Monogram P-39 Airacobra 1/48

[oldscool]

First plane I have finished in several years. no weathering or super detailing just OOB. Kit markings for a North Africa theater aircraft. Still a decent old kit. Pollyscale paint with Testors dullcote. Carpet monster kidnapped the gunsight and one nose gear door fell off.

Edited October 4, 2020 by oldscool

[oldscool]

Have repainted the exhaust stubs with gunmetal since these pics were taken as the rust color just doesn't look right. Also the canopy fit doesn't look this bad in person.

[slusher]

Very very nice!

[Jim B]

Nice looking Airacobra.  Very well done.  Darn Carpet Monster!

[oldscool]

Here are some better pics.

[BlackSheep214]

I remember that  kit when I was in my teens. I hand painted the camo scheme. LOL!

[cobraman]

One of my top favorite planes. Good job !

[Mike999]

5 hours ago, oldscool said:

Still a decent old kit.

It sure is and you did a nice clean build of it.

The P-39 is one of my favorite planes too.  It's just so weird.  Tricycle landing gear. Car doors.  Mid-engined, to make room for the 37mm cannon in the nose built by Oldsmobile, of all people.  I love that thing and the P-63 Kingcobra too.

The Monogram P-39 was first released in 1967 IIRC and STILL looks great, as your build shows.  Until the year 2000 it was the only 1/48 P-39 available.  Eduard and Hasegawa have done P-39's since but the old Mongram kit still holds its own.  The only knock on it is raised panel lines and some missing details, easily fixed if the builder wants. But it also comes with engine and gun bay inserts, crew figures and even a 55-gallon drum!

Also it's cheap, which the other 2 kits are not.  Back in July, I found a shrink-wrapped "Pro-Modeler" P-39Q on eBay for $9.99. That version came with "weighted" tires and a small sheet of photo-etched parts.  

[oldscool]

30 minutes ago, Mike999 said:

It sure is and you did a nice clean build of it.

The P-39 is one of my favorite planes too.  It's just so weird.  Tricycle landing gear. Car doors.  Mid-engined, to make room for the 37mm cannon in the nose built by Oldsmobile, of all people.  I love that thing and the P-63 Kingcobra too.

The Monogram P-39 was first released in 1967 IIRC and STILL looks great, as your build shows.  Until the year 2000 it was the only 1/48 P-39 available.  Eduard and Hasegawa have done P-39's since but the old Mongram kit still holds its own.  The only knock on it is raised panel lines and some missing details, easily fixed if the builder wants. But it also comes with engine and gun bay inserts, crew figures and even a 55-gallon drum!

Also it's cheap, which the other 2 kits are not.  Back in July, I found a shrink-wrapped "Pro-Modeler" P-39Q on eBay for $9.99. That version came with "weighted" tires and a small sheet of photo-etched parts.  

I built this one from the latest release and it came with the weighted tires but no PE.I built the original release when I was a kid and remember painting it flat brown with a flat yellow bottom.

[Snake45]

Very nice! Some of those old Monograms can still be built to look great, as you illustrate. Model on! 

[bogger44]

Well done, count me in as a fan of the Airacobra's too.  

[mustang1989]

Very cool build. I built this one as a kid and remember it being a pretty cool kit.

[PappyD340]

Very nice, well done!

[Classicgas]

Well done.  My favorite WWII aircraft.  I've built 2, both in Snooks  2nd markings.  The 1/72 Academy  kit and the AM 1/48. Want to get the  Kitty Hawk 1/32  but its beyond reach financially. 

[stavanzer]

Beauty! A sharp build, of a plane that still gets No Love.

[Mike999]

Heads up!  Christmas is coming. If you like the P-39, you might want to put this book on your Hint List. I'm reading it right now:

"Cobra!: The Bell Aircraft Corporation 1934-1946" 

Over 400 pages (and over 4 pounds!) about the history of Bell Aircraft.  Along with everything you ever wanted to know about the P-39 and P-63, it Includes detailed histories of the YFM-1 Airacuda  and XFL Airabonita programs.  The YFM-1 was the twin-engine heavy fighter with pusher props...and a gunner in the front of each engine nacelle with a 37mm cannon.  The Airabonita was the navalized P-39 tail-dragger, that never really got off the ground. (Sorry...)

The book settles a lot of conspiracy theories about the P-39. Especially the removal of the turbosupercharger that relegated the aircraft to mostly low-altitude service.  It turns out that neither Bell Aircraft nor the Army Air Corps really wanted the turbocharger.  It required special air and oil coolers that hung off the side of the original P-39 design, adding weight, drag and complex ducting.  Engineers warned them that its removal would seriously degrade high-altitude performance, but they thought the trade-off was worth it.  Company president Larry Bell wrote that removing the turbocharger "solved a million problems" with the P-39.

https://www.amazon.com/Cobra-Aircraft-Corporation-1934-1946-Schiffer/dp/0887409113