Dirk's Airfix Bell P-39Q Aircobra

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dirkpitt289

Master Sergeant
2,286
20
Jul 16, 2009
South Plainfield New Jersey
White 10 Flown By Capt Pavel Stepanovich Kutakhov

I had started to post this build under the workbench thread but never followed through with it. In light of the current VVS Group Build I felt it would be cool to post the whole thread.

A 1/72 Airfix Airfix Bell P-39Q Aircobra.

The Box Art



The Parts



Typical Airfix kit with big thick spree connections to the fuselage parts and quite a bit of flash. If this is a rebox of the old kit I can understand but if this is a new kit I'm going to be a bit disappointed. Anyway the build will start shortly.

Thanks for looking
 
As is also typical with Airfix kits there is virtually no cockpit other then a chair and a pilot. I'm not going to go crazy here but I'm going to make it somewhat better. We'll see how that goes. :whistle:

Using some Evergreen styrene I added the sides to the pilots seat



and I added a floor



and something that kind of resembles a instrument panel. As we know when its all closed up not much will be seen so why go crazy? :whistle:



Adding some color. As these Aircobras were built in the US and sent over to Russia through the Lend Lease program it made sense to paint the interior in American Interior Green.

 
I also added some color to Capt Pavel Stepanovitch Kutakhov





I was just about to close up the fuselage when i remembered that I needed to add some weight to the nose of this create. My meathood of doing this is simple. I lay a layer of Plumbers putty in the nose and then embed some lead pellets into it. Next I pray it is enough. ray:



 
With the fuselage glued and clamped I turned my attention to the wings. The wings come in three parts, left, right bottom. I dry fitted the right top to the bottom and glued it in place. It was after I had it all clamped that I noticed this.



*** is this suppose to be?



While I don't have any plans to go wild in the wheel wells this is way to weird to let go as it is so its time to break out more POWER....
The red arrows are pointing out the offending plastic





Back in business



That wasn't so painful

 
Looking good so far Dirk. This is a rebox of an old kit, hence lack of detail. The new Airfix kits are of much better detail and quality.
Keep an eye out for the new mould Bf110 which I will entering in the GB shortly.
 
Thanks guys



Test fitting the wings



Filler applied to the seams top and bottom. Green putty used on the aft section behind the wings. The easiest way to describe this area of the model is DEPLORABLE! More attention will be payed to this area once the wings are secured in place.



Post op wheel wells. Not the best but better then oob.



The hold up now is trying to confirm weather or not this create had under wing guns or not? My feeling is this would be easier to fill/ fix with the wings separated from the rest of the aircraft.

 
Here we see the offensive trench that while it would be great for wing mounted machine guns in this case its about as big as a WWI trench. If you look closely you can almost see the troops preparing to make an assault.




Now in a normal WWII aircraft I would just slab some putty in the gap and sand but this being an aircraft with a tricycle landing gear I don't want to upset the delicate balance of the aircraft. In other words I'm afraid of making it a tail sitter :crying2:

So to hopefully avoid such an embarrassment I set to work cutting out some small strips of Evergreen styrene and fit it into the trenches.





Two layers did the trick and when glued sat just below the level of the wing.

 
Now I applied some Squadron Green putty.





Once dry I broke out the Q-tips and acetone. After a couple passes most of the excess putty was gone and the original surface detail remained behind. For those of you who have never use acetone to remove putty beware. If you use to much you can melt the plastic.



Some more preliminary sanding was done to the bottom of the Kobra. At this point the wings are ready to join the fuselage.



Here the wings are connected and you can see where I used some Mr Surfacer 500 to help finish off the under-wing machine gun trenches.



That's all for tonight but tomorrow I need to tackle these gaps.



Till next time thanks for looking
 
Nice work so far Dirk. This kit dates back to the late 1960s, and was also issued under the Heller label; I think that 'lump' in the wheel wells was probably supposed to support the landing gear/doors if built 'wheels up'.
 
My goal last night was to fill those large gaps in the bottom of the model where the wigs meet the fuselage. Trying to limit the amount of putty I first filled the gaps with evergreen styrene and glued in place.

Front





rear





Next I let it sit and cure. Tonight I'll trim the excess and start the filling.

I know it's not much of an update but it is what it is....
 
After a little filler and a lot of sanding it's about as good as its going to get. Or better yet as good as I feel this kit is worth. next came the primer and then some pre-shading of the panel lines

the P-39 got a cote of primer







After the primer dried I decided to do a little pre-shading



 
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