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1/48 Eduard P-39, nose gear wheel well roof, scratchbuilding tips/reference pics?


MeneMene

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Hello-

 

Working on the Eduard P-39. The nose wheel bay doesn't appear to have any sort of ceiling, it's just empty space. I would imagine you'd at least be able to see the cannon barrel and some other equipment. I also need some way to hide the mass of nose weight I'll need to prevent tail sitting. Does anyone have any ideas of what sort of structure would be at the top of the wheel bay, or better yet, any reference pics?

 

kbUud9B.jpg

 

HEhSVuE.jpg

 

Thanks

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Hello MeneMene,

 

I built the Weekend Edition and there wasn't any weight provided. Probably it is available only in Profi Packs. The NLG bay is very narrow and once you have the gear leg installed, there isn't much visible. The kit gives you the axle that runs the gear box. The gun barrel sits higher inside the nose and IIRC isn't visible through the NLG bay.

 

The NLG bay interior is painted overall with ZCY in the real plane although it looks "greenish" on some of the photos in the walkaround mentioned above. The NLG bay door inner surfaces are painted with dark olive green and ZCY is visible through the round lightening holes.

 

Here is the correct Olive Green observed on that particular Airacobra:

 

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I mixed Humbrol Enamels to create a proper match. This same olive green is used for all interiors and landing gear parts. For the ZCY I used Humbrol 81 straight out of the tin. You can add some brown into it to create slightly more duller colour.

 

A view directly below showing the NLG bay roof:

 

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Are you going to correct any of the kit's faults or just building OOB with some added details?

 

Cheers,

Antti

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3 hours ago, Antti_K said:

Are you going to correct any of the kit's faults or just building OOB with some added details?

 

Cheers,

Antti

 

Thanks for the info!

 

I'm building the "Bella" combo boxing for Soviet P-39. Comes with the usual Eduard profipack photoetch, but as you said, no metal nose weight. In it's absence, I was thinking of just tracing out and recreating a roof with plastic sheet and cutting a slit in it for the propeller shaft to pass through, if nothing else just to hide all the fishing weights I will need.

 

What are the major faults of the kit? I've got some resin exhausts and propeller set, but otherwise OOB. Anything glaring that should be corrected?

 

 

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I'm looking at the Weekend Edition P-400 I built some years ago. It didn't supply the weight, and I know I used fishing weights. Apparently there's enough room to place them so that they're hardly visible looking from below through the nose gear well. IMHO there's absolutely no need to bother with a roof. Here's a photo looking up into the well. You can just make out a bit of the fishing weight at the forward end. It's much more obvious in the photo than in the flesh. Since I'm not in the habit of displaying my models upside down, I saw no need for further scratchbuilding.

 

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The most frequent criticism I've heard of the kit is the rather thick wing trailing edges. To that I'd add that it's well nigh impossible to get the doors to fit closed. I gave up and posed both open.

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On 4/21/2022 at 4:46 AM, MeneMene said:

What are the major faults of the kit?

 

Hello MeneMene,

 

the cockpit glazing is the most visible fault. The clear parts are some 1,5 mm too tall. You can see it by looking at the door windows. Remove 1,5 millimeters from the canopy and side windows. Then add 1,5 millimeters on top of the cockpit side walls to keep the side profile correct. Like this:

 

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Another easy problem to fix is the air foil shape. The leading edge is far too blunt and needs to be rounded. I'd say that it is wise to fill the leading edges with Milliput or styrene strips and then start to sand. The wing-fuselage joint is rounded (or "soft"), but that is easily fixed by careful sanding.

 

The wing chord is some three millimeters too short. Because of that all surface details on the rear fuselage sides are wrongly located. After some head scratching I decided that I will live with the wrong wing chord.

 

Surface detailing isn't very accurate and the wing under surface detailing is mostly wrong for a P-39Q. I re-scribed all panel lines.

 

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Here's my model.

 

All details, measurements and colour observation were made from the Airacobra shown in the walkaround Tbolt referred to.

 

Cheers,

Antti

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18 hours ago, Antti_K said:

 

Hello MeneMene,

 

the cockpit glazing is the most visible fault. The clear parts are some 1,5 mm too tall. You can see it by looking at the door windows. Remove 1,5 millimeters from the canopy and side windows. Then add 1,5 millimeters on top of the cockpit side walls to keep the side profile correct. Like this:

 

Another easy problem to fix is the air foil shape. The leading edge is far too blunt and needs to be rounded. I'd say that it is wise to fill the leading edges with Milliput or styrene strips and then start to sand. The wing-fuselage joint is rounded (or "soft"), but that is easily fixed by careful sanding.

 

The wing chord is some three millimeters too short. Because of that all surface details on the rear fuselage sides are wrongly located. After some head scratching I decided that I will live with the wrong wing chord.

 

Surface detailing isn't very accurate and the wing under surface detailing is mostly wrong for a P-39Q. I re-scribed all panel lines.

 

 

Oh dear. That's a lot of fixes for something I had hoped would be a quick build.

 

That scribing work is excellent- can I ask what you use for tools/guides?

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Thank you MeneMene🙂 My main scribing tools are rather simple: an Exacto knife with a blade number 16 and a jeweler's screwdriver with a sharpened tip (you can also create handy chisels of these). Most of the time I scribe freehand and when I use guides, they can be anything from Dymo-tape to Tamiya modeling templates. The thing is to start gently and then gradually add pressure. Normally the edges of the scribed panel lines have to be cleaned several times before the final touch-up with MEK (Methyl ethyl ketone) is done. Work quickly with MEK as it is a very strong solvent.

 

When I started my build it was clear that the wing leading edges were bad and needed some work. As the project progressed I noticed the problems with the clear parts and wing chord. The problem with the clear parts was so obvious that it had to be dealt with. I guess no one will notice whether you fix the wing chord or not.

 

Cheers,

Antti

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