1/48 Eduard P-400 (P-39) Airacobra

Gallery Article by David Mielke - "VMFA314Knights" on May 3 2017

 

      

Here is another of Eduard's nice 1/48th scale kits that I have added to my growing collection. I built this one straight out of the box. Depending on what version you select the Eduard P-39 kit is hard to beat for the price, beautifully molded detail with paint masks and nose weight included (and in some kits, stunning photo-etch details as well... skip the photo-etch if you are not experienced or don't like the fiddly bits, as they require magnifiers, an extra pair of hands and super glue). BTW - Eduard's 1/48th Hellcat series is outstanding as well. 

Click on images below to see larger images

The last time I built a P-39 it was the venerable Monogram kit (which is still a nice build for a novice or a budget build) however, the Eduard release gave us an excellent P-39 to work with and go all out with what you got in the box. 

I elected to build this kit "Out of the Box" (no photo-etch) and used the kit decals to depict Wahl Eye II, flown by Lt. Eugene Wahl on the island of New Guinea in 1942. Since this aircraft was originally manufactured for the RAF (P-400), it was painted in the standard temperate camouflage scheme of Dark Green and Dark Earth. Bell used Dupont paints that were pretty close to the RAF specs... although my research indicated that the underside colour was most likely a grey and not a blue as specified in the instructions. (I settled on FS 36463 and did the upper in 30118 and 34092 with some scale effect and weathering... so not exact  

After I finished this P-39 I was so happy with the kit that I picked up another Eduard P-39 so I can build a Russian Ace version for the display shelf as well... after I get through a few other select builds that I have slotted. 

Happy Modeling,

David Mielke

Photos and text © by David Mielke