1/72nd Bell L-39-1 - 24/10 update

[trickyrich]

It seems like I can’t join a GB these days without my build being resin or unusual, or in this case both! 

 

This is a really unusual Airacobra taken to the extreme if you disregard the racing ones. The US Navy wanted to investigate the behaviour of swept wings on aircraft and funded a number of projects into it, one being this. They planned to use a couple of P-63 Airacobra’s fitted with modified wings, but during the modification work ran into trouble with the aircrafts CoG. To fix this they decided to use a lighter 3 bladed prop. The 3 blade prop was going to cost around $1500, but they found they could buy a complete surplus P-39Q for $750 so they bought 2. The new lighter props were fitted to the P-63 along with the new wings and the aircraft were given the designation L-39-1 and L-39-2.

 

So I’ll be using CMR’s lovely little model for this build. It’s quite basic and well moulded so it will be a nice OOB build for me, a nice change.

 

 

As can be seen there’s not much to it, the instructions are even basic.

 

 

Plus the colour scheme is even nice a simple! This will be the first build, so I’ll get this one out of the way before starting the other one.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

 ... YESSSS !!! I was hoping someone would build one.

[stevej60]

Excellent,never seen this one before.

[trickyrich]

thanks, it is an interesting beast. After the initial test flights they changed the shape of the tail, adding a section under the rudder.

 

The testing did prove successful for the Navy as they found the wing to be quite unstable at low speeds and proved the benefits of adding of full width leading edge slats. I don't know what happened to the test aircraft, probably broken up for scrap. They would have made great racing aircraft.

[Tailspin Turtle]

Also see: http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2011/04/sweeping-change-bell-l-39.html and http://thanlont.blogspot.com/2011/04/bell-l-39-wing-sweep-evaluation.html

[trickyrich]

10 hours ago, Tailspin Turtle said:

Also see: http://tailspintopics.blogspot.com/2011/04/sweeping-change-bell-l-39.html and http://thanlont.blogspot.com/2011/04/bell-l-39-wing-sweep-evaluation.html

wow thanks a lot for that Tommy!! 

 

I hadn't really started to have a good look for research material on this aircraft other than what I quickly found in some of the books I have on the P-39/63. Those two links are perfect.

 

The colour being OD sort of makes sense now seeing the project was done with the least amount of cost. 

 

The interesting thing I did notice of the other link was what looks to be an early photo of this aircraft without national insignia's on the wings. Plus the finish looks to be almost semi-gloss/polished and not the usual flat finish you see with OD finishes. This is all really helpful.

 

Again thanks for that, any other stuff you have or info that would help would be greatly appreciated. 

[gingerbob]

On 8/21/2018 at 8:50 PM, trickyrich said:

The colour being OD sort of makes sense now seeing the project was done with the least amount of cost.

 

Tommy and I have talked about this before, but I'm of the opinion that it was, in fact, overall blue.  There is a photo that shows this, assuming that it is, in fact, a genuine color photograph.  Perhaps this was included in Tommy's links- it has been a while since I looked at them.

 

A 1/48 conversion is on my fanciful to-do list, and in danger of being declared for this GB, though it would be far more rational to do a simple ol' OOB P-39...

 

Note that the L-39s had "down and locked" main gear.

[trickyrich]

yeap I know the gear is locked down probably because there are no wheel wells for the main gear, so why would you bother retracting the nose gear. Besides these test flights ere all about landing characteristics of a swept wing.

 

Now the colour.....this was always going to be a point. I would agree that blue should have been the colour seeing it was a navy project. But then they did on the real cheap and used surplus air force P-39's that were in OD, so why would you bother to re-paint the whole aircraft? (but they may have!)

 

The thing that makes me more inclined to go with Tommy and OD is the shade the aircraft is. In B&W photo's it appears to be a lighter colour, sort of what you'd expect OD to look like in B&W. The navy at this time had gone to their Sea Blue Gloss for operational aircraft, so if they wanted to paint it blue I would have expected it to be this darker blue, which in the B&W photo's would have looked much darker, almost black in the extremes. You wouldn't have been able to, or would have been hard to make out the complete insignia quite so easily, just the white as with other navy aircraft of that era. But i the photos the blue in the insignia is quite noticeable. For a project on the cheap why would they have used a completely different blue.....unless there were a few cans lying out that back of Bell.

 

If it is a blue what is that colour, Sea Blue Gloss? Is it a leftover from the earlier 3/4 colour blue schemes from the mid-war period. I really don't place too much faith in colour photos of the period, I've worked in the photo processing industry for a while (did R&D work a well known Japanese film company in Aust). The variation in colour between labs with the same image can be huge and that's with modern equipment, back then "colourisation" of colour film was very much a result of individual....., how can I say this nicely, tastes!

 

I think what maybe confusing everything is that the finish is quite glossy. A polished OD finish would look quite different to the matt we are use to seeing, it would take on a lot darker tone in B&W photos.

 

After Tommy raise this about the colour I went looking for every photo of her I could find plus photos of other aircraft of the period. It doesn't help that her appearance was changed a couple of times with the lengthening of the fuselage and the additional work to the tail. She was probably repainted or touched up every time. Plus a lot of the photo's don't tell you which aircraft it is, plus the colour one being back to front doesn't help either! Maybe L-39-1 was a shiny OD in her initial test flights, pre-modifications and was re-painted during the modifications???

 

But having waffled on about this I can't be 100% sure it's not Sea Blue Gloss or some weird batch of paint Bell found hidden away in some corner! 

 

Maybe what I should do...or might do is build her as just having had the wings fitted, fuselage still OD and wings still bare metal!     gosh why did I think of that, that sounds like extra work!! 

[trickyrich]

Ok time to get this wee one under way.

 

There is very little to this model, probably even less than most “Snap-Tite” models which is nice as I’ve lost/misplaced (more likely the first) the instructions! 

 

There really wasn’t much to clean up, the moulding was quite nice. Though the prop and the long thingies to the right were bent, so they needed a bath in hot water to straighten.

 

 

The three main items were then fitted, scope/wings/rudder, they needed just a touch with some sandpaper to fit nicely.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That said there is a slight gap to fill!

 

 

“Don’t step into the light!”...........some card or plastic strip should fix this.

 

 

She’ll be a tail sitter for sure, as there’s nowhere to add weights. What I might do is drill a hole in the nose (the spinner will cover it) and add lead weights there as required.

 

She’s definitely an odd looking aircraft. This one should be a really quick and simple build, I may even finish her this weekend......maybe!

 

[trickyrich]

It’s been a while since I updated this one. I have been doing little bits on her here and there. Mostly just filling and cleaning up the wing join.

 

She’s had a coat of grey to see how it all went. Only a few things need to be tidied up and she’ll be ready for painting.

 

 

 

I’ll try and do  some more on her, I have a better chance of finishing her off than the Duo!!  

 

[Doc72]

Good to see some progress on what is probably the most ambitious project in this GB. Keep on the good work!