1/48 Bell P-39Q Airacobra "Bud Anderson"

I just finished a 1/48 Accurate Miniatures P-39Q Airacobra. Have you ever started a project only to finish it WAY later than you thought you would? Yeah, that's what happened here. This kit is from Eduard really. It gives you the option to build the first Old Crow, or both racers. I want all of them, but chose the former since I have had the opportunity to speak to the inimitable Bud Anderson via phone about eight years ago.

I think the P-39 could have been great, but it was limited by its powerplant. Aerodynamically, it was superior to the P-40 and other contemporary fighters. Nevertheless, I like this little fighter.

I wanted to finish this after the first week of February. That's why I didn't bother to post anything in the WWII group build. Even though the kit was enjoyable to build, it was tough with respect to fit. The cockpit is fiddly at best. There are several parts. I purchased a photoetched set to go with it, which helped. The worst area concerning fitting was the wing root. It was awful! I had to sand it down using 250 grit. I filled the seams using super thin CA, and then rescribed all panel lines. The fit of the propeller was very challenging as well. That took a lot of sheet styrene to make it look convincing. The clear parts required careful adjustments too.

I used Mission Models and Tamiya paints for the job. Easy. Great. Then I coated the aircraft with future. Fine. I then realized that the paint guide had several inaccuracies. I was disappointed to see that the numbers and insignias are off in size as well, but oh well. Using the photos attached below, and Hasegawa's reference, this is my best guess of what the scheme looked like.

Thanks to my lack of attentiveness, I ended up buying a new decal sheet for this plane off of eBay. The stencil diagram in the Accurate Miniatures are for a different kit. The stencil numbers didn't correspond with the kit instructions. I went to scalemates.com and found better guides to help me appropriately place the stencils. To add more misery to the woe, one of the kit's diagrams shows the star and bar upside down. Yikes!

I lightly weathered this training Cobra using my airbrush and Abteilung oils. Usually the build is smooth sailing from here. Not so much with this one. I found the alignment of the landing gear tricky. Parts cleanup was timely too.