Dual P-39 Build

Here's "Old Crow, the 1st", Bud Anderson's P-39 (Eduard P-39Q) as it appeared in early fall of 1943 while the unit was flying out of Tonopah AAF, NV.  I hit a stopping until  can either make some decals for the "OLD CROW" name, a/c and serial number, and squadron insignia, or order some.

The diorama base isn't anywhere near done, it and the figures are temporary, the figures are just for scale and visual interest right now...

It's painted with Testor's Model Master Olive Drab over Tamiya Neutral Grey, with Krylon Gloss Red on the tail & nose band.  It was oversprayed with Treehouse Acrylic gloss prior to decaling, followed by Treehouse Acrylic Flat.  There's only a little bit weathering so far, some exhaust staining and a few chips on the tail, and it won't receive much more since this was a Stateside-aircraft and was pretty well maintained.  All but the Tamiya paint was rattle-can applied...

Tamiya Neutral Grey..

Hans, what paint did you use for the undersides?

Search funtion is working again! Here's the link to the PSP thread:

/forums/p/104507/1034558.aspx#1034558

Thanks, Shooter, Herr Baron..

Who says Monogram kits are no good?

HKShooter's "Kit-pickers" (Gawd, I love that handle for 'em, lol)...

What did you use to plumb the drop tank?

It's just a piece of stiff 26-guage wire bent into position and inserted into a pre-drilled hole in the tank.  Rather than mate it up with anothr hole in the plane, I just left it a little more than a 45-Deg angle and let it compress tight when I glued it into poition.

I like the PSP base. What brand is it? Scratch?

Yeah, scratch---more or less... I did it by burnishing aluminum foil down over an Eduard 1/48th PSP display base that I purchased back in '08... The bases themselves are too small even for an Airacobra to prevent the dreaded overhang, plus they're too expensive to buy each time I need one (16.00, IIRC).  So I did two sheets of foil, then cut them to size and glued it into place...  I then cut single planks of it and laid them out for the staggered ends on the edge.

I posted a "How To" in the Diorama Forum about a year & a half ago on how I made it.. I'll see if I can find it...

Another home run, Hammer!  Who says Monogram kits are no good?

Looking good, Hans. What did you use to plumb the drop tank?
I like the PSP base. What brand is it? Scratch?

I've got the Monogram bird at 95% now, and am doing some diorama lay-outs with it..

Here's the Monogram P-39@ 90% built, painted, & weathered...

Some things I didn't like about the paint are being fixed now... I'll post those later later, after I've fixed them..  I painted with a combo of Tamiya and Testor's MM enamel and faded with a thined mix over Testor's Tan and added pastels...

Tausend Dank, Herr Shooter!

Hans, I got a lead on a kit have the ball rolling on that stabilizer. If this is gonna work I should have the part in my hand Friday.

Yes, AM's P-39 is the Eduard kit.

Regards,

Brad

I'll get right on it, Hans. I have a plan and I'll keep you updated.

Ain't YOUR fault, Shooter..

I thought about the Racer too, but the thing was gone when I went to HL to do just that.. FIgures.. Noone wanted it, it sat there over a year until I needed it...

Man, I'd love to get a replacemant stab.. Whichever's easier for ya..

Nice work on the cobras Hans.
I'm sorry about the missing clear and stabilizer. I was not aware of those problems. It kind of erks me that the kit was shorted as the shop I bought the kit at had a habit of opening the kits instead of leaving them sealed for the customer. I took for granted it was complete but for the PSP piece which I knew about.
If the shop was still in buisness I'd go request a replacement part for you. But Hobbyland in Ft Wayne went out of buisness a couple of years ago.
I don't have that kit in the stash in any of it's forms or I'd offer you the stabilizer. The local Hobby Lobby has the racing version in stock though and I could grab a coupon and go get the kit. I could have a friend of mine cast me a resin part and I could send you the styrene version. Just say the word. I'd like to have another anyway.

Monogrm P-39...

 Note that wing/fuselage fit...

Side-by-side:

kustommodeler1

I got the Accurate Miniatures kit a couple of months ago, and the first thing in the box was a second fuselage sprue and a note aying to replace the defective original gray one with the corrected olive green one, so Eduard knows about the warping and length problem and has corrected it.

 

The corrected fuselage halves fall together so well you wonder if you even need cement.

So you're saying that the AM kit is the Eduard kit?  What about the wings?  The Eduard kit's are so thick it looks like the 'Cobra had trailing edges two inches thick...

One more thing to add... The mai gear wells, lol.. I didn't RTFI, so when I closed up the wing-halves, I looked at the wheel wells and saw no detail.. No problem, thought I, I'll just add some strip & sprue... I like doing  that anyway... So I started to do so, then I noticed that that the sprue with what I THOUGHT was a set of closed gear doors were actually the INSIDE wheel well parts!  D'OH!!  They had a flange around them to glue the parts onto the top of the wells, but never mind... I just cut & sanded them flush, then pushed them into the gear bays after the fact..

*RTFI, peopl, RTFI..

* Read The Frickin' Instructions!!

Still don't know what I'm gonna do about that missing stab... Shot another Email off to Eduard, but I ain't holdin' my breath...  I hate the idea off ripping off the the left one to cast another...

Not a bad start, Hammer, and a good job of dealing with the problems as they came up!

A good example of mismatched camo is the 404th BS B-24D's in desert pink getting sent to Alaska and the Aleutians in 1942 where they were known as the "Pink Elephants".

Ok, an update... I got the Eduard kit going for the "Before They Were Aces"  GB as Bud Anderson's 1st "Old Crow" and the Monogram kit as my Uncle John's Cactus AF P-39 for Stikpusher's Gudalcanal Campaign GB..

The work started in the cockpit as usual, here's some pics... I drilled out the holes and added sprue bolts for the IFF box behind the armor since the Stateside birds didn't have them installed, but left the PE cable for it for visual interest.  I also used the PE panel, but ended up redoing the gunsite as I didn't care for the look of the kit supplied one(Shown here)..  The seat-adjustment lever on the right side there is stretched sprue, since the kit part shot out into space on me during installation..  The seat is a resin one that was supplied by my Secret Santa last year (who also gave me this kit.  I never could have afforded this one)

Now, on to the wings...

Adding the interior parts for the intakes, along with the PE screens turned out to be a waste of time as A: You can't see the screens, and 2: They ( the intakes) cause the upper wing halves to set too high up to close, even with clamps.. So, I got out the trusty Dremel and ground off the tops of the intakes (shooting one of the screens into the Hinterlands in the process) which allowed the wing halves to close... Still had to use a skoshi bit of putty though.

There was a pronounced gap in the left wing/fuselage joint, which I filled with a little bead of Testor's Putty, thinned with alcohol. I later cleaned out the panel lines that got a little putty in 'em and also filled those shrinkage cracks... I also had to fill the joint at the top of the carburator air intake and reshape it a bit due to the fuselage halves being one shorter than the other..

 The right wing joined nice & tight, but on the underside, the joint between the trailing edge of the flap and the fuselage was pretty wide, so it got filled as well and I also cleaned out the flap/fuselage joint...

Couple of things about this kit.. There's some alignment issues, namely the fuselage halves.. The left one is shorter that the right (about q milimeter), meaning I had to sand the rudder's trailing edge to match the right, and this is what caused the gap in the flap/fuselage underside joint.. Also, the trailing edges of the wings are way too thick and I should really have sanded them thinner.. I was just too lazy to do it, heh...  As they are, they look about a scale one or two inches thick...

Overall, I'm not all that impressed with the Eduard 'Cobra over the Monogram/Revell version so far, and I'm not saying it because of my well-known bias towards Monogram... BUT... You'd think that with the price of Eduard's 1/48th kits, it's gonna be a better fit than the Revellogram, but I'm not seeing it..  Sure, there's a bit more detail in the 'pit, the wheel-wells are nicely done (I screwed up on those, BTW.. I'll write about THAT later, heheh...) and there's the TON of PE fiddly bits ( I'll never use 80% of 'em) and pre-painted (WTF?) panels, handles, knobs, levers, harnesses, and decal selection, as well as round and  flattened tires (dunno why there's round ones), but that's not really enough, IMHO.. Glad I didn't pay for this one, if you get my meaning.. I think a higher-end kit like this should fit better and the moldings should be a bit crisper & thinner (especially the wings)...   I don't know if this is a warpage-prevention issue (The Monogram wings are little bit warped due to the thinness,out at the tips, but easily clamped.  Could also be due to the kit's age & how it was stored)

Also, one last BIG gripe... There were NO clear parts in the kit when I opened it (Thankfully, a fellow forum member, who asked to remain anonymous, sent a spare one to me) and I can't find the left stabilizer.. (I don't know if I lost it or it was just never there, so I'll not take Eduard to task for that part)..  I never heard back from Eduard about the clear parts and it's been over a year since I wrote them too..  The missing left stab will be a pain, but I can cast one in resin, I reckon.. (Unless someone out there has a trashed 1/48th Airacobra of any make ? Hint-hint...)

Well, thanks fer readin' & I'm off to the Monogram kit again...

Looked up the unit on the web and can't anything either as why the desert camo... Saw plenty of links to that particular aircraft as a die-cast though...

Hans von Hammer

Thanks fer the kudos, men..  Some one must have left you an Easter Egg... Monogram blue-box, white-box, or CAF 'Cobra kits didn't contain any PE metal parts... I never had the Pro Modeler version, so I can't tell about that one. it's likely a fret of parts came with that one....

But the callouts in the instructions actually are for dark tan uppers and light blue lowers-I cheated on the lower surfaces and used light gray.

I can't remember if this was the unit that painted their P-39s pink, while they were still staging in Hawaii before deploying

Do you know which squadron?  My  refs all point at N. Africa as the destination for Tan US Army 'Cobras., specifically the 81st FG's P-39Ls in late '43.  They had the tan/azure blue paint with the red-boardered US Insignia. 

Hans von Hammer

Thanks fer the kudos, men..  Some one must have left you an Easter Egg... Monogram blue-box, white-box, or CAF 'Cobra kits didn't contain any PE metal parts... I never had the Pro Modeler version, so I can't tell about that one. it's likely a fret of parts came with that one....

But the callouts in the instructions actually are for dark tan uppers and light blue lowers-I cheated on the lower surfaces and used light gray.

I can't remember if this was the unit that painted their P-39s pink, while they were still staging in Hawaii before deploying

Do you know which squadron?  My  refs all point at N. Africa as the destination for Tan US Army 'Cobras., specifically the 81st FG's P-39Ls in late '43.  They had the tan/azure blue paint with the red-boardered US Insignia. 

Hi, Hammer, sorry for the delay, the spec on the paint that I used is:  Model Master 1942 Dark Tan, FS 30219 in the 3 oz rattle can.

As to the markings,they show "Devastating Devil", assigned to the 46th FS, 15th FG, 7th Air Force, and operating from Makin Island around August 1943.  I don't know if those units were shipped in from North Africa to the Pacific.

Unfortunately, I can't find the reference now that had the story of the unit painting their mounts pink.  I know that I read that, while I was building the kit, but that detail wasn't in the Squadron "P-39 In Action" booklet.  So, I can't cite that one.  But maybe it rings a bell with someone else in the forum.

Regards,

Brad

I got the Accurate Miniatures kit a couple of months ago, and the first thing in the box was a second fuselage sprue and a note aying to replace the defective original gray one with the corrected olive green one, so Eduard knows about the warping and length problem and has corrected it.

The corrected fuselage halves fall together so well you wonder if you even need cement.

Thanks fer the kudos, men..  Some one must have left you an Easter Egg... Monogram blue-box, white-box, or CAF 'Cobra kits didn't contain any PE metal parts... I never had the Pro Modeler version, so I can't tell about that one. it's likely a fret of parts came with that one....

But the callouts in the instructions actually are for dark tan uppers and light blue lowers-I cheated on the lower surfaces and used light gray.

I can't remember if this was the unit that painted their P-39s pink, while they were still staging in Hawaii before deploying

Do you know which squadron?  My  refs all point at N. Africa as the destination for Tan US Army 'Cobras., specifically the 81st FG's P-39Ls in late '43.  They had the tan/azure blue paint with the red-boardered US Insignia. 

And I'll had my praise for your cockpit work, too!  Nicely done!

By the way, do you know--were the ammo cans in the nose part of a ProModeler upgrade to the Monogram kit?  I ask because I picked up one, secondhand.  It's in the white box from the mid- to late 70s, but the weapons bay is completed, and has metal (PE?) ammo cans and belts.  I figured they are either some other maker's aftermarket detail pieces, or maybe they were added to the original kit in the ProModeler program.

Hans von Hammer

Herr, Baron... What's the top color you used on your 'Cobra?  It looks like a nice, sun-faded OD that'll work well for what I have in mind for the Eduard kit..

Then again, it might be "Desert Pink" and my screen ain't showing it right... Having trouble telling.

Hi, Hammer, it's actually a dark tan, I think it's Model Master, but I'll check tonight when I get home, and post back.

When I chose the subject I wanted to build, and checked the box art, I had the same idea as you did, that it was a really well-faded OD.  After all, this bird was in the hot, bright Pacific sun.  But the callouts in the instructions actually are for dark tan uppers and light blue lowers-I cheated on the lower surfaces and used light gray.

I can't remember if this was the unit that painted their P-39s pink, while they were still staging in Hawaii before deploying.  I think they thought that the color would camoflage the aircraft well on the crushed coral airfields of the forward airfields in the PTO.

Nice work on the Pit,  Hans.  Keep on Truckin.

Regards,  Rick

Hans, I'm guess that's MM enamel in tungsten light. Looks like the white balance is off.