quang Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 Hello everyone, This is my first posting so let me introduce myself. My name is Quang. I've been modelling aircraft since the early sixties. Then came a 20-year hiatus when I took up sculpting and painting figures. Now I'm getting back to my first love: things that fly. I love doing cockpits and interiors. I like subjects with an interesting history. Uneventful builds annoy me. I like kits that fight back. So I guess the Kitty Hawk P-39 is a natural choice. The kit itself comes as a pleasant surprise. Delicate surface detail, well moulded, no distorted part,…. So let's waste no time and tackle the main controversy about this kit: the fuselage length. As the nose is in several parts, we need to assemble at least one half of the entire fuselage in order to check out its length. The operation went on smoothly even if several parts were simply butt-joined. A testimony to KH precise engineering. My main reference is a near-perfect, distorsion-free profile picture of a 'modern' Airacobra blown up to 1/32 scale (distance from the front end –sans spinner– to the tail post on the print-out is 255 mm as opposed to the publicised Bell data of 254,35 mm. Not bad in my book). daveculp, Iain, MikeC and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Iain Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 Excellent start Quang - and welcome aboard!! Iain Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zero77 Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 (edited) Welcome Quang ! I'm pretty sure you lenght comparison will make several members discussing ! Edited February 29, 2016 by Zero77 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Out2gtcha Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 (edited) Welcome! Please do continue to share, as we love pics around here. From what I can extrapilate, the KHM P-39 was not released in the order it actually came out in; meaning although the KHM P-39 is a release that has recently been release by them, IIRC I believe the release was much later than when the kit was actually produced. IE, the P-39 was one of the first new gen 32nd kits KHM produced, and as such KHM have learned a few things since this kit was actually produced, so it might not have some of the "fixes" that the newer KHM kits have. Welcome Quang ! I'm pretty sure you lenght comparison will make several members discussing ! Its been talked to death TBH. Id say if one wants to make the correction, go for it...........and it one just "wants to build it" then I think it would turn out fine looking for the majority of modelers. Edited February 29, 2016 by Out2gtcha Zero77 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
petrov27 Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 Fantastic - recently picked the kit up myself so will be following! That is a super nice side-on shot of the "modern Airacobra" - did you have a link to that picture possible? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quang Posted February 29, 2016 Author Share Posted February 29, 2016 I'm well aware of the heated debate concerning the fuselage length as well as the outright debunking of the kit. The built-up model on the KH site looks pretty good if a little pudgy to my eye. And since there's no definite pictural proof on the forums, I had to look by myself. So here's my reference pic: Now with the completed right fuselage half: Gentlemen, that's what I call a no-brainer. rafju and Zero77 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quang Posted February 29, 2016 Author Share Posted February 29, 2016 And now the GOOD news: The front and aft parts of the fuselage line up 'perfectly' with the photo. The shape of the rudder is off and the nose is 2 mm short but these are small meat compared with the overall length issue. Zero77, daveculp and David Hansen 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peterpools Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 guang Welcome aboard and a very nice start on the P-39. Looking forward to following your build with great interest. Keep 'em coming Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ClumsyDude Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 Hi Quang, welcome! Looks like some good work so far. Jim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quang Posted March 1, 2016 Author Share Posted March 1, 2016 Thank you guys for your warm welcome and your support in this project. Now read on. My method for lengthening the fuselage is unorthodox but it will hopefully save me the pitfalls of the conventional ones. Needless to say I learned a lot from the other members' builds, notably Martin. I started to work on the right-hand half-fuselage checking constantly with the print-out for alignment etc… It's very important to keep the mating surface of the half-fuselage perfectly flat to avoid distortion when mating the two fuselage halves together. Instead of making a straight vertical cut, I opted for a staggered cut. It will hopefully save me from cutting through the wing root and having to reshape it afterwards. The cut is made in 3 steps. The 2 vertical steps using a rasor saw and the final horizontal step by scoring with a X-Acto blade. daveculp and rafju 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quang Posted March 1, 2016 Author Share Posted March 1, 2016 The result Learstang, KiwiZac, KUROK and 2 others 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennismcc Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 Welcome, and a great subject to start with. Cheers Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quang Posted March 1, 2016 Author Share Posted March 1, 2016 Fuselage is extended to the right length using styrene strips. Photos are self-explanatory. Out2gtcha and rafju 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
quang Posted March 1, 2016 Author Share Posted March 1, 2016 Repeat with the other fuselage half. rafju, daveculp and Iain 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hubert Boillot Posted March 1, 2016 Share Posted March 1, 2016 Good show. I was thinking that a diagonal cut would do the trick, but your method does seem to work well. Keep it coming Hubert Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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