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would go instead to the British. The French shipped some equipment to Bell that they wanted fitted to the aircraft on their order. Included were Hispano Suiza 20mm cannons to be placed in the nose of the aircraft in place of the American-built 37mm unit, and a lot of French equipment for the cockpit. As events unfolded, in May 1940, German forces provided the reason the French would not be able take delivery of their Airacobras. The British not only agreed to take over the French order for these planes, but increased it to a total of 675 aircraft. The 20mm cannon stayed, but the British now wanted the aircraft fitted with British equipment. This included .303 caliber wing guns, and a lot of British equipment for the cockpit. However, the 20mm Hispano cannon remained. The British took delivery of part of this order, first renaming the aircraft the Caribou, but later going back to Airacobra I. Although it might be said that the British were not really giving the plane a fair chance to succeed, in all honesty it was not going to compete as a fighter aircraft at the altitudes most of the combat over Europe was taking place. At this time, there was no pressing need for ground attack aircraft. So the British were not really keen to take delivery of the remainder of their Airacobra order. History again stepped in, and the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor provided a reason for the British not to take delivery of too many more of the Bell fighters. The U.S. took possession of many of them, re-named them as the P-400, and diverted them to American forces in the South Pacific, where they were used in units mixed-in with P-39D-1s and D-2s. (Due to shortages of 37mm cannons, these aircraft were also equipped with the 20mm Hispano cannon.) The RAF divested themselves of their Airacobras by sending them, and any further examples delivered, to the Russians. In the end, Russia would prove to be the major user of the P-39 and almost the exclusive user of the larger Bell P-63 Kingcobra which followed it. OK, thats all fascinating stuff, but maybe all you want to do is build an Airacobra model. The good news is that there are not a lot of major external variations in the different variants. Except for experimental examples like a P-39E with swept wings, and the Bell XFL-1 Airabonita prototype for the U.S. Navy, Airacobras share the same airframe and overall dimensions. And they were all powered by one version or another of the Allison V-1710 liquid cooled engine. The only visible external differences you will be able to see are different exhaust stacks on the

Pho to fro m U.S . Air Forc e Co lle ctio n

Bell P-39 Airacobra

by Bill Von Staden
We thought the idea of an Airacobra theme would be good for our December 2010 chapter contest. The Birmingham chapter did this many years ago when there was only one decent P-39 kit available, and they had eleven Airacobras entered, and no two of them had the same markings! With three 1/48 kits, one 1/32 and one currently available in 1/72 scale, the potential for a good contest should be even greater today. Airacobras (some of them were not called P-39) were flown by American, Australian, British, French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Russian forces in virtually every theater of WW II. If you have plenty of references or already know enough about the Airacobra to get by, this article is not really aimed at you. But the intent here is to give you something [probably in two parts] to help you sort out what you might want to build for the contest. It isnt necessary to know the history of the Bell Aircraft Corporation to build a decent model of an Airacobra. On the other hand, it helps a little to know what was going on in the world between 1939 and 1942 or so to help you follow the chronology of P-39 variants. Bell made a net profit of only $9000 in 1939, and an order from the French government for 165 examples of an export Airacobra variant and the advance of two million dollars in early 1940 probably saved the company from going under. The aircraft was called the Bell Model 400. Luckily for Bell, the purchase contract was backed up with a provision that should the French, for some reason not be able to take delivery of these aircraft, that they

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engine, the brand of propeller (with minor differences in diameter), armament fit, and the wheels. There are a few small things which differ on some models too, but for the most part, you dont have to deal with any number of the intricacies you would with something like a late model Messerschmitt Bf 109G. Right here, let me say that if you do not have many, or even any, reference sources on the Airacobra, but you would like to have something to have and hold, there are two books I would recommend as starting points. These are the P-39 Airacobra in Detail & Scale by Bert Kinzey, and the Mushroom Model Magazine Yellow Series book Bell P-39 Airacobra by Juszcak and Peczkowski. Both have a good balance of variant breakdown/technical details and photos of different sections of the aircraft showing the details you need for modeling.

pipe, giving six exhaust pipes on each side of the engine. These six-pipe manifolds could have round openings at the ends, or be flattened to a fishtail configuration. And the fishtail-type exhaust pipe could have more than one shape (i.e. the fishtail could be flattened to different degrees.) But different exhaust manifolds for the Allison V-1710 can be interchanged. So the type of exhausts fitted to an Airacobra is not necessarily a good indicator of which variant you are looking at. Next under general notes may save you a few bucks on aftermarket accessories. Airacobra variants with two guns in each wing do not have exposed gun barrels with the cooling jackets showing. I have to laugh every time I see this done on a model as it is a waste of time and money. Airacobras have a piece of stainless steel which conforms to the leading edge of the wing and has two tubes welded to it to enclose the guns. All you can see of the gun barrel is the very end. On the P-39Q with underwing gun pods, you can see the cooling jacket on the .50 caliber gun. Regarding those cockpit doors, and whether they are open or closed, which I admit are kind of a thing with me; the throttle quadrant on the P-39 is located on the left side of the cockpit, halfway into the front of the port cockpit door opening. With the throttle lever closed (pulled back) the throttle assembly impinges even further into the door opening than just the quadrant does. Even for a pilot of limited stature, trying to enter the cockpit wearing a parachute would be somewhat of a challenge. This is why the pilots manual for the P-39 instructs pilots to enter the cockpit through the right side door. Normally you will only see photos of the plane with the left door open for maintenance purposes, and many times in these instances the door is removed completely. Most of the P-39 kits provide separate doors. It is generally not a problem to close the left one, if you plan on building the model with the door closed from the outset. The trouble usually arises when you try to fit the door to a finished fuselage with the canopy already in place. By then it is more difficult to perform the necessary tweaks to get a good fit. OK, enough about that, you can mount your doors however you see fit. The standard for props on U.S. during WW II is that the blades are painted flat black with insignia yellow tips front and rear. P-39s started out using Curtiss Electric, but these were in short supply very early on, and props from AeroProducts were substituted. For

Be ll Aircraft P hoto : Natio nal Arc hiv e s

Production model Airacobras really begin with the P-39D, which is the first model to have the fillet at the base of the fin, which remains in place through the last P-39Q built. Many, if not most, Airacobra variants built owe their existence to substitutions of one piece of equipment for another, due to production shortages. Some models were built in hopes of improving performance in one area or another. But none of these was to prove very successful. Before we get into variant specifics, here are some general notes on the Airacobra. As mentioned, all Airacobra models were powered by the venerable liquid cooled Allison V-1710, which is an upright (not inverted) V-12, having six cylinders on each side. All models of the V-1710 have two exhaust valves and also two exhaust ports per cylinder. Thus the exhaust manifolds fitted to the engine can have twelve pipes per side, or the two exhaust ports on each cylinder can be routed to exhaust into a single

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whatever reason, you will see a lot of wartime Airacobra photos where the props are not painted black. They are either unpainted, or painted a light metallic gray. If they are not black, the yellow tips are not present most of the time. But there are also photos of planes with the blades painted black, but still without yellow tips. I do not know if the blade color is related to the brand used (Curtiss or AeroProducts) or what the reason is. But if you have a photo of your subject, you might want to check it out The production of the Airacobras really begin with the P-39D, which is the first model to have the fillet at the base of the fin, which remains in place through the last P-39Q built. During the time of early P-39 production, the practice of assigning dash numbers to sub-variants was just starting to come into use. So the initial P-39D was just called that, with no suffix or dash number. P-39D (no suffix or dash number) This was the original production model for USAAC, Curtiss Electric (C-E) 105 diameter prop, 37mm cannon in propellor hub, (2) .50 cailber machine guns in upper nose, (4) wing guns of .30 caliber, and 6-stub round outlet exhausts. A total of 60 units were built. P-39D-1 & D-2, same as P-39D but with 20mm Hispano-Suiza cannon substituted for 37mm. A total of 336 (D-1) and 158 (D-2) produced. (Nominally, these aircraft had 6-stub round exhausts, but there is a well known photo of more than fifty Airacobras on a tarmac being prepared for delivery to the USAAC showing many D-1 models fitted with 6-stub fishtail type exhaust stacks. I have found no explanation for this.) P-400 is the designation given to what started as the export Bell Model 14 and ended up being the RAF Airacobra I. This is also the aircraft sent to U.S. forces in the Pacific after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It had the Hispano 20mm cannon, C-E 105 prop, .303 wing guns, Sutton harness, and the 12-stub exhausts. A total of 196 aircraft were sent to units which also had the P-39D-1 and -2, some ended up with parts swapped from those aircraft. Airacobra I, built for the RAF, includes the original 165 aircraft intended for France, and then increased to a total of 675 by the British. It was equipped with a 20mm Hispano cannon, Curtiss Electric prop of

105 diameter, 6-stub fishtail exhausts and .303 wing guns. Most aircraft delivered to the RAF do not seem to have the canopy frame bar directly over the pilots head check the photos! In the event, the RAF did not care for the Bell fighter, and many of those intended for the British were sent to Russia. A portion of the order which were just completed or still in production were repossessed by the U.S. after Dec 7, 1941 and sent to the Pacific theater, where thy were used in mixed groups with the similar P-39D-1 & -2 models. Despite the fact that the Airacobra I and the P-400 are both the Bell Model 14 or export Airacobra, the British planes were fitted with very flared fishtail exhausts, while the P-400s have the 12-stack exhausts. The total number built included in the 675 shown above. P-39F, same as P-39D (reverts back to 37mm nose cannon) but fitted with 12-stub exhausts and uses an AeroProducts (AP) 104 prop as the Curtiss prop was in short supply. It was equipped with four .30 caliber wing guns. I have seen one photo of a factory fresh P-39F fitted with the 6-stack fishtail exhausts. Total of 229 produced. P-39G, was ordered by the U.S., but none produced as G model. The 1800 aircraft became K, L, M and N models, see details below. P-39J, the last 25 F models produced were fitted with a different Allison engine (V-1710-59) with automatic boost controls and were re-designated as P-39J. Retains AP 104 prop and 37mm cannon. P-39K, was the first 210 of what was going to be the G variant, has 37mm cannon, AeroProducts 104 prop, and had gun gas vents added to nose. Some had provisions for underwing rocket tubes added (but these were never used operationally) P-39L, the next 250 of what was going to be the G model, it reverts back to the Curtiss Electric 105 diameter prop, and the nosewheel was changed to one with the same outside tire diameter, but with a larger diameter wheel inside it. This was intended to provide better aerodynamics for takeoff. All subsequent variants had this nosewheel until the late spoked hub version appeared on the Q-20. (Please note that nosewheels could be swapped out, and there are photos of earlier Airacobras wearing the larger disc hub nosewheel of the P-39L.) P-39M, next 240 of what was going to be the G

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variant, uses AeroProducts prop of 111 diameter, internal fuel capacity reduced from 120 to 87 gal to save weight. There was a batch of Ms within the same serial block which used a different version of the Allison engine. One source states that this batch also reverted to the Curtiss Electric prop, but I cannot confirm this. Note: The reduction to 87 gallon fuel capacity was soon followed by the availability of conversion kits to allow the aircraft to be restored to the previous 120 gallon capacity. This could be used on any variant with the 87 gal reduced capacity. The P-39N series is considered to be the first true mass produced Airacobra variant, with a different gear ratio in the reduction gearbox, all models had the reduced fuel capacity: P-39N-BE, started with the AeroProducts 104 diameter prop, and 120 gallon fuel capacity. Starting with 167th airframe, the fuel capacity was reduced to 87 gallons and the prop changed to an 117 diameter AeroProducts unit, total of 500 produced. P-39N-1, used AeroProducts 117 prop, and had some internal changes to change the center of gravity when the guns were fired. A total of 900 produced. P-39N-5, armor reduced form 231 to 193 pounds and the armor glass behind the pilots head was replaced with armor plate. There were changes to the oxygen system and the radio, and it used the 117 diameter AP prop. A total of 695 were produced. The total production of the various P-39Q models outnumbered all other Airacobra variants built. So lets outline the basic package here. The cannon in the prop hub was the 37mm. The two .50 caliber machine guns remained in the upper nose, the Allison V-1710-85 engine was fitted with the 6-stub round exhausts. The prop was the AeroProducts 117 diameter unit. Early Q models had the nosewheel used from the P-39L forward, but beginning with the Q-20 the nosewheel hub was changed to a spoked type. The big change on the Q was the two .30 cal machine guns being deleted from the wings. They were replaced by a single .50 cal gun, which would not fit inside the wing. A pod containing the gun was mounted under each wing. The Russians, who would be the largest user of the P-39Q, for whatever

reasons, did not care for the wing guns, and they were generally deleted either in the field or by the factory for Soviet use. P-39Q-1, AeroProducts 117 prop, two .50 cal guns in upper nose, 37mm cannon in prop hub, single .50 cal gun under each wing (no internal wing guns), 6stub round exhausts, armor plate behind pilots head (not glass), 231 lb. of armor, and an internal fuel capacity of 87 gallons, production was 150 units. P-39Q-5, as Q-1 with internal fuel capacity restored to 120 gal, but armor again reduced to 193 lb., a total of 950 were produced. P-39Q-10, similar Q-5 with the armor increased to 228 lb. Used rubber engine mounts, and had the oil system improved to cope with cold weather in Russia, 705 produced. P-39Q-15, as Q-10 with several internal bulkheads and mounts reinforced. The oxygen system was changed from four bottles to two. This was the most numerous Q model produced at 1000 units. P-39Q-20, featured a change in nosewheel to one with a spoked hub, underwing guns deleted on Russian aircraft, total of 891 produced P-39Q-21 similar to Q-20 but fitted with a 4-bladed Aero-Products 117 prop, wing guns deleted, and all 109 examples built were sent to Russia. P-39Q-25 same as Q-21 (including 4-bladed prop) but built with reinforced rear fuselage and horizontal stabilizers. The wing guns were deleted, and a total of 700 were produced P-39Q-30 was the final production Airacobra built. This returned to the 3-bladed AeroProducts 11-7 prop because of directional stability problems of the 4-bladed unit. A total of were 400 produced, and the last one down the Bell production line was followed by a P-63A Kingcobra. OK, weve had a little history of the Airacobra family (P-39, P-400 & Airacobra I) and a breakdown of the variants brought about by wartime shortages and the attempts to improve performance by lightening the airframe by deleting some things - like part of the fuel, or armor for the pilot. And also changing to a different prop or ratio in the gearbox, all of which didnt really accomplish much.

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to cut the strut, or just dont want to mess with it, the least you can do is fudge a little on your model by flattening the mainwheel tires a bit more than usual, and just barely flattening the nosewheel tire at all. That will at least give a slight angle toward nose high.. The armor plate at the base of the windscreen is a single piece, and it overlaps both the fuselage and the base of the canopy. Most kits have this molded as half on the glass, half on the fuselage, with a join line between. You need to fill this seam so it does not show, or make your own plate with sheet styrene, which of course will be one-piece and solve this problem. Most of the aftermarket cockpit sets supply a fully detailed rear deck to go behind the pilot, complete with tons of radio gear. The problem is that photos seldom show much in that space at all. The radio receiver is located inside the rear fuselage (there is an access hatch there.) Its the radio sending unit that sat on this deck. Most of the time you see a single black box in this area or nothing at all. I believe that is because if you have an airplane which is pressed for adequate performance and has a weight issue, which the P-39 obviously had, its possible that at times this equipment was kept to a bare minimum. Anyway, you should look at pictures of your subject before loading up this space with lots of boxes. On any Airacobra, you will normally see one of three things sticking out of the spinner, if a cannon is present: 1) A long thin barrel for the 20mm Hispano-Suiza cannon 2) A short, thick barrel for the 37mm American Armaments (Oldsmobile) cannon 3) A short, even thicker barrel, which will again be the 37mm cannon barrel, but covered by a larger diameter tube for protection This last item is mostly seen on Russian aircraft, and I believe it had something to do with keeping moisture from getting in between the gun barrel and prop mechanism and freezing. This tube is cut off straight at the end, and does not have any provision for a Hucks type engine starter. Bell used an Interior Green color that seemed to be all their own. Look at the color photos in the Detail & Scale book and go from there. I used something close

Be ll Aircraft P hoto : Natio nal Arc hiv e s

Lets touch on some basic things about the Airacobra so that your finished model has that right look about it All Airacobra variants have brakes on the main gear only! If a nifty photo-etched set gives you a brake line for the nosewheel strut, you should ignore it! The brakes on the main wheels comprise the sole hydraulic system on any Airacobra. That being said, you will find hardly any pictures of Airacobras on the ground with the flaps open, as they too, are electric. But they do look good in that position, nice photo-etched ones are available, and you can always claim they are doing maintenance. Just remove an engine access panel or something to go with it. Wartime photos show that most Airacobras sit slightly nose high even when fully loaded. With the ammunition in the nose expended, this attitude is even more pronounced. Almost all P-39 kits benefit from a slight lengthening of the oleo section of the nosewheel strut. Yes, you do have to modify the torque link (scissors) a bit to match, but the results will look good! If you dont have the nerve

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to FS 34092, whereas in his article, Randy Lutz cites FS 34097. Larry Bell passed on long ago, and nobody else is talking, so you can look at the pictures and decide this one for yourself. Airacobras for the RAF had cockpits in British GreyGreen, and the seats were fitted with the Sutton harness. I would not place a bet that the wheelwells and other areas of the airframe were not painted in Bell Green on British Cobras, though. In photos, the Airacobras for the RAF that were photographed in the lineup of 601 Squadron do not have the canopy bar directly above the pilots head. (Many, if not all, P-39Cs are like this, but somehow, all P-400 seem to have it!) The RAF Cobras were delivered in Dark Green/Dark Earth over Sky, with a Sky spinner and rear fuselage band. But while the aircraft were entering service, the RAF changed over to the new scheme of Dark Green/Ocean Grey over Medium Sea Grey. However you might know the story about the shortage of Ocean Grey paint, and the temporary use of something called Mixed Grey? Well, the Airacobras were involved in that. So seven parts of Medium Sea Grey mixed with one part Black was used to make Mixed Grey. Since the stencils were already on the planes with their original schemes, in photos you can see places where a stencil appears on a rectangle of Sky, which was masked off when the undersides were repainted Sea Grey Medium. The dark upper surfaces dont reveal much of this in black and white photographs. The Sky spinner and rear fuselage band remained , but the band did not wrap around as the Medium Sea Grey was painted over it on the undersides. Unlike the P400s, the British Airacobra Is were fitted with the very flared fishtail exhausts. In some captions, these are referred to as flame dampening exhausts, so perhaps that is the reason for the prominent fishtail. Many ex-British Airacobras found their way to Russia. The RAF markings were painted out and replaced with Russian stars. Some great looking touched-up and repainted gray and green paint schemes appear on these planes! The VVS website has some very nice color profiles of some of these aircraft if you want to check them out. Dont forget, from the P-39N-5 series forward, the armor glass behind the pilots head is changed to an armor plate. You can just paint the glass piece with the cockpit color to replicate this.

If you build a P-39Q-21 or -25 with the 4-bladed AeroProducts prop, the nosewheel fitted would be the late model cast spoke unit. And a final thought in these general notes is for you not to forget to add the weight in the nose!

Available P-39 Kits

1/72 Academy its hard to believe, but this kit is currently the only thing available in this scale, unless you have an old Heller or Airfix kit around. This kit is pretty good, but suffers from a slightly squashed look in the mid-fuselage/canopy area which keeps it from looking tall enough in the center. And I am not sure why, but Academy chose to mold the left door separately, so it could be left open, and closed the right door. If I were building this one, I would think about keeping both doors closed, because having the left door open makes it look like you dont know the first thing about P-39s. If you want to go to more trouble, see the Aires detail set listed below. 1/48 Eduard the Czech firm chose to be the ones to replace the venerable Monogram kit in this scale. I believe their Airacobra is available in every Eduard iteration they have, except Royal Class. They have the P-400/P-39D and P-39Q in their regular line, the P-39D and two different Q versions in their ProfiPack series, the P-400 Dual Combo with RAF and Russian markings, and also a Mediterranean Dual

Combo, and both the P-400 and P-39Q in their Weekend line. And we hear a Dual Combo for New Guinea is in the works. Whew! Prices on these kits are all over the map, but on a budget, you can still get one of the original P-400 or P-39Q kits in the non-ProfiPack version which will still supply the nose weight, canopy masks and a couple of choices of decals, which the Weekend kits do not include. I really liked this kit when it first came out, but build-

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ing the first one straight out of the box led me to spend a more time on the next one thinning the trailing edges of the wings and rudder, and getting the left door to fit the fuselage in the closed position. Eduards spinner is slightly too small in diameter at the rear to match the diameter of the front of their fuselage. I glued a flat ring of .015 styrene sheet to the back of the spinner and let it fully dry. Then I trimmed and sanded it to form a slight extension of the rear of the spinner, which naturally, was slightly larger than the original diameter. This kit also has a problem with the prop shaft being slightly off-center on the front of the fuselage. This can be corrected by moving it over or trimming it on one side and gluing your prop in the proper position. The fit of the canopy itself is not bad. The armor plate at the front is molded half on the windscreen. But the half on the fuselage is just represented by an engraved line. You can use a .010 piece of styrene to create a new 1-piece plate that sits as it should, or fill the join line in the existing one, which really sits too flush with the airframe. Another area which should be filled is the join line on each side of the rollover structure where it joins the fuselage. On the P-39, the rollover structure was part of the airframe, not the canopy. There is a panel line here, but it should be barely visible, if at all. Whatever you do, dont highlight this line with weathering! Although the canopy seems to fit the airframe pretty well, getting the left door closed properly does present a few modeling skills required moments. The key here is to attack this issue early, not on your completely painted and decaled model. I found that the problem was getting both the top and bottom of the door flush was the challenge. I solved this by using a razor saw to make a shallow horizontal cut below the window on the inside of the door. (There is no need to cut the door in half!) Cutting about halfway through should allow you to kink the door slightly so that both the top and bottom are inboard of the center. Doing this gave the door the same profile as the fuselage. Then the fit was improved with some light sanding on the door top and bottom where the shape differed slightly from the door opening. You dont have to worry about this on the right door if you are going to leave it open, as the door hinges fit in the slots on the fuselage. Eduard includes both the Curtiss-Wright and AeroProducts props in their kits, and also a fourth

blade and matching spinner for those wanting to build a Russian P-39Q-21 or Q-25. They also have all three types of nosewheel with both flattened and normal round tires in there. And they have all three types of cannon barrels included as well. Although various exhaust manifolds are provided, they all have solid ends, and will need to be drilled or replaced with resin aftermarket parts. The cockpit is not quite as good as a resin aftermarket unit, but if you get one of the kits which include the color photo-etch parts, it will look pretty good. In fact, unless you have one of the out of production cockpit sets from Cutting Edge (Meteor Productions) you wont find one available which is dedicated to the Eduard kit. You can easily find a resin seat, however. If you want to show a bunch of other stuff open, you can utilize the Verlinden detail set to do so. (But I cannot attest to the fit of the Verlinden parts to the kit, and some of his details sets are better than others.) As mentioned, thinning the trailing edges of the wings and rudder will greatly help the appearance of the Eduard P-39s. To do this properly, you should fix a sheet of sandpaper to a hard flat surface, like a thick pane of glass, and sand the inside trailing edges of the upper and lower surfaces. Keep the wing flat enough so that you are sanding well inboard of the very edge. (If you only thin the last quarter inch of the edge, you will just generate a gap, because the edges will not touch each other.) You should also change the positions of your fingers when sanding the wings, or you will remove more material beneath the pressure points. The same suggestions apply to thinning the rudder, and youll need to stop sanding before you start changing the profile of the rudders trailing edge! Thinning the wings will likely create the need for a bit of filler on the top of the wing root at the trailing edge, but it will not be too much. Aires does offer a set of separate resin control surfaces, which would readily provide thin trailing edges for the ailerons and rudder if you have an aversion to excessive sanding. 1/48 Hasegawa this kit eliminates some of the issues of the Eduard kit, but seems to have a few of its own. So far from Hasegawa, we have kits of the P-400/P-39D, the Russian Stars P-39N, the RAF Airacobra I, a Nose Art P-39D Air-A-Cutie and the P-39N/Q. Unlike Eduard, Hasegawa does not give you much in the way of spare parts in each kit. Each kit has one prop either the early Curtiss

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narrow bladed unit, or the later wider AeroProducts prop. The P-39N/Q is the best value overall, but only gives you the wider AeroProducts prop. The trailing edges of the flying surfaces are razor sharp and look great. On the rudder, however, the underlying framework is too prominent, and would benefit from some sanding and a coat of Mr. Surfacer to tone it down somewhat. (Or the resin rudder in the CMK exterior set could be substituted for the kit part here.) The Hasegawa doors do fit the door openings for the most part. Thats the good news. But on most kits I have seen, the canopy seems to be slightly narrower and slightly longer than the space it is supposed to fit in. You want to be sure not to do anything to make the fuselage any fatter than it should be. Like what, you ask? Well if you are installing any aftermarket cockpit bits, or a complete set, be sure it allows the fuselage to be as skinny as it wants to be. To solve the length problem, and it isnt much of one, I just sand the bottom edge of the rear glass to take off a little bit. With the natural slant of the rear window, this will also reduce the length a bit, and a bit is all you need. A little white glue wiped around the back edge of the installed part can be your friend, too. Again, be sure not to highlight the panel line or break between the part of the rollover structure which is molded with the canopy and the fuselage below. This is another place where white glue may be of some help. The cockpit isnt bad, but a resin seat will improve it, and you know Eduard makes a photo-etched cockpit set for this kit, as well as their own. 1/48 Monogram/ProModeler I can honestly say I have not considered building this kit recently, but this late 60s-era kit does manage to solve a few problems

that the newer 1/48 kits have. First, the left door is already shut for you, so it fits flush. Second, the rollover structure behind the pilot is molded as part of the airframe, and not as part of the canopy. So there is no break or step between this structure and the fuselage, you know, like the real thing. And nobody could ever complain about the overall shape of this one it looks like a P-39. That said, you will have to do a bit of work if you want the cannon bay access panel on the side of the nose to fit closed, as it tends to fall through the opening. And you will need to sand off all of the raised circular filler caps or whatever Monogram thinks they are on the top of both wings. And of course the panel lines all over the surface are the raised type. In the cockpit, the seat has had a molding defect in it since the late 70s which has never been corrected. But, believe it or not, the ex-KMC resin cockpit set is still available from Squadron Shop under the True Details brand for about $11! Installing this will go a long way to help with the interior details. Of course, Eduard offers a photo-etched cockpit set for this P-39 kit, too. Monograms nose gear oleo section can stand a bit of lengthening, as it is molded almost fully compressed. You can remove it and drill holes up into the strut, and down into the yoke to allow a small length of piano wire surrounded by a piece of polished 1/16 aluminum tubing to make a new oleo section. A touch of clear over the aluminum will keep it from getting dull with age. The nose gear retraction strut is molded as a single piece, which detracts from the look of the nose gear, and it is very obvious being right there in plain view. The ProModeler release of the kit has this part on the brass photo-etched fret to replace it, but of course it is only two dimensional. A better solution would be to scratch build one from Evergreen square strip styrene, as it would only take about five short pieces. A well-built and finished Monogram Airacobra will still look pretty good sitting beside its forty year younger siblings from the Czech Republic and Japan! 1/32 Special Hobby Offers three kits in this scale: P-39D, Airacobra Mk I/ P-39F, and P-39Q Makin Island Airacobras. (A special thanks to Scott Doyle for providing the information on everything in 1/32 scale for this article.) Special Hobby has released three versions of the P-39 in 1/32 scale. The breakdown of the model is very

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similar to the 1/48 Eduard and Hasegawa kits; two fuselage halves, one lower wing with two upper pieces. The flight control surfaces, with the exception of the flaps, are separate and can be positioned as desired. The cockpit doors are separate and the canopy is a single piece. The engine and gun bays are molded closed. All three kits contain some parts not used in that specific kit, namely gun barrels for the various configurations used on P-39 variants. All versions contain a centerline drop tank and bomb. A nose weight is not included, but will be required. The decals are by Aviprint. Below is a short description of each kit.

from the P-39D kit are included. Two photo-etch frets with color US Harness and P-39Q instrument panels are included as well as the etch cockpit components of kit #32025. The exterior PE pieces of that kit are not included. A new plastic sprue with nose gun vents and underwing gun pods is included. This kit includes more resin consisting of a cockpit floor, rear bulkhead and incidentals. Markings are included for two Makin Island aircraft, one in overall black and one in OD/NG. Two Canton Island Aircraft are also included, both in sand over light blue.

Aftermarket Parts:
1/72 Scale (All for the Academy kit)
Aires P-39Q/N Cockpit (Resin and Brass), Allison engine (Resin) CMK P-39Q Cockpit (Resin and Brass), Eduard Offer several photo-etched detail sets, and canopy masks Pavla P-39Q Cockpit (Resin) Quickboost P-39Q/N Resin Exhausts, P-39N/Q Allison Engine (exposed on one side only) Verlinden Resin/Photo-etched Detail set includes resin control surfaces, brass flaps, cannon bay detail and parts for cockpit.

Review information on 1/32 kits by Scott Doyle

Kit # 32002 P-39D The first release of three kits consists of six gray plastic sprues and one clear. Three resin parts - a pair of tubular exhausts and a gunsight, are included. A single photo-etch fret contains a pre-painted US style harness, hinges for the nose wheel doors and doors for the under wing radiators. Markings are for three OD/Neutral Gray US Army aircraft based in New Guinea. Kit #32025 Airacobra Mk. I / P-39F In RAF & RAAF Service This release contains everything in kit #32002 with the following additions and changes. An extra plastic sprue contains the AeroProducts propeller used by the P-39F. The single set of tubular resin exhausts is replaced by a set of RAF-style fishtail exhausts and a set of twelve stub exhausts, both in resin. The resin gunsight remains. The big addition to the kit is two large photo-etch frets containing both US & Sutton harnesses and two complete instrument panels, all in color. There are PE parts for the undercarriage, wheel bays, interior of the cockpit doors and mounting hardware for the centerline store. Markings are provided for two RAF (Mk.Is) and one RAAF (P-39F) aircraft. If you wanted to model a P400, this would be the kit to get as the instrument panel and exhausts needed are included. Kit #32026 P-39Q Makin Island Airacobras The third release is the most expensive of the three. The one propeller and one set of tubular exhausts

1/48 Scale (Intended Kit in Parenthesis)

Aires Control surfaces (Edu), Wheel bays (Hsg) Avionix Cockpit (Has) CMK Armament set (Edu), Engine set (Edu), Interior set (Hsg), Exterior set (Hsg), 6-stack round exhausts (all), 6-stack flared exhausts (all), 6-stack fishtail RAF exhausts (all) Cutting Edge Cockpit (Edu) great, but now sadly out of production. I believe there is not currently another resin cockpit on the market for the Eduard kit. The Verlinden detail set includes only a couple of cockpit parts. Eduard- Airacobra photo-etched (Mon), Airacobra

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photo-etched (Edu), Landing flaps photo-etched (Edu), Landing flaps photo-etched (Hsg), P-39D/P400 Color photo-etched set (Edu), P-39N/Q Color photo-etched set (Edu), P-39D/P-400 Detail photoetched set (Hsg), P-39N/Q Detail photo-etched set (Has), Airacobra Placards (Edu), P-39/P-400 Color Zoom photo-etched, P-39N/Q Color Zoom photoetched, KMC (see True Details below) Moskit 12-stack exhausts (all) Quickboost P-400 Exposed engine (Edu), P-39C/D Exposed engine, P-39N/Q Exposed engine, P-39C/D Flared exhausts (Edul), P-39Q/N 6-stack round exhausts (Edu), P-39Q/N 6-stack round exhausts (Hsg), Gun barrels (Hsg) True Details Cockpit ex-KMC (Mon), Early wheels (all), Mid-Production wheels (all) - Note: the Mid-Production Wheel set is referred to as Late which they are not Verlinden Detail set (Edu) Ultracast Seat w/Sutton harness (all), Seat w/U.S. harness (all), Seat without harness (all), 6-stack exhausts round (all), 6-stack flared exhausts (all), 6stack fishtail RAF exhausts (all), 12-stack exhausts (all)

Please note that there are many 1/48 scale P-39 decal sheets, both current and out of production. We have not attempted to list them all here because of space limitations. And it is difficult to tell which of the sheets we covered would be available, as out of print does not necessarily mean a distributor does not have them. If you have questions about any of these, please feel free to e-mail them to me at bvonstaden@yahoo.com

1/32 Scale (All for the Special Hobby kits)

CMK Engine Set (in resin, left side of engine in compartment with access panels), Undercarriage Set (replacement main wheel wells in resin), Armament Set (resin nose armament) Eduard offers four etched sets to enhance the Special Hobby kit; Flaps, Exterior, P-39D Cockpit (self-adhesive) and Undercarriage (main gear doors.) They also offer a canopy mask set, and everything together in their Big Ed set. Scale Aircraft Conversions makes a replacement landing gear strut set in cast metal. Zotz has released a 1/32 decal sheet containing markings for some of the more famous PTO Airacobras, including Air-a-Cutie, Wahl Eye II and White 23 with fighting Donald Duck.

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