Eduard 1/48 Airacobra WIP

Looks great Clemens.  Is that a re-boxing of the old Accurate Miniature Kit?  I have one of those in the stash that I may try eventually in Guadalcanal markings.  Nice pit and I like the map idea.  I thought about putting one in the pocket of my recent Bf 109, but I forgot.   Interesting on the white flecks, what did you use to thin the Gunze?  That sometimes happens to me when I spray down Testor's dull coat.  Anyways, nice recovery and I'll be following your progess.

Joe

Thanks a lot, guys!

Joe: Yeh, it's the reboxed AM kit with added nose ballast and all the profipack goodies. The colored PE caused a lot of truoble though, because the IP was too big to fit the cockpit (that's why I had all those fit issues in the cockpit)

I thin my Gunze paints with "Mr. Color Thinner" (I use the Acrylics). I think I know what caused the paint splatter though: I sprayed highly thinned gray paint at kinda high pressure (about 30-35 PSI) to get sharper demarcation lines between the OD and the NG. I some of the paint that didn't hit the model where I sprayed might have laid down on the fuselage side, causing those specks...

SchattenSpartan

Thanks a lot, guys!

Joe: Yeh, it's the reboxed AM kit with added nose ballast and all the profipack goodies. The colored PE caused a lot of truoble though, because the IP was too big to fit the cockpit (that's why I had all those fit issues in the cockpit)

Actually it's the other way around.  The Eduard kit came first.  AM did a re-boxing of it.  Wonderful kit though, no matter who makes it.  The only gripe I ever had was the trailing edge was a bit too thick.  Otherwise it was fine.  It was one of those kits that got me turned on to Eduard.  I was hesitant to try anything that wasn't Tamiyagawa/Monogram and this kit got me out of that rut and opened my eyes to other companies.

Great work Clemons. I have the AM P-400 in the stash

I have two Eduard molded P-39s and it seems the intakes under the nose is molded wrong or weird, Can you take a picture of yours?

Stu: Thaks for pointing that out! You learn something new here every day! I agree on the thick trailing edges. I tried to thin them down a little bit, but only with minor success. I might get the Hasegawa kit as well (it has thinner wings AFAIK)

John: Thank you! I think you get the same sprues with every Eduard P-39 kit. It seems like the only things different in each kit are the instructions and the decals...

Psycho: Sure. There's no intake directly under the nose, so I assume you were referring to the wing-root intakes?

I just finished masking the areas around all the surfaces and I'm ready to spray them in their base color mixed with some white to depict the stronger fading of paint on the fabric-covered surfaces:

I told you already that she's going to be a Russian bird, so here are the decals I'll dress her up with:

My snake of choice is Major Sirotin's aircraft:

The decals themselves look really nice and are printed well:

A nice bonus is the addition of PE seatbelts. I used the kit-supplied belts already, but additional AM seatbelts are never a bad ting to have 

 I'll post some pics as soon as the control surfaces are painted...

Cheers, Clemens

Nice scheme Clemens! Looking forward to seeing how those AML Decals preform. I'm gonna use them real soon on my La-5f. Just waiting for the gloss to dry another 2 days or so.

Excellent work so far Clemens, lovin it bro!

Clemens, what are your feelings so far on this Eduard kit?  

Nathan: I'm curious as well. I never heard of AML before but I thought I'll give it a try because I liked that one scheme so much!

Eric: Thanks for chiming in! I really appreciate the nice words!

BV: My feelings... Hmm... It is a good kit, but by far not perfect: The amount of detail is nice and it is fairly easy to build, but the larger parts don't have a very good fit. I had a large step at the leading edges of both wings when the trailing edges were aligned. The fuselage halves are no perfect fit either. I had to do a lot of sanding, but I think it was worth the effort. I'll definitely build the 2nd kit (it is a dual combo after all), but my 3rd Cobra (if I decide to build a 3rd one) will be the Hasegawa kit. The biggest strength of this kit is the price though: It costs less than the Hasegawa offering and includes 2 Airacobras and masks, PE parts and nose weigths(!) as well as some interesting marking options (desert camo!) It is one of Eduard's earliest kits AFAIK, so it's´not as good as their Hellcats or Fw 190s, but I like it!

Well I WAS going to post the update now, but I have to report a little boo-boo:

I was about to take a few pics, but suddently...

...a wild FINGERPRINT appeared!

I finallly managed to complete today's painting session. After removing that fingerprint, I had to restore the post-shading everywhere i did some touch-ups.

Door without fingerprint:

The grainy "texture" in the pic is only caused by the bad lighting. I fixed that issue before taking more photos...

These pics look a bit more like the real model compared to the ones I posted earlier:

I also tinkered around with the OD on the wings, adding more color to them:

This picture shows the color difference a bit better:

The different shades of OD are easier to make out in person, but my camera isn't that good with subtle color differences...

The main reason for this update are the control surfaces, so here are some pics of them:

I guess the OD on the control surfaces is a bit too light (I sprayed some highly thinned OD on top of them because they were even lighter than they are now), but I like how they look and I don't feel like masking and spraying everything again. I'll just leave them as they are now.

The pic of the tailplane shows the OD how it really looks BTW...

Cheers, Clemens

Good repair Clemens. I'm still torn between this or the Hasegawa kit for when I finally get around to building an Airacobra. You've got some good shading and weathering going on so far.

Clemens,

I think the OD on the control surfaces sets the fabric covers off well.  Weathering should blend the colors at the end, so it might be (IMO) okay to leave as is.

Gary

Thanks, Nathan! I spent roughly 5 hours on the faded OD and 2 more on the gray, but I think it's really worth the effort. I'd either get the Hasegawa kit or one of the Eduard dual combos (same price as Hase, but 2 kits). The Hasegawa Cobra is probably the better kit of the two, but it's pretty damn expensive...

Gary: I don't even know how I'm going to tackle the weathering on this one yet. I'll start off with a Flory wash (probably the dark wash), but I'm not sure if I'm going to do anything else except some chipping on the wing roots/leading edges...

Looking great Clemens.  I tend to leave "forensic evidence" behind when I use Gunze paint.  I'm used to Tamiya which dries much quicker.  The control surfaces look great.  I do the same to mine.  Makes it look more realistic. Once you give them a wash, dull coat, it will be fine.  Nice scheme by the way.  

Joe  

Many thanks, Joe!

I don't really like Tamiya that much compared to Gunze acrylics TBH. The Gunze paints just spray way better IMO and they also have a lot more colors in their line-up. The slightly longer drying time also helps me to blend all the colors together when post-shading (I'm not too experienced with that) What do you use as the final finishing coat? I have Alclad flat clear, but I don't really like the completely flat finish it produces...

I'm following this thread with great interest!  In your opinion, how does the Eduard kit compare to the Revell offering?  I built the Revell P-400 last year and loved it.  I've never built an Eduard kit before but I'm curious to try one.  

Eric

Clemons. I too like gunze but here in the states its been getting harder and harder to get ahold of.  John

I'm sorry, but I don't know anything about the Revell kit. It looks like it has raised panel lines though and I personally don't like that fact TBH... However, I can tell you that the Eduard kit builds up nicely and most of the fit issues were caused by me being too dumb to properly test fit the fuselage halves and the cockpit with the IP in place before assembling everything...

John: I heard about that. We can't get any Gunze lacquer paints here though. Their leveling thinner is almost impossible to buy in Austria as well... Model Master is also extremely rare here...

I have never liked this plane but that is nothing against your model. I am loving that splotchy and faded olive drab paintjob on this model. Very nice job!

Chris

Thank you sir! I like to paint my aircraft models with the paint showing a lot of fading. I think it jsut makes the model look a lot better. I'm no fan of perfectly clean looking planes...