Thanks for lookin', men.. I appreciate the kudos.. A couple of construction notes on this kit, since Revell has re-released it and y'all will now be racing to the LHS to get one for yourself, right? Yah, Thought so...
I couldn't display the nose-gunbay open, since it and the nosegear-well is full of BBs. (Guess that means that, technically speaking, I actually ARMED this one, eh?) I wish that I had just trapped a pin in the nosewheel instead, since it's going into a diorama. That keeps folks (especially frakkin' contest judges that just HAVE to handle everything w/o permission from the builder) from pickin' it up... Even if you don't build dios or display bases with terrain, I still recommend doing it for tricycle-geared aircraft, especially if you weather with pastels. Besides preventing damage (like the model(s) moving around or worse, sliding off the base during transport), it keeps fingerprints off my pastel-work. I don't clear-coat the pastels (They go on top of the final clear flat coat), since that will drastically (if not destroy) alter the colors. I have yet to find a way to lock them down permanently, and it's not from lack of trying. It's like playin' an upright piano in a marchin' band-- There's just no good way to do it...
However, I digress...
With the exception of the windscreen (normal for Monogram/Revell-Monogram kits, so quit whining and just DEAL with it), I didn't need any filler anywhere on this kit. Careful sanding & constant test-fitting allowed the gunbay door and engine hatches to fit tight without any cement. I say test-fitting because you can take off more than you want in ONE swipe and ruin it... I also shaved off the round tabs that allow the gunbay door to be removed easily...
I did very little in the way of scratch-building or modifications to this kit. It doesn't need many (although some Revellogram Poopoo-ers around here would disagree), and except maybe adding a seat harness, throttle quadrant, and a better gunsight (if the cockpit door is modeled open and/or the windows "down"), it looks good in the cockpit as is, IMNSHO. Closed up for take-off/ landing or in-flight means a pilot and everything is hidden.*** In this case, I just painted the molded-on seat harness (GASP) & drybrushed the panel & gunsight. They look fine from a normal viewing distance (about 12 inches for dioramas) even with the door open/windows down... As always, After-market parts came from my usual AM vendor. "Von Hammer's Neighborhood Salvage Yard & Hobby Shop" supplied the piece of brass tube for the 37mm cannon muzzle, a wire fuel-line for the drop tank, and I also drilled-out the gun-troughs for the .50 cals...
Those that display their aircraft inverted or really care about wheel wells will want to cut the mounting points for the inner-main doors away, put in some strip styrene to close the hole left behind, and then add some door-closing hardware, but as for the wells themselves they require little or no work. There's some fine molded-on detail in there already and little can be added except perhaps some fine wire for tubing in a couple places. The nose gear-well could stand a bit, but it's too narrow to bother with in my opinion...
As I said earlier, the underside of mine isn't gonna be viewable, so I skipped adding the "U.S. ARMY" decal since I'm not sure that was always applied to USAAF P-400s that still had their export camouflage paint schemes, and I've no photo-evidence of it being done across the board. The nosegear retraction strut could benefit from some rework into a two-piece retracting arm & cylinder (like the Eduard 'Cobra has) but only if it's going to be flipped over & examined (or you just HAVE to do it)... I'd also open the brass & link ejector-chutes...
Lastly, I gotta say again that it's one of the best-fitting kits I've ever built (I've built this kit several times since 1969, when it was first released)... Price? A spendy (for a 10-year old making .50 cents a week in allowance and $1.50 per lawn) $1.79... (I remember it well because it was the first 1/48th-scale kit I bought with my OWN money, heh...) My normal purchases were the HAWK and Monogram 1/72-scale aircraft kits that ran .39 cents apiece... *Sigh*...
I didn't mean for this post to turn into a novel, but I got a new medication and it's REALLY fun... I'll shutup for now though...
***IF you model a P-39-series A/C in-flight, the windows must be closed. Open windows cause a buffeting problem at all airspeeds and also could result in one or both doors being blown off above 200 knots.
Note to Stik: Hey, I might need an extension of a few days on this thing since I added the diorama... I gotta make a couple coconut palms to give it the "Jungle"look... The 'Cobra will be complete sometime today or tomorrow (truthfully, Monday next)... That doable?