P39 air cobra

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
21

aleksander-bell’s (hey! get it? aleksander bell…yeah, thats the ticket!) first design, the fm-1 “airacuda” was built around a 37 mm cannon. the name was obviously a play on “baracuda”. so bell’s second design, going for the snake thing, hung onto the first two syllables maybe because it sounded good or kept the flow going or was the logical thing to do. sure on the first part, guessing on the second.

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For anyone interested in the Australian P39’s, here’s a couple of extracts from “RAAF Camoflage and Markings Vol 1”.

  1. An almost forgotten type is the P39 Aircobra, some 21 of which were delivered to the RAAF in the early days of the Pacific war when fighters of any kind were desperately needed. A small number carried full 3 letter codes. Finish was rather patchy earth brown, foliage green and sky blue. Earth brown varied greatly in hue due to the nature of pigments available for manufacture.
  2. The few photos available of aircraft in RAAF markings show light coloured undersurfaces, probably US “sky blue”, and what were probably earth brown and foliage green upper surfaces. When the paintwork required reconditioning the undersurfaces appear to have been repainted RAAF sky blue. The size of markings varied considerably.
    The nearest FS 595 a equivalents for these are as follows:
    Foliage Green
23

For anyone interested in the Australian P39’s, here’s a couple of extracts from “RAAF Camoflage and Markings Vol 1”.

  1. An almost forgotten type is the P39 Aircobra, some 21 of which were delivered to the RAAF in the early days of the Pacific war when fighters of any kind were desperately needed. A small number carried full 3 letter codes. Finish was rather patchy earth brown, foliage green and sky blue. Earth brown varied greatly in hue due to the nature of pigments available for manufacture.
  2. The few photos available of aircraft in RAAF markings show light coloured undersurfaces, probably US “sky blue”, and what were probably earth brown and foliage green upper surfaces. When the paintwork required reconditioning the undersurfaces appear to have been repainted RAAF sky blue. The size of markings varied considerably.
    The nearest FS 595 a equivalents for these are as follows:
    Foliage Green 34092
    Earth Brown 30099
    Sky Blue 35550