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SH P-39Q 'Spare Parts'


CANicoll

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I know, I SWORE I was done with P-39's after the debacle with the KH P-39 (and soothed my frayed nerves with a Eduard P-39 just to make up for it), but ended up with the Special Hobby P-39Q a while ago and finally pulled it out to take a look at it.  After building five other P-39s I finally found a subject I had never seen before - so giving it one last go!

 

SH with the resin cockpit and Eduard PE Interior bits.  Lovely, with NO engine or nose machinery so this should be a decently quick build with most of the focus on the finish (more on that in just a minute) and the cockpit.   :thumbsup:

 

oqE3DY.jpg

 

Kind of unassuming, and I missed it when I looked at the box, but that is a gloss black Airacobra from the Pacific theater.  Its called 'Spare Parts' as it was cobbled together from various 72nd FS aircraft. 

 

Here is the text from a 1944 article about this aircraft:

 

REBORN P-39 FIGHTER PLANE NAMED SPARE PARTS

Spare Parts is the name of this reborn Bell P-39 Airacobra fighter . Riddled by Jap bullets in the South Pacific , it was tough enough to be patched together again with odds and ends after officers at first thought it was ready for the junk pile. The picture is an official U.S. Air Forces photo, and shows some of the men who put their spare parts to good use.

fWac1I.jpg

 

Ingenuity—as someone has pointed out — is one of the real secret weapons of American soldiers . And to prove the point, the story has just drifted back to this country about how a group of mechanical-minded boys in a South Pacific theater took a bullet-riddled plane, a collection of odds and ends, a lot of elbow-grease—-and, with these ingredients, put together a fighter plane that no one expected to see . They started with a wrecked Bell Aircraft Airacobra (P-39) shot down in combat by the Japs. It was all ready for the junk heap. But they scrambled around and put together enough salvaged parts to put the plane back into flying trim again. Appropriately enough, they named the ship Spare Parts. Builders of the plane are members of the Sky Riders Squadron of the 7th Air Force. Written off the books, no longer boasting a serial number, the reborn fighter, at last reports, was still doing a job in the air .

 

How can you not LOVE a gloss black Airacobra?? :wub:

 

xFjfu5.jpg

 

 

Love the idea of a glossy black finish so will be spending a bit more time than usual on this Airacobra finish.  Usually they are pretty heavily weathered but this one seems to have been rather decently well taken care of.

 

With no engine or nose canon, etc to deal with, already have the entire plane in primer and have sprayed the green zinc chromate for the vents and the wheel wells, and most of the interior green for the cockpit.  Taking the easy route and just going with the green chromate as I didn't have yellow handy.   :shrug:

 

I did notice what looks like the circular antenna behind the cockpit, which I don't think is in the kit so I'll have to do a bit more research and see if it really was on the aircraft or if that is something behind the plane, in the picture.

 

I75Nwx.jpg

 

ZfnCZ8.jpg

DWHaMB.jpg

 

So there we go.  On to P-39 number 6.

 

Chris

Edited by CANicoll
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Guest Peterpools

Chris

Great choice for the P-39

Glad you're underway and will be following with great interest all the way

Nice start on your 6th P-39 and you're right - nearly impossible to resist an all black scheme.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

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John : Nope.  Going to be primarily an OOB build so not looking to do any major (or minor) surgery.  I know you put that plug into your bird (and frigging amazing work you did on that!) but i'm just looking for a decent output from this kit.  I want to get it built so I can get back into the LSP habit again.

 

Cheers,

Chris

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Great project.

I'll be following for sure.

BTW, that round antenna is an ADF (Automatic Direction Finder) loop for navigation.

 

Edit:  Oops!  Went back and looked at the photo.  That is not an ADF loop antenna but the lip for the carb air intake.

Edited by KUROK
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Guest Peterpools

Chris

Right with you about keeping the P-39 OOB to keep the build moving without doing all the corrections. I'm really enjoying the SBD build and by keeping it OOB.Box Stock, I've made super progress. 

Just a nice change of pace and a huge mojo builder.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

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Great project.

I'll be following for sure.

BTW, that round antenna is an ADF (Automatic Direction Finder) loop for navigation.

 

Edit:  Oops!  Went back and looked at the photo.  That is not an ADF loop antenna but the lip for the carb air intake.

 

OMG.  You know,  that is exactly what that is.  I had not taken a second look at it yet, but thanks for doing that for me.  I wonder how long it would have taken me  :doh: to have the head slap moment....  THANKS for saving me a headache.   :innocent:

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Great to see another Special Hobby P39 in the mix - what an fascinating back story and cracker of a livery too!

 

I've got a bit of a soft spot for racing Airacobras which look great in clean gloss finishes and were I ever tempted to attempt another P39 I'd chose the SH over the Kittyhawk kit as a basis. On the length issue (which both kits have ) - she still looks like a P39 with or without that fix.

 

Pulling up a chair...

 

Torben

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Hi all!  Got the canopy and doors into the future dip and am in Chattanooga this weekend for their model show.  Didn't bring any LSP (too big for the car trip down since I was just a passenger) down but am judging so that is fun.  Great group of guys here for their event.  Back on Sunday.

Ciao folks,

Chris

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Making a bit of progress and doing some things I don't normally do but seems to be working out so far.  Getting geared up to do my next project so kind of having some fun with this one to see what works and what doesn't.

 

Here goes:

I have never wired an IP before, and not suggesting I have it nailed but thought it turned out pretty well.  Colors are not exactly period but most of it won't be able to be seen anyway.  I used two sizes of 1/35 automotive ignition wire, and some silver thread I've had in my kit forever.  After drilling some small holes in the back of the IP, I used Gator Glue to attach the wires.

 

(yes, one 'ear' of the IP is missing.  The resin panel proved to be a bit brittle).

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After the glue set pretty well I twisted the wires together into something of a bundle to be threaded through a hole I drilled through the fire wall (between the pedals).

Z5sZd3.jpg

hqVspr.jpg

 

I cant decide if the IP is too low or what, but the machine guns sit way too high to be nestled in the IP cutouts.  The cut outs are so low the machine guns would go right through the pedals.  Oh well.

 

q1jus6.jpg

 

I thought I would also wire the very visible radio behind the pilot.

 

mDlWbw.jpg

 

I've not found a photo reference for the radio stack provided by Special Hobby so I took a guess at the wiring.  Again, used two sizes of the 1/35 ignition wiring.  Sadly, after I had this all done, I found some gray wiring I would have used to offer some visual diversity.  Oh well!  The bottom unit has two cables feeding into one, which I did find in one of my P-39 references.  This was done by individually attaching wire to two of the connectors on the unit, then using Gator Glue to connect the two.  Once that was set, I wrapped the 'joint' with Tamiya tape, then painted it a dark gray.  The wires disappear into a hole opened in the floor of the panel.

 

Making other gains in the cockpit.  The PE shoulder harness is put together and the resin seat is painted and weathered.  The pad seems to be non-standard but I like it.  Still a bit of work on the weathering but its mostly there.  Next up - finishing the PE seatbelts, attaching them and getting the cockpit together and into the fuselage.

XJpZG3.jpg

 

So far using primarily the Vallejo Model Air acrylics.  All of the cockpit detail is brush painted.  The instrument faces have drops of future applied as 'glass'.

 

The kit has a nice mix of resin, PE and color PE so exercising all the basic skills.

 

That's it for now!

Chris

Edited by CANicoll
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