Bell P-400 (P-39) Eduard 1/48 scale

[T Bolt]

I loved building this kit. It was the first time I had built an Eduard kit and was pleasantly surprised at the quality of the kit. Right up there with the Asian kit manufacturers. It has wonderful detail even without the extra bits that come with the more expensive version of this kit. Everything went together beautifully with only a little filler around the wing root intake, and the recessed panel lines seemed just right. The only negative thing I can recall is that the supplied canopy masks kept wanting to come unstuck and I was constantly pressing them back down. They were made of a black rubber like material that wasn't as flexible as it should have been. I know that Eduard now makes masks out of a material more like Tamaya Tape so maybe this has been corrected in newer kits.

 

[Migrant]

That looks great, Glenn.

 

[B-17engineer]

Sure is a beauty Glenn! Another great one!

 

[Airframes]

Nice work Glenn !

 

[Gnomey]

Good work!

 

[Wurger]

This is something for Jan. The white 13 looks great .

 

[Wildcat]

Sweet!

 

[otftch]

Nice job. I always liked that bird. Its a shame they took the superchargers off before the war.. It may have been a more viable fighter.
Ed

 

[ccheese]

Lucky will love this one ! Looks very well done.

Charles

 

[hawkeye2an]

Really nice work T. I always thought it was a cool looking plane when I was younger, then I read Chuck Yeager's book and he spoke very highly of it (at low level, of course). With Ed wondering what could have been with the supercharger.

 

[Blue Yonder]

Nice looking plane, how did you manage the paint chipping?

 

[T Bolt]

Thanks guys! I have liked the aircobra since I built the Monogram kit as a kid. It is a shame about the supercharger, it probably would have helped. It had better forward visibility than any other single engine fighter and the Russians seemed to like the Lend-Lease aircraft they received.
I hadn't made the connection between the number in the wing edge and Jan until you guys mentioned it. Wish I had, that may have been a lost opportunity.
Blue Yonder, As far as the chipping I used Testors silver, the gloss stuff in the square bottle that takes weeks to dry. Put some on a fine brush and after wiping most of it off, I smudged it on the areas of the plane that seemed logical for chipping.

 

[Crimea_River]

Looks really good Glenn. I've now built a couple of kits from Eduard and, like you, am generally impressed with their quality. I have found, however, that they tend to get a little too cute. My Bf 110 was supplied with exhaust stacks that totalled 28 pieces, with each exhaust stub individually molded and needing to be glued onto a manifold. I'd rather they left them as 4 individual pieces and spent time on finding a way to hollow them out, like Tamiya can. I've not experienced the mask issue though. My 110 and Hellcat came with the yellow masks that resemble Tamiya tape and I've had no problems at all.

Anyway, nice job. Hope to see more like it!

 

[T Bolt]

Separate exhaust stacks does sound excessive Andy, doubly so when you have 2 engines. I bought the P-400 kit almost 10 years ago so it doesn't surprise me that they use a different material for the masks now as that black stuff (Vinyl?) wasn't very flexible. It worked fine on the wheel hubs, but anything with a curve gave me fits.

 

[rochie]

looks fantastic Glenn, Eduard do seem to be trying to be to clever some times, the engine on my Fw190 A-8 was a bit of a trial to build and just as bad to fit to the airframe, they do seem to have made it easier on their new Dora though !

 

[Wayne Little]

great stuff Glenn.... had a similar mask problem a while back with some Black vinyl type masks, friggin pain when some sections on the curves of the canopy kept lifting! Reckon they were Black magic masks...from memory.

 

[T Bolt]

Thanks Karl, Wayne.
I didn't really have any problems with extra parts making the assembly difficult. Eduard must have started all that in later kits. Those masks did really pi*ss me off though. This model had 2 paint color coats, a coat of future before the decals and one after to seal them, then a coat of dull coat before the pastels and one after. Near the end there, the masks were coming up so much that I was pressing them down between every pass of the airbrush!! I the other hand I have a B-17C I started in NMF that I started masking with Tamiya tape 4 years ago and got side tracked. I looked at it last week and it was still good, and came up clean when I tried it.

 

[Lucky13]

13....! 8) Great looking bird mate!

 

[T Bolt]

Took you long enough to find it Jan!!

 

[Lucky13]

So many 13's, so little time....