I just picked this up last night. Never built one before, it is missing from my collection of mostly navy fighters. Is it a good build and is there anything I need to look out for. I suppose it is aluminum or silver in color? Any cool variants?
My bad, it is the P38. What an idiot I am.
I have the P39…! But not the P38… So I can’t help…!
It’s a decent kit but it does take a little work to get it together OK. Parts are provided to do all variants from the P-400 through the P-39Q, Just do your research to decide what guns, exhaust stacks and nose vents you need for your variant. The first major problem is, the wrong door is open. Although both doors on a P-39 opened the door used most was the right hand door. This was because the throttle quadrant overhung the left door opening and you would normally bang your knee into it upon entering or exiting the cockpit. I decided to build mine with the door closed on the left and not worry about opening the other. The canopy seems a bit short in length so I added some sheet stock to the front of the roll over bar. With a little careful sanding everything lined up pretty good. The rear canopy also needed a bit of fitting but it also turned out OK. The next problem was where the nose gear strut attached. The hole in the bottom of the cockpit floor where it is supposed to mount is too far back. The P-39’s nose gear was right at the front of the bay. I fixed this simply by adding some sheet stock to lengthen the floor and drilled a new hole for the gear. Thinning the little door that attaches to the strut is also necessary. Fit wise, the fuselage and wings were excellent. I just needed a little filler were the wing bottom meets the fuselage in the back. Again just take a little time to make sure things line up before slapping some glue on it.
Markings wise, most Airacobras were painted. There are markings for most variants including some air racers. Unfortunately most of them were done by Aeromaster and may be hard to find now. Meteor Productions may also have some.
If you can find it, Neomega made a fantastic resin set for the Academy P-39. The only problem with it was the door they provide to open the left side is mis-shaped on top. I’m still trying to figure out how to fix that.
Hope this helps. The P-39 is one of my favorite airplanes and if there is anything else I can help you with, let me know.
Please disregard previous post that took twenty minutes to hunt and peck out.[:)]
Well, at least it’s not lost for everybody, Eagle…! I still have to build mine! LOL
[:0][(-D]
sorry but i just had to laugh…still, if i ever fancy building a p-39, i know where to come!![;)][:p][(-D]
regards,
nick