Little back story. I picked up this kit purely due to the decals it had. The actual aircraft(or one with the same markings) is hung from the ceiling at the Buffalo Naval Park. We visited there a few years ago. I prefer to do builds of stuff I have seen if I can. Having done a couple P-39’s from an Eduard kit when I first started building(wish I still had that kit)the Eduard kit is far superior to the Monogram. This did have some PE in it, but it was super thick, and hard to bend, especially things as small as the gun vents. Some of it I just decided was not worth fighting with it. I had taken the time to build up, and detail the gun bay area, and then for some reason opted to just put the cover on anyway. I had tossed this back in the box for a while. Decided to pick it back up recently. Wish I would of realized my mistake. There was no way you were cramming enough weight in the nose while keeping the gun stuff to keep it from being a tail sitter. So Ultimately I landed up putting it on a little base and glueing the front tire down.
Excellent work, Keyda. Except for one small detail. Lt. Shomo’s plane is a Q-5 which used a 37mm cannon in the nose. You used the 20mm cannon which was used by RAF Airacobra Mk. 1’s, P-400’s, and P-39D-1’s.
Nice work. A few years ago I did the Monogram P-39, which I’d built several times when I was young. I thought I would be able to get enough weight into the gun bay to keep it from tail sitting, but nope, there is literally no room to get anything extra in there.
I think you just have to leave the gun detail out if you want it to sit on the front gear. I was WAY past that point when I realized it just wasn’t going to sit proper. So I had to improvise. Oh well. I don’t think anyone would of known the difference if I hadn’t mentioned it, lol.
