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P-39 D1 Airacobra (G. Welch)


Tomek

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Hey tomp.,

To my knowledge, the only difference between O'glue "types" you can see on the manufacturer's website is a size of the tube. Inside is the same stuff.

I must warn you, some don't like it because is not tacky glue. Any reservations people have toward it come from such expectation. I think the glue behaves a little like medium or slow CA. Nothing happens for a while, then it kicks in, but with better window for adjustments.

I tend to apply it to all areas (and edges) which will be glued together, wait until it dries completely and then apply it again as little as possible for the actual gluing parts together. Moisture in the second application activates the first one and helps strengthen the bond. It is very forgiving glue. If you don't succeed in the first approach, more glue can be applied. If you are not happy and glue sets already, you can still use water as debonder (applied with moist q-tip). The window for such operation is very wide (my friend who made some experiments says it can be even couple of days!).

Because it's water based adhesive the amount used must be as small as possible. A lot of glue will simply deform and warp paper parts. Also you can make some experiments with thinning it with water or evaporating it a little as its performance will change. The bond is very strong. It has a very interesting effect on paper, it strengthens it, makes is hard and easy to sand. Also I use it a lot to form parts.

Just don't give up too quickly if you become frustrated with it for the reasons I mentioned. I'm sure with some practice you will fall in love with it ;)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Time to show my progress.

The cockpit goes slower than I've anticipated, a lot of small pieces to cut, fold and glue … Another reason for the slow progress is that I’ve changed my mind about following only the instruction in the assembly. I decided to enhance a little some of the elements, not much scratch building, but still time consuming extra effort. I haven’t done anything like that before, so I thought maybe it’s time to start and learn something.

 

I started with the instrument panel, which was one of the elements enhanced by the publisher of the kit, and released as a part printed on photo paper. All holes were punched with the tool you can see on the picture below:

 

 

IMG_0158.jpg

 

 

After gluing together two layers of the “face” of the IP, I put in each hole few drops of Micro Glaze to simulate glass on the instruments (the results are so so...). Then borrowing a technique from plastic models I added bezels made of black stretched sprue. I had some issues with gluing them on, so it looks little sloppy. Initially I was quite disappointed how my bezels turned out, but after closing the cockpit with a canopy all raised elements will be more visible than sloppy glue application. I hope I've learned something during this process and next time I’ll do such things better and cleaner. I also tried to rise some other elements to make them more visible. I found relatively good photo reference showing the ignition switch on the D variant, so I scratch build this one too (red arrow on the third picture). Yellow arrows on the third picture show a strip of paper glued around the top of the IP. I thought that the strip will be too thick, so I pressed it with my thumb against the edge of the table, damaging this ways structure of the card (layers). This way it was easy to peal off extra material making the strip much more thinner.

The base of the IP is still dry fitted, I’ll glue it later.

 

Next was the control column. As you can see on the pictures in the beginning it hardly resembled anything. For the handle I used paper parts provided in the kit, which after gluing it to the rod (brass wire) were hardened with CA, which filled also all the cavities. I sanded it until fairly satisfied with the results. Initially I thought I’ll use tip of the wire as a trigger, but after looking at reference photos it turned out that in the version D the trigger was located under the index finger not thumb.

 

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Here few more completed details:

IMG_0173-1.jpg

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I’m about to start the seat and I have a question what kind of seat belts were used in P-39. I looked at several photos of the Airacobra cockpit and I’m still not sure if the belts proposed by the kit are close to the real object. Can anybody help and maybe point me to some drawings or pictures?

 

IMG_0189-1.jpg

 

Thanks for looking ^_^

Edited by Tomek
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Well, judging by your response I haven't messed up too much with my small "enhancements" :D

Thanks guys!!!

 

You are making us paper modelers very proud!

 

Thanks for compliments, Ron. Coming from you, it's a treat! I really would like to see more paper models here at LSP. Sometimes, I feel a bit ... lonely.

 

I wouldn't have had the patience to scratch those bezels!!!

 

Oh, come on Phil ... ehem ... You? :huh:

I actually learned about stretched sprue technique quite a while ago from other paper modeler (!), and I've been curious about it since then. My problem was how to get black sprue. Fortunately, my modelers club have a "Give and take part" bin where I finally found some. I took parts without contributing anything to the bin, so please shhhh! :innocent:

Anyway, stretching sprue was easier than I thought and the whole process was quite fun. I must say plastic is very easy to work with :P

 

Looks fantastic Tomek! I agree with your assessment of the belts. I would make them a tan/white/canvas color at least. Keep up the inspiring work.

 

Thanks Matt! I've looked at your P-400, but seat belts were unfortunately out of focus in close-ups. I'll try to scratch build something resembling Radu's belts. Should be fun :wacko:

I'm still waiting for more pictures of your Corsair, which you've promised to post in RFI :fight:. Don't say it's still raining in LA...

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I finally managed to finish all cockpit details (except the gun sight, but with that I'll wait a little bit) and I'm ready to glue them in place.

 

 

 

IMG_0216-1.jpg

 

 

My next concern were seat belts. I spend some time looking for references and I finally found some. One of the most helpful was an

which I found on Youtube (pretty fun!). See about 9 minutes into it for the belts part. As the material to build them I used the same metal tape from a whiskey bottle and some wire. I used mixed Vallejo acrylics. The color is too fleshy for my liking, but I came of course to this conclusion after belts were glued into place :doh: . You can see all inadequacies of my painting skills ...

Anyway, I'll welcome any advice how to paint such details, what to avoid, etc. You guys have much better understanding of such things ...

 

 

 

IMG_0198-1.jpg

IMG_0209-1.jpg

IMG_0212.jpg

IMG_0213.jpg

 

 

 

Next, finishing the tail section and the undercarriage. Thanks again for looking.

Edited by Tomek
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Thanks guys :D .

Now, I would do the seatbelts a little bit differently, hopefully better. Even if not completely satisfying, it's always a learning experience for me. I have some ideas how to approach it next time.

 

By the way what is the best brand in LS planes?

and where to find it? Do you have a link?

Sorry if it already has been asked.

No worries Jamme. I think in tomp.'s thread there was already some useful information. Guys covered there a lot of digital sources.

When it's about pre-printed models Halinski's kits are considered to be a high end (detailed but difficult). Few other publishers try to match their level: Model-Hobby with their Weapons of WWII series, and KW Model which I'm building here.

Orlik and GPM are another brands to consider (visually probably a little bit less striking, but offering quite advanced designs). There are some interesting position offered by Modelik. My long time favorite designer, Paweł Mistewicz, offers simple but very good kits (Kartonowa Kolekcja), perfect for starters. The Buffalo I showed in RFI section was one of his designs.

Edited by Tomek
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