Eduard P-39Q Weekend WIP...Finished Finally Pic's on Page 7

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
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I finally Finished this project> see Page 7 for the final pictures and wrap up

Ok guys I have never posted any WIP before so here goes.

Note this is a Weekend edition kit, which with my speed equates to about a month or so[:D] So anyone (Manny) that is impatient, will be disapointed at how fast this build goes.

Completed Cockpit section with nose weights (I think I added too many)

IP…not too happy with this but oh well.

First time trying this way of making seat belts. I know the buckle is not right but I do like the looks none the less

Different angle

Looking at the IP

Looking aft

Close up of radio

Over view…I have not cleaned up the wing joint at all yet. That is next

Another wide shot

Thats it for now I will update with more pictures as I go along if anyone is interested.

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Very nice Herc!

Just a “heads up”. I did Accuminis offering(same molds, I think). The right door fit well enough(closed), The left fit was aweful, I had to pose that one open.

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lookin’ good so far! [Y]

OWL

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Ditto on that left door. I left the right open and the left “ajar”. Before you get further test fit the canopy. You’ll find that the fuselage needs to be pinched in for it to fit properly.

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My uncle flew P-39/P-400s from Guadalcanal, 67th FS… Always a favorite of mine, the 'Cobra… Looks like you’re off to a good start… I did side-by-side build log of the Eduard and Monogram P-39s a few months ago… (Guess which I preferred, lol)

Actually, that’s the IFF transmitter… The P-39/P-400 radios are in the fuselage… The IFF transmitter was only fitted to later-model USAAF variants, none on export version (Airacobra Mk I, Mk 1A, and P-400, AKA a “P-40 with a Zero behnd it”, according to Cactus Air Force pilots on Guadalcanal)…

The Eduard kit has a couple small issues though… The trailing edges of the wings were pretty thick and had to be sanded down closer to scale, and my copy had a big gap on one wing/fuselage joint, plus I thought the dihedral was rather flat… I tried to split the difference on the gap, but it wouldn’t line up right then, so I just filled the gap.

I had the Profi-pack, rather than the Weekend Edition tho… That version came with a fret of P/E parts, “weighted” tires, and fitted nose-weight… Didn’t use much P/E except for the cockpit parts and brake lines, since most of the rest were vent/intake screens, and were invisible, and if you looked into the intakes/vents, the styrene parts were well-textured anyway… I just drybrushed the screen-texture and saved the P/E screens for another kit another day…

One thing on the doors… The P-39’s left door could only be opened from inside, the right, from either in or out… The windows on the doors could be rolled down on the ground like a car-door, and I wanted to depict them that way… Didn’t get that option though, like the Monogram P-39 offers… Also didn’t like the lack of a nose-gunbay or any engine detail, and aside from the nosegear well and gear struts, the Monogram P-39 is, IMHO, superior to the Eduard kit in almost every way (I don’t care about panel lines-The just have to be in scale or easily made that way), although I liked the inclusion of the four-bladed prop & spinner for the P-39Q-21 models (No it’s not for some future P-63 release like some reviewers have written. The King Cobra was a totally different “Snake” and a bigger aircraft all-around.)…

Really nice work on the panel, seat-harness (Don’t forget the shoulder harness though) & hardware, and IFF cables… I’m looking forward to seeing more of your build-log, especially since you’re “popping your cherry” with this aircraft, so keep going! I could read about P-39s all day, especially since Uncle John flew them (Dad did too, but not in combat), and I think this aircraft just didn’t get the credit it really deserved…

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Looking good so far. Keep us posted.

Regards, Rick

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Hans, did you ever find that book I recommended to you about your Uncle and his unit on the Canal?

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Looking good so far. Keep up the good work. The Airacobra is one of my personal favorites. I don’t know if it is because I am from Buffalo, where they were made, or the gaudy look of it, the same reason I like the A-10. It should have been an A-39 with that 37mm cannon in the spinner. Good strafer, bad pursuit plane.

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Thanks for all the comments guys. I really appreciate the tips on the doors. I had read somewhere that the doors would be a pain. I guess I will take an asprin and press on.

I had the same issue with the wings as everyone else has noted they look like barn doors on the trailing edges and I really had to put some tension on the tape to join the wings at any kind of angle.

I did drill out a bunch of the lightning holes on the bulkheads and such but they just don’t show in the pictures.

I will update this build as it goes…but I am slow (don’t get much time to work on kits) so stay tuned.

Hammer,

That is really cool that your Uncle and Dad flew these A/C. I think they are one of the more interesting planes from the era. I prefer them to the virtual sea of Mustang’s, and Spitfires although I have always had a thing for the Thunderbolt and the Corsair.

Sorry about the misstep on the nomenclature for the IFF, I couldn’t find any good photos or any reference book close by when I started so I just pressed on with the wire harness guessing it was a radio.

I thought about buying the PE set that goes with this but after looking at the instructions for them, like you, I just could not see that most of it would be all that visible anyway so I opted out.

Thanks for the heads up on the Monogram kit. I really like the Cobra, so I will have to pick it up and try it out. I am searching to find your build log to get some tips as I proceed.

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I have that same kit on my bench at the moment. Of course mine doesn’t look near as good as yours does so far but I’m pretty happy with the kit itself. It’s the first weekend edition kit I’ve ever built and I’m enjoying it so far. I’m hoping to get some WIP photos posted of it soon. I forgot to get any photos of the cockpit before I closed it up but I plan on leaving one of the doors open so maybe I can work some in that way. We’ll see I guess.

Great looking kits so far. Can’t wait to see more pics of it.

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Nice job [:D[ [snWow]

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Thanks for the compliment… but remember as long as you are having fun with it it that is all that matters. Post some pic’s I would love to see them.

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Nice work… I’ve got the AM boxing of that kit I plan on building as part of a group (planes of the cactus airforce) so I’ll eagerly follow your build. I may steal some of your ideas. I really like the wiring on the IFF transponder.

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Thanks! I don’t know how authentic the wiring is but I thought it would look about right to my calibrated eyeball.

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Here are some pictures of the real thing:

http://bell.pictures.fi/kuvat/Aviation/Museums/Ilmatorjunta+museo/P-39/

Michael

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Thanks for the link…some nice pictures there.

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tight looking build so far ,really great job on the office

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Here are some pictures of the real thing:

http://bell.pictures.fi/kuvat/Aviation/Museums/Ilmatorjunta+museo/P-39/

Michael

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Looks great so far! I really like your instrument panel. Will be looking forward to see this one complete.

Mike

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Very nicely done so far!

I built this one, too, and I can second some of the fit comments. I built mine as part of a group build in our club in '09. It was a seminar build, to practice techniques. We did sand the trailing edges of the wings, and we also attached the wings by gluing the upper wing parts to the wing roots, thereby eliminating the usual seam/gap that you can get. Also, we found it necessary to glue the fuselage halves together by starting at the cockpit, trueing up the halves from there. That left a small step at the nose, and a little bit of an overlap on the trailing edge of the rudder. Either one would have been much worse, and the canopy would really have had a fit problem, had we aligned at the nose or at the tail. But aligning at the cockpit, the canopy fit perfectly, and there were no fit issues with the doors, except that I found I did have to file the hinges a little. I posed both of them open, to show off the interior, which is really nice.

The other fit problem, I found, was at the place where the trailing edge of the lower wing part meets the seam between the left and right fuselage halves, just aft of the vents. It leaves a sort of V-shaped depression to port or starboard, depending on how you dressed the parts, and I filled that with putty, softened it with acetone, and used a straight edge like a float, to level the surface of the filled area to the wing and fuselage seam.

However, I missed seams around the cover for the weapons bay at the nose, so, lesson in humility.

Does the kit come with a weight? The boxing that I built had one, but I could see that it’s left out of the weekend addition. Also, if there are canopy masks included–again, they may be excluded from the weekend edition–and they’re the old, black vinyl masks, watch for curling at the edges.

I’m looking forward to seeing your progress, it is an enjoyable kit, even with all the little things we all found.

Best regards,

Brad