Thanks Guys
Moving on, I've just about finished the prop as the first photo shows. I will finish with some small chipping and a coat of matt. The Aeroproducts propeller's were usually painted a shade of grey from factory, not black, however the photo of Millie clearly has a black prop, so my guess is that it has been replaced with an overhauled unit, which would make sense since Millie was bellied in when serving in North Africa and later repaired.
These Eduard kits have a choice of three different options, so unless building the box versions, it could be difficult to choose which.
The first 166 P-39Ns were fitted with an Aeroproducts propeller having a diameter of 10 feet 4 inches. Beginning with the 167th P-39N, the Aeroproducts propeller was enlarged to 11 feet 7 inches in diameter, an increase of six inches.
So Millie had the larger prop, being later than ship 167. This equates to part C23 of the Eduard sprue.
The specs are as follows:-
Model: A632S-C1
Overall Diameter: 11'7"
Minimum Blade Angle: 28 degrees
Maximum Blade Angle: 63 degrees
Eduard have produced the prop blades individually and they have no locating pins to lock in the incidence to the correct angle, which is a issue for me, as I am too used to making Tamiya, Airfix, etc where you don't get a choice!
Anybody got a favorite (easy) technique for this? Otherwise I'll go the eyeball method to set this up. 8)
Other photos show the dry fitting for the doors. Yes - there is a fit issues as the top of the doors stick out, which has been a common issue with these kits, pointed out in several reviews of the Eduard kit. One maker has gone to the trouble of cutting the doors in half to make them fit! Oh no! Others leave them open to display the inside. The remedy apparently, is to slim down the interior bulkheads, so I'll give this a go and let you know.
Cheers for now
Peter