Guadalcanal P-39 Eduard 1/48

[Second Air Force]

Here is another of the long series of releases from our friends at Eduard of the P-39/-400, the dual set #1161.

Guadalcanal P-39 Eduard 1/48

Inside are two complete kits, Brassin resin wheels of numerous designs, four photoetch frets, two sets of masks and a wonderful decal sheet with eight SWPA P-400s and P-39s. Also the excellent instruction sheet as contained in the Eduard kits:

Guadalcanal P-39 Eduard 1/48

Guadalcanal P-39 Eduard 1/48

Guadalcanal P-39 Eduard 1/48

Guadalcanal P-39 Eduard 1/48

[No.1]

This look great!!!

[Second Air Force]

Indeed, it's a lovely package! I've had an earlier packaging of this product (the four-blade propeller was used on my P-63 project) but did not start to build one until now. Today I fitted the wing and fuselage parts together for a quick fitting test, and it looks like this will be a good one. The fuselage on this example is ever-so-slightly warped (most likely from shipping) but this is easily corrected during assembly. I also shot yellow chromate on the appropriate areas as a first step on this build:

Guadalcanal P-39 Eduard 1/48

Guadalcanal P-39 Eduard 1/48

As much as I've enjoyed building the ancient Monogram Airacobra, this one is so much more advanced in matters of detail.....

[draken35]

[Jicehem]

Hello

I'm impatient to see the end of building (both ?). I like the "Airacobra". I've one specimen of the old Monogram issue in my stock.

Jicehem

[modellius]

nice start

[Second Air Force]

I've decided that I would review this twin set in a different way, one kit with the excellent Brassin and PE parts, the other with only the plastic kit pieces. This gives the viewer a good contrast between a ProfiPack kit and a Weekend Edition version. With that idea in mind, the second kit was started and the build goes easy. A couple of photos:

Guadalcanal P-39 Eduard 1/48

Here you can see the contrast between the great PE parts and the kit parts:

Guadalcanal P-39 Eduard 1/48

Guadalcanal P-39 Eduard 1/48

Cockpit "B" has been enhanced just a little with some wire for details and masking tape seatbelts since the cockpit is so visible on the Airacobra. "A" has all the Eduard enhancements installed.

[No.1]

Good idea and pity that instrument panel was not provided as decal, this can be good solution too

[Second Air Force]

Yes, that would be a good solution. I've included this plastic one as a contrast and still have more PE panels for later! In fact, I have another complete kit that will receive all of the second set of enhancements.

[draken35]

[modellius]

Very good idea to compare the two kit options. Nice job so far

[Second Air Force]

Time to finally make some small progress on these.......today I joined the fuselage halves and now starting to apply filler to the seams.

Guadalcanal P-39 Eduard 1/48

[Jicehem]

Hello,

Work goes well on. That seems to be wonderful.

Jicehem

[draken35]

[Second Air Force]

Thanks, friends!

This one takes a bit more filler than the newer kits from Eduard as you can see. One of my fuselage halves (in one parts tree only) was warped just a bit as I mentioned before so it took a little more care to glue this one together and keep it straight. I also managed to misalign the upper wing panels when gluing them to the lower half on one kit so the wing-to-fuselage joint is somewhat larger than it should be. Nothing some styrene strip and putty can't fix, though!