cactus Air Force warbird.

Paints used were Model Master acrylics with additional colors provided by Tamiya and Aircraft Colors. Weathering is Tamiya weathering compounds and Flory dark dirt wash. This was built OOB with the exception of of antenna rigging and the nose weighting. As such, I barely got enough weight in the nose - it is iffy when I set it down whether it will stay on its nose gear or not.

As with the Eduard kit, I encountered issues installing the car doors. The parts do not conform to the canopy framing properly. I was able to tack them down with a bit of CA glue, but I am not real happy with the look. The photographs do not really show this issue.

2

Wow, that is an amazing build! Absolutely a fantastic build! Thank you for sharing this.

Toshi

3

Man! Three Bell aircraft in a row. =] That’s devotion! Nice collection there Aggieman. I always like seeing the side by side comparisons within a particular subject. Very well done across the board. Don’t worry about the doors too much. They really aren’t noticeable. My pictures never seem to show all the things I’m less pleased with as well.

Three thumbs up.

4

One thing though: P-400’s had the long thin 20 mm cannon, not the 37 mm short stubby cannon.

5

I figured that would be the case but had not paid close enough attention to see that the cannon had to be installed inside the spinner before I attached the spinner to the prop structure. I decided not to rip it apart and just went with the stubby cannon. Call it a strong desire to just be finished.

6

Eduard doesnt include the nose weight anymore[:'(] She looks great!

7

Beautiful build. I have to build this one soon so I appreciate the heads up about the doors. Perhaps I’ll pose them both open…Again, nice work.