Stuart's Airacobra mk.I

[Stuart]

I'll be building a Revell rebox of Mono's 1/48 P-39/P-400 as an RAF Airacobra mk.I with some eduard Decals kindly supplied by Dazzled.

It'll be an OOB build, with hopefully the Gunbay and the engine left open - I have a cunning plan for adding nose weight.

Cheers

Stuart

[Stuart]

Heres the box!

[TimJ]

Great box art. I'd have gone with the shark mouth myself.

[Dirkpitt289]

Shark Mouths are cool like bow ties and a fez

[Stuart]

But EVERYBODY builds the Sharkmouth!

And actually, unless it's on P-40, I'm not really a fan of sharkmouths, especially on an aircraft without a large chin radiator (probably be drummed of the UANF for saying that)...

Bow ties and Fez's however, ARE cool.

Cheers

Stuart

[Titan]

I have this kit too though unlike you Stuart mine will be having the sharksmouth, it just looks so mean with it ....all scary like..
This will be interesting to see how this one builds and any problems encountered, I would imagine if it's wheels down then nose weight will be a must...

Regards
Mark

[Stuart]

That's a major yes on the nose weight - the issue is that there's nowhere to put it if you have the gunbay open...

...I have a cunning plan however...

[dogsbody]

Don't forget the slight over-spray on the prop blades roots!




Chris

[Stuart]

Wow - great photo chris! Thanks for posting it!

[Stuart]

I’ve been reading up a bit on the RAF’s use of these aircraft – they arriving later than planned, and had to modified which resulted in them only being used operationally between the 9th and 11th of October 1941, only completing a handful of sweeps over France were they shot up a few ground Targets.

Interestingly the RAE performed some testing on them and found that below 10,000 feet they could out turn and out-dive a 109, but once they headed above 12,000, lacking super-chargers they were useless. Does make you wonder what might have been if they had been fitted.

I certainly think they weren’t given much of a chance, and am surprised they weren’t sent to North Africa or the Far east were they would have been useful I’m sure. It’s also unsurprising that the Red Air Force got on so well with them, given the lower levels that they fought at on the eastern front.

[Stuart]

Well I’ve started this beast!

Here’s the sprue shot! A nice number of parts here – and a little bit of flash here and there, which given the age of the kit isn’t too bad I guess.



I spent a happy lunchtime cutting cockpit and gun-bay parts off the sprues and cleaning up the flash. The pit looks quite nice actually and some simple painting should pull out the detail – As I’m not a JMN and not too bothered by such things as correct colours, so I shan’t be mixing my own Bell Green. The insides will just be painted US interior Green, or maybe even RAF interior Green as the mood takes me.

I must remember to fit the clear part in behind the pilots head though!

I’ve also test fitted the main components and it seems to be a good fit - it might need a bit of filler here and there but I think it'll be ok.



And a close up...



I think I’m going to have a go a using Rattle Cans to paint this one – I have all the Humbrol RAF colours in my paint stash – I’m also going to lay off the weathering. These aircraft were brand new and hardly spent anytime in service, and a lot of time being photographed by the press - so they won’t be that chipped or grimy.

Cheers

Stuart

[Stuart]

I did a bit more work on this today - I started paining up the cockpit and gunbay, and even the anemic pilot. I've got the base colours down - I'll start detail painting tomorrow.