1/48 Eduard P-39Q Airacobra, main painting done

[turnerdad]

Well I've been a bit quiet recently, but my wife and I have just adopted a 2 year old girl! She is mixed race, black white and a real sweetie, our other daughter has now passed the continual jealousy stage and they are getting on really well now thank goodness. And that means I can get out to the shed a little, so I've started an Eduard 1/48 P-39Q Airacobra. I don't know what the Hasegawa kit is like, but this so far is a little gem, coupled with the fact that I picked it up for £10.99 from Hannants-these are not expensive models. No resin in it, but a comprehensive PE sheet ( NOT pre-painted!!!), masks, Cartograph decals for some very interesting machines and even a moulded metal noseweight. So far everything has fitted pretty much perfectly. This will be pretty much OOB, but I will drop the flaps and add a little detail where nec. I will be building the rather sexy French machine as per box art. It also has the (rare for P-39's) 4 bladed prop. Be nice to have something other than stars and bars and British roundels in my meagre collection.

I mixed my own interior green as I find that most of the usual US interior greens are too well, green. I have some great WWII colour shots, plus some pics of unrestored preserved examples and the colour does seem to vary greatly, but most I've seen tend towards Olive Drab to Olive Green rather than the often very green hues. Anyway, some pics, pit done.

Apologies if the pics seem a little dark, it just tends to show the subtle shading a little better.

The doors fit perfectly, these still have the outer masking film on.

I added a crossbeam for the belts as they seem to be present on every pic of the real thing I've seen.

Pit together, noseweight in place. Make sure you paint the bottom of it before gluing it in! Also, the instrument panel doesn't have much in the way of positive location, so I added tube sections bridging it to the front bulkhead to keep it in place.

Edited July 6, 2010 by turnerdad

[Skii]

Absolutely beautiful work, that IP and the worn insides of those doors is to die for.

Scale modelling porn, - no other words seem appropriate.

[AnonymousFO98]

Skii said it right- man that is a georgeous start Turnerdad

could you recommend an interior colour to use on a P-51 please so i can get it as good as yours

yeah Right- like that will ever happen!

(Hu 151 was the equivalent given in the colour charts but is discontinued)

ps. congratulations on the adoption- hope the family will be happy together and good to hear the girls are getting on

such good news is always a welcome change

Edited February 26, 2009 by walrus

[Martian]

Super kick off!

Martin

[Jazzy Jase]

Nice work turnerdad, I always admire your builds.

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

Nice one TD - lovely work!!. Its a great kit too - thugh you may want to thin the wing trailing edges, as, as i recall they are a bit thick as is. Please keep up withthe pics - this will be an Oscar winner!!

well done on the adoption too BTW - glad the 2 kids are getting on. Good on ya mate

Jonners

[Seamus]

Ok, we really need a drool smiley

Superb work as ever chap, your builds are inspirational. I'll be keeping a close eye on this one

Would like to echo the congratualtions on the adoption too

[spitfire]

That is looking great, but you should really have started earlier so that I could have stolen ideas for my build of it's Special Hobby big brother (1/32 scale).

Cheers

Den

[timbo33]

You are a genius with a small brush and silver paint TD.... .I reckon I'd need a microscope to get anywhere close....

On a diversionary note - nice to see your A-20 in SAMI

[Alan P]

Great start Mr T.

I must say you have a magician's touch with shading and getting a realistic depth of colour. This is apparent on many of your posted builds, and brilliantly showcased with that interior.

You ought to educate us lesser mortals with your airbrushing technique one day!

[turnerdad]

Thanks everyone.

walrus

could you recommend an interior colour to use on a P-51 please so i can get it as good as yours

yeah Right- like that will ever happen! laugh.gif

According to my references ( (I keep a notebook and add anything I feel could be useful to remember), I used Tamiya Olive Drab, some Xtracrylics XA 1117 Interior green, a little XF-5, a little XF-4 plus a little medium sea grey. Mmm...

Jon

Its a great kit too - thugh you may want to thin the wing trailing edges, as, as i recall they are a bit thick as is.

Thanks Jon, will keep that in mind.

timbo33

On a diversionary note - nice to see your A-20 in SAMI cool.gif

It's in SAMI? Havn't seen it but a report on the MK show?

Phats, thanks for your comments. This time I sprayed everything black first, then the colour as I wanted a deeper base to the interior green-I wanted to avoid too much of a "green" colour, though I don't think underlying it in black ultimately made much of a difference after all the washes etc. I've started removing my airbrush cap when spraying fine detail, you can get some really fine lines. As usual, I thin my Tamiya and Gunze paints with cellulose thinners-doesn't clog, and sprays beautifully. I spray some lighter patterns fairly randomly over the larger areas, then dry brush (I know it's no longer trendy, but personally I think it gives by far the best results). 2 coats of Klear, then white spirit thinned oil wash with raw umber, then highly thinned black. Then silver chipping-this build is a little crude as time is very limited, but I've tried just about everything and have found the Citadel range of paints to be best here. I mostly used "Boltgun" as it is quite a restrained slightly darker silver. Apply with a fine brush-sure your planes are a little neater! Next, matt cote and thats it really. I spend quite a while playing about with the washes, pulling the pigment down with a dry stiffish brush, moistening with white spirit if it needs it.

Thanks for the comments Seamus and all others regarding our adoption. It's a mad house again.

Cheers all

[AnonymousFO98]

Hi TD

According to my references ( (I keep a notebook and add anything I feel could be useful to remember), I used Tamiya Olive Drab, some Xtracrylics XA 1117 Interior green, a little XF-5, a little XF-4 plus a little medium sea grey. Mmm...

right, Hu 226 interior green it is then!

just had a look at some interiors and i see what you mean about the colour

will approximate the - i mean exactly replicate the colour with the paints i have available

thank you for the insight into how you achieved that amazing cockpit

Edited February 27, 2009 by walrus

[Dances With Wolves]

Hi TD:

What a full throttle beauty! Like the rest of the crew I am very much in wholehearted admiration for the balanced skill on show in creating such a superb cockpit. Top drawer.

Best regards

Steve

[Dances With Wolves]

Happy birthday TD!

Best regards

Steve

[NickT]

Nice one TD - lovely work!!. Its a great kit too - thugh you may want to thin the wing trailing edges, as, as i recall they are a bit thick as is. Please keep up withthe pics - this will be an Oscar winner!!

well done on the adoption too BTW - glad the 2 kids are getting on. Good on ya mate

Jonners

Have to agree with everybody else, it looks great so far.

With regard to the trailing edges there was a good P-39 build over ARC where the tailing edges were fixed LINK

Hope this is useful.

Nick

[Derbyeomanry]

Superb build looks like a show winner so far - not the greatest aircraft but had superb lines - and that mid engine! - really captured my imagination as a kid. Built the airfix kit as a kid and tried to work out how it spun the prop.

[Maxidad]

***Sigh*** Just when I think I am progressing in modelling, I see something like this, and then realise I am a mere toddler in the world of scale modelling.

Magnificent!

[dahut]

As we say here in Redneck Country, "...that is some wondermous stuff, raght there!"

What does one of those ProfiPaks sell out for in Birtain.

[KiwiSteve]

Thats one sweet pit TD I have to say I'm always stunned by how realistic your cockpits and detailing work is, if its not to much to ask would you be able to post up a Master class on how you do cockpits

Congrats on the new addition to the family, big ups to you for adopting and changing this little girls life for the better

[Antoine]

Superb work on this pit, highlighted by beautiful pics.

I've got some lessons to learn here.

[darson]

Scale modelling porn, - no other words seem appropriate.

What more can I say other than geez that looks lovely and as kiwiSteve said, any chance of a posting a little technique or two.

Cheers

[Smiffy]

Superb paint work.

Will be watching this one.

[Honza K.]

Really cool, how you painthing specially cockpits!

Your work is nice! keep going.

Honza

Edited March 1, 2009 by Honza K.

[Vince Blackburn]

Hi TD

Truely lovely work so far

look forward to seeing the conclusion

Vince "Blackie"

[turnerdad]

With regard to the trailing edges there was a good P-39 build over ARC where the tailing edges were fixed LINK

From one Nick T to another, thanks for the link. I've started dropping the flaps so that will hopefully help.

Thanks for cheery comments, just so blooming difficult to find anytime to build with kids and work boo hoo. Update tomorrow night hopefully. Got a whole day to play tomorrow!!