Barry's P-63C King Cobra FINISHED

Any subject, air, land, or sea, that operated over, in, around Vietnam during the 1st or 2nd Indochina Wars -- 1946-1975. Starts 1 June, ends 31 July.
Barry
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Barry's P-63C King Cobra FINISHED

Post by Barry »

I wasn't going to be here since I already have my quota of US Vietnam stuff, but then, the Armée de l'Air appeared. Geez, I'd forgotten about them! So, four weeks late, but with permission, I'm gonna have a go:

This is the kit. Toko also made one around the same time and I have it, but its been cut up for another project

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The parts...I've built this kit before as a P-63A, so I already know that the brass instrument panel is too big and the nose gear strut (already removed from the sprue) is too 'fat' and not round in cross section....to be made from brass tubing..

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The doors: for closed doors, the upper half is part of the canopy and the lower half is molded with the fuselage. For open doors, separate, vacuformed pieces are provided. I think I'll get the best result by using the vac doors in the open position. so, canopy has been trimmed accordingly.

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The fuselage to be cut down to accept the canopy.

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Very basic cockpit
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At the end of day one, we have this: Fuselage trimmed to accept canopy and resin air scoop. Wings glued together with flaps cut out. Canopy trimmed, finger cut (not too badly), and the realization that the resin ventral fin looks way too deep. The Toko kit is better in spite of not having any resin or brass. Also, it has an injected canopy.
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2012 A:12 B:13 C:0
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novokits
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Re: Barry's P-63C King Cobra

Post by novokits »

OMG! old MPM... I had a model "A" in the red box
Barry
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Re: Barry's P-63C King Cobra

Post by Barry »

Spent most of the time today carving parts out of sprue and scraping off the flash. I realized also that there are no mounting points for the gear struts. My wife re-sized a profile to 1/72 for me to use when I reshape the ventral fin and I ran a bead of super glue around the wing to fill little gaps and such. Even after flat sanding it didn't fit together all that well. Guess I should've done more flat sanding eh? I did manage to get the flaps in shape and I'll work on the cockpit tomorrow.



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Jagewa
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Re: Barry's P-63C King Cobra

Post by Jagewa »

Ahh cool, no shake and bake kits for Barry, shake, pound, knead and pummelled into submission kits only :lol:

By flat sanding, do you mean sanding flat the mating surfaces of the wings?

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Barry
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Re: Barry's P-63C King Cobra

Post by Barry »

Aye Cap'n, that'd be it. Trying to thin the trailing edges a bit.
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jssel
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Re: Barry's P-63C King Cobra

Post by jssel »

Aye, Capt'n and a mean fish she is. Nice, Barry, good to see a different subject.
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Re: Barry's P-63C King Cobra

Post by Viking »

thats a nice build so far, and a most unusal subject.
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Barry
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Re: Barry's P-63C King Cobra

Post by Barry »

So..fuselage together, filling seams with super glue. Wet sanding tomorrrow

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Figured out how to mount the panel: Glued brass onto ten thou card and then both onto the little plastic panel that also comes in the kit. The tab at the bottom will glue onto the cockpit floor
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I realized that the size issue could be put down to the thickness of the fuselage sides, and by thinning them from the inside, the panel could me made to fit. Of course that would have been easier to do if I had figured it out before I glued the fuselage together. :roll: The little piece of film that is supposed to go under the brass panel didn't work for me...the instrument markings were so faint that the whole panel just looked black, so I resorted to my usual 'toothpick and white acrylic' method of dotting the instruments in. I lost this thing twice today: found it on the stairs the first time and the second time it was hiding under some papers on the modeling table.

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At least the propeller blades were molded onto the front half of the hub and not given as separate items.

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More cockpit work tomorrow, and maybe get the wings on.
2012 A:12 B:13 C:0
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Re: Barry's P-63C King Cobra

Post by MerlinJones »

So THAT'S what MPM used to look like!

Wow.

Looking forward to seeing this sat next to an original P-39.

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Re: Barry's P-63C King Cobra

Post by Stamford »

Nice work on the IP - lets hope its stopped trying to escape!
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Re: Barry's P-63C King Cobra

Post by Barry »

IP welded in place now. Glad you mentioned a comparison shot with the P-39 Bruce. I'll do that.

Not too much today: Busied up the shelf that goes behind the pilots seat
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and boxed in the gear wells.
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2012 A:12 B:13 C:0
Barry
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Re: Barry's P-63C King Cobra

Post by Barry »

comparing P-39Q with a P-63A

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Barry
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Re: Barry's P-63C King Cobra

Post by Barry »

Back to it after a couple of days off due to the holiday and family activities. Got the wings on and some color in the cockpit. Not looking forward to fitting the vac canopy.

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More filler, and boxed in the nose l/g well.


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Re: Barry's P-63C King Cobra

Post by Dirkpitt289 »

Nice work on the wheel well detail. I also like the comparison shots of the two completed kits. I especially like the US version. I have another Airacobra in the stash and want to use that scheme when I finally get to it.
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Re: Barry's P-63C King Cobra

Post by Justin1980 »

Awesome, love the detailing,

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