P-63 King Cobra MPM 1/48 scale

I found this kit on the discount/clearance rack at the hobby shop and found that the only vacuformed canopy included had a crack in the rear. I had seen the P-63 at the Air force Museum with a solid rear canopy and decided to model this aircraft. I had a picture of it that I had taken some time earlier when it was hanging in the R&D hanger. It was one of a number of P-63's that were used as targets for gunnery training. The trainee's fighter's guns were loaded with rubber bullets that were shot at the P-63 which was armored with heaver gage aluminum. The cannon in the spinner was also replaced with a spotlight that flashed when the pilot of the P-63 fired his "guns"

I made a few mistakes in the conversion as the first photo was all I had at the time. The later photos show the same aircraft as it is displayed today and you can see that the air scoop behind the canopy has been removed and replaced with a smaller armored one there's also an armored shield over the exhaust stacks that I missed. I used the kits star bar decals and found the nose numbers among my spares.

The kit its self was a limited run and not nearly as nice as the Eduard P-400 which I built at the same time.

Gotta love that paint scheme. Could you imagine being a pilot of one of these things?
I have one of these kits. You said it was not as nice as the Eduard. Any problems I should be looking for?

Looks great, and very unusual with the modified canopy. Nice job.

hawkeye2an said:

Gotta love that paint scheme. Could you imagine being a pilot of one of these things?
I have one of these kits. You said it was not as nice as the Eduard. Any problems I should be looking for?

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Nothing horrible, about normal for a limited run kit. Just dressing up the glue joints some, although there was quite a bit of work needed around the wing root intakes. The Eduard kit was just so nice in comparison. The panel lines are rather shallow and I had some trouble making the watercolor staying in them, you might consider re-scribing them deeper. The cockpit detail is rather nice though.

Another nice one Glenn! I've recently been reading about these birds, but can't for the life of me remember where! The ammo didn't use rubber bullets by the way. The rounds were ceramic, frangible bullets, which gave the same ballistic quality and trajectory as ball ammo. Apparently, the impact could be heard and felt, and could affect flying attitude in extreme cases! Rather them than me!!

Good work!

Thanks Guys!

I think there was something in Air Force Colors Vol 3 by Dana Bell. I read it quite a wile ago so I was going off memory with the rubber bullets so your probably right Terry. I would not want to be the pilot. I remember reading an article a few years ago- could have been in Air Classics- that was written by a pilot who had once flown this plane, although not as a target. The article was about him meeting Orville Wright if that rings a bell with anyone. Anyway I remember he didn't have a high opinion of the flight characteristics of it. Apparently all the modifications made in some what un-airworthy. So not only would would you be letting a bunch of newbie pilots shoot at you, but also struggling with the controls of your own aircraft just to keep it in the air.

Nicely done.

Nice job. If you search rp-63 you'll find an article about a pilot(William J.Wilsterman) who flew these aircraft. He relates how a couple of them were actualy shot down. I don't know how to post the link.
Ed