Gary got his hands on Kittyhawk’s new P-39 Airocobra in 32nd
scale – he thought that to show you the kit he might just build it – but not
before a quick review turned into a really very detailed review. Let’s see what
he thought of the kit with some photographic comparisons and great insight in
his review.
Bell P-39Q Airocobra
Kittyhawk models
1:32nd scale
Code: KH 32013
Available from Kittyhawk’s Distributors Worldwide - (cheapest we found is $61 USD at Hobbyeasy.com)
Available from Kittyhawk’s Distributors Worldwide - (cheapest we found is $61 USD at Hobbyeasy.com)
Today we take a look at Kittyhawk’s latest 1/32 kit, the
Bell P-39N/Q Airacobra.
As the kit has already started to hit the shops as I type
this, we wanted to get some useful information about what’s actually contained
in this new kit out quickly to allow modellers to see for themselves. As they
say a picture is worth a thousand words.
Accordingly I have focused the bulk of this review on
detailed photos of the kit parts so you can be the judge for yourself of the
merits of the kit. Of course I’ve noted a few things here and there as I have
been pouring over the kit and I’ve also done some initial dry fitting to see
how it performs when taken out of the box.
I’ve been looking forward to this release, so let’s get down
to it.
The Short Version
If you don’t have time to go thru the full review I’ve
summarized the main points here so you can get in and out quick:
• Recessed
surface detail is very well done. Rivets and panel lines are mostly to scale
and sharp.
• The fit
(based on initial dry fit) is also very good with no major issues with warping
or gaps.
• No glaring
inaccuracies (a few niggles that will need to be addressed by the modeller but
no show stoppers)
• A healthy
choice (5) of varied and interesting paint and marking options to build either
the Q or N variant.
The Bell P-39 Airacobra was one of the principal American
fighter aircraft in service when the United States entered World War II. The
P-39 was used with great success by the Soviet Air Force, which scored the
highest number of individual kills attributed to any U.S. fighter type.
Designed by Bell Aircraft, it had an innovative layout, with
the engine installed in the centre fuselage, behind the pilot, and driving a
tractor propeller via a long shaft. It was also the first fighter fitted with a
tricycle undercarriage. Although its mid-engine placement was innovative, the
P-39 design was handicapped by the absence of an efficient turbo-supercharger,
limiting it to low-altitude work. As such it was rejected by the RAF for use over
Western Europe and passed over to the USSR where performance at high altitude
was less important. (Source: Wikipedia)
Kittyhawk has based their kit around the final two variants
of the Airacobra, the P-39N and P-39Q.
The P-39Q was the final main production variant of the
Airacobra of which 4095 were built before production ended. The most
significant difference in the Q was the deletion of the four .30 cal wing guns
in favour of a pair of .50 cal in pods under the wing. This move was applauded
by most pilots who generally felt the .30 cal was too light to be effective.
The irony is that very few American pilots were ever to fly the Q as nearly all
were exported, primarily to Russia. (Source: Squadron in Action 043)
The sturdy KittyHawk box contains a total of 7 grey plastic
sprues and one clear sprue, which is thoughtfully shipped in its own protective
box. A small photo etch fret is provided along with two decals sheets and a 20
page assembly manual. The final inclusion in the box is a colour flyer for
Detail & Scale books. The collaboration with D&S has been going for a
few kits now and it’s a good sign that KH are taking steps to improve their
research and general accuracy with each new release.
Before we get to the details about each sprue I thought you
may first appreciate some photos of the major parts dry fitted together. I’ll
say that the fit so far has been very good. Because of the way the kit has been
designed (with virtually the whole fuselage able to be opened for display) that
it’s going to be a bit fiddly get everything aligned, particularly around the
nose. Now when I say fiddly I don’t mean that in a bad way, stuff seems to fit
fine, it’s just that there are a lot of moving parts to get aligned next to
each other.
SPRUE A contains
the upper wings (including open .30 cal panels if building the N model), the
main undercarriage struts and main gear well roof and sides.
The riveting detail
looks sharp and I’d expect will hold a wash as is. The panel lines are quite good
but I will be sharpening them up with my scriber to ensure my panel wash will
slip down into them and hold.
If you plan to build a P-39Q then be sure to fill/delete the
leading edge holes for the .30 cal wing guns and seal the access panels closed
(as the Q had no .30 cal wing guns fitted). The N by comparison had the wing
mounted guns but do not fit the underwing gun pod, as this was specific to the
Q.
The P-39 had a split flap arrangement (where the top of the
flap is fixed and the bottom extends when activated). The kit flap interior
looks pretty good with the inevitable ejection pin marks that you will need to
deal with. I have the Eduard set designed for the Special Hobby kit and I’ll do
some test fitting later to see if I can re-purpose it here.
The roof of the main
gear well is corrugated and this looks to be well reproduced by KH.
The main undercarriage is a simple affair on the P-39 (as
with most WWII aircraft). The oleo scissors are provided as separate parts as
are the doors.
Step 13 of the instructions includes the assembly of the
main wheel well roof and sides. The sides of the wheel well come in sections
and you need to assemble them as shown, something that most modellers don’t
really appreciate but probably a reasonable way to engineer it in 1/32 (as long
as the fit is good).
An example of the main wheel well side wall with those ever present pesky ejection pin marks.
With the engine in the P-39 being mid mounted, Bell needed
to come up with a suitable place to place the radiator and intakes. With the
oil and glycol radiator being positioned centrally in the fuselage (under the
cockpit) the obvious place for the cooling intakes was the wing roots. The
shape of the KH inlets looks to me to be a little squared off compared to the
real thing but I’m sure I can live with it. I may drill out and open up the
inner face of the KH blanked off intake trunking as these look a bit shallow
for my eye and ultimately not all the convincing in 1/32
SPRUE B contains
the lower wings, flaps, ailerons and the remainder of the main undercarriage
parts.
Much like the upper wing, the surface detail on the lower
wing is very nice. A mixture of raised and recessed rivets and fasteners is
present. The lower surface of the Airacobra wing was covered in a myriad of
access panels. The starboard wingtip has a standard navigation light and 3 coloured
ground signalling lamps.
As mentioned above, if you plan to model a Q variant of the
P-39 you will need to fill and remove the gun ejection chute slots on the lower
wing. This is especially important if you do a P-39Q in Soviet markings as the
USSR Airacobras almost never had the .50 cal wing pod fitted (as this would
mostly cover up the shell ejection holes otherwise). It’s a bit lazy of KH to not
provide this as an empty panel with two optional parts provided, one for the N
with the ejection slots and the other for the Q without the slots.
Some nice raised
rivet detail is present on the main gear doors outer surface.
The interior of the lower split flap is fairly rudimentary.
The part is quite thin so it’s not really necessary to replace it with a PE
alternate but in 1/32 I would have hoped that KH would put a bit more effort
into the raised surface details.
A drawing of the real P-39 flap interior shows the extent of
extra detail that could have been added by KH to the plastic part.
Maybe I’ll be giving those Eduard parts a dust off after
all.
Like many WWII aircraft, the P-39 had fabric coverings on
all control surfaces such as the ailerons, rudder and elevators. KH has
provided a passable representation of the stretched fabric sections and the
ribbing normally associated with such components.
I may sand down the
ribbing a little as it seems a bit pronounced to me.
SPRUE C contains
an assortment of parts from the interior including the open gun bay, the
propellers with hub, and the main wheels and of course the main fuselage
interior flooring.
The mainwheels are
well detailed. A quick check against references shows the hub detail is pretty
spot on.
The P-39 was essentially designed by Bell around the 37mm
Oldsmobile cannon. The cannon had an ammunition capacity of 30 rounds which
were stored in an oval shaped feed chute. KH provides the shells for the cannon
in a straight run and in the instructions tells the modeller to bend these to
shape. I’d suggest that you soften the plastic in hot water before attempting
this otherwise I’m sure cracks will appear.
As this kit is designed to allow most of the interior to be
visible, KH has provided the fuselage structure for the interior as a single
piece (not unlike the real aircraft). This part, C40 (incorrectly shown as E25
on the KH instructions) is filled with holes into which most of the interior
will be attached during assembly.
In addition to the single centreline mounted 37mm cannon the
P-39N/Q had two Browning .50 cal machine guns installed in the nose
(synchronized to fire thru the propeller). The KH guns are very basic and if
you plan to leave the nose open on your model then I would encourage you to
find brass replacements from the likes of Master or Profimodeller.
On the P-39 the rear
of the .50 cal was accessible by the pilot in the cockpit. A manual charging
handle was accessible to the pilot to prime the guns for firing and to clear
jams if needed.
Another first for the
P-39 as a fighter was its use of a tricycle undercarriage with a nosewheel.
This was a simple affair with a single non steering wheel.
P-39 variants were fitted with a range of propellers during
the war as supply of the standard Curtiss-Electric units varied. The first 166
P-39Ns were fitted with an Aeroproducts propeller having a 10 ft. 4 in
diameter. Beginning with the 167th P-39N, the Aeroproducts propeller was
enlarged to 11 ft. 7 in. (source: Mushroom Model Magazine #6106).
Propellers are something that seems to always give kit
manufacturers trouble. Getting the subtle curves and shape of props is
obviously a challenging problem. When I look at the KH props I am not convinced
they have enough of a twist in them from base to tip. They look quite flat to
me along their length and they also seem quite thick (over scale) in terms of
cross section.
To confirm my suspicion I removed the propellers from the
sprue and compared them to the Special Hobby P-39 kit. I believe that I can
reduce the thickness of the kit provided props to something closer to scale
accuracy. It may also be possible with careful shaping to accentuate the
“twist” along the length of the prop.
The final part of the
C sprue worthy of mention is the upper roof of the nose wheel well. The part is
nicely detailed and provides a fair representation of the real item. A keyed
hole is provided to mount the nose wheel strut.
SPRUE D contains
parts that focus on the nose section of the aircraft. The outer skin side and
top nose panels, spinner(s) and reduction gearbox.
The P-39Q/N differed in external appearance from the early
models by the inclusion of several air vents on the nose (these were introduced
on the P-39K). KH have provided these vents but they are moulded as solid
plastic. I would have preferred if they had provided them as separate pieces
that could be glued in place so as to better represent their sheet metal
fabrication.
The top panels for the nose are provided as two parts (which
is correct for the removable section above the nose gun bay). The section
closest to the spinner is not removable and is therefore not split down the
middle on the real aircraft.
I plan to open up the
gun bay (including the top so it can viewed properly) so will need to cut the
KH parts to enable the top panels to be removed correctly.
The P-39 had two different cannons fitted depending on the
operator and variant. The original Oldsmobile 37mm cannon and a standard 20mm
M1 cannon. Like the P400, the P-39D-1 was armed with the 20mm M1 cannon. From
the P-39D-2 onwards the 37mm cannon was equipped and remained the standard
weapon in later variants. KH provides two spinners and from what I can tell the
only difference is the size of the hole in the centre.
Unfortunately the KH instructions are of little help
determining if or when each spinner should be used. Two optional barrels are
also provided (parts D8 or D9) which presumably represent the aforementioned
20mm and 37mm cannons respectively.
The sidewalls of the
nosewheel well are nicely detailed and with appropriate painting and washes
will come up fine.
Due to its unusual design with the centrally mounted cannon
sitting where the engine (and driveshaft) would normally be the Bell designers
had to come up with a way to allow the driveshaft to run under the cockpit and
then be reduced from engine revs to the appropriate propeller revolutions
speed. They solved this problem with a reduction gearbox sitting just behind
the spinner which accepted the off centre driveshaft. This allowed the cannon
to slide thru the very centre of the spinner.
The reduction gearbox
will be quite visible on the finished model with the gun bay open and so KH
have put quite a bit of effort it getting the details of this part sorted out.
A new redesigned nosewheel with low profile tyre to reduce
drag during take-off was introduced on the P-39L and was often retrofitted to
earlier versions. The nosewheel provided by KH does not seem to match any of
the types seen in photos across the P-39 family!! Once again for comparisons
sake I dug out my Special Hobby kit. The
KH wheel is kinda somewhere in between the two actual hubs found on P-39’s and
hence does not really accurately match either as best I can tell.
The KH nosewheel is
also much wider than its Special Hobby counterpart. To my eye the tire should
be probably be somewhere in the middle of these two.
Note the low profile
nosewheel seen in this wartime photo of a P-39L.
SPRUE E contains
a mixture of parts from all over the airframe. We have the rudder, the wing .50
cal gun pods (only fitted to the Q), the cockpit “car style” doors, the main
instrument panel and several other bits and pieces.
To allow ease of access from either side of the fuselage the
P-39 was fitted with “car doors”. KH have continued the rivet detailing on the
door but I am not convinced for the need for rivets running across the face of
the door. Photos clearly show the riveting around the edge of the door frame
but it less clear about the body of the door. I guess the door sheet metal had
to be held to the door internal frame somehow.
KH have decided to mould the door itself in solid plastic
and the window (which could be wound up and down just like a car) are separate
on the clear sprue. I much prefer the method used by both Special Hobby and
Hasegawa in their 1/48 kits which was to mould the whole door in clear. This
means we only have to mask the window rather than having to glue it (which is
always more risky when clear parts and glue are involved).
The instrument panel in the P-39 was a fairly basic affair.
Flight instruments were arranged in a standard array in the centre. The two
large cut-outs either of the centre panel were to accommodate the rear end of
the .50 cal machines guns with their manual charging handles accessible to the
pilot.
KH provide the
instrument dials as multi part decals. I’d be more inclined to either punch out
each dial or use an aftermarket option from Airscale.
The decals, even
under high magnification, look sharp and based on my use of KH decals
previously work well.
The cockpit turnover bulkhead is capable of withstanding
loads considerably in excess of the aircraft weight in the event of a crash
resulting in the aircraft flipping. Note also the circular access hole for the
driveshaft at the very bottom.
One thing that KH seems to have missed completely is the armoured
glass in the turnover bulkhead. The aft armour glass is 21/2 in. thick and is
located in the curve of the fuselage turnover beam aft of the pilot. It is held
securely in place by a jamb nut and dovetailed screw which fastens to the top
inside curve of the turnover beam. Modellers will need to fabricate this from
some clear sheet plastic.
KitthyHawk do provide a part that replicates the head armour
plate shown here on this ex-Soviet P-39Q on display in a museum in Finland. The
head armour plate is clearly not original (or if it is has been repainted) so
I’m not sure if this is a common feature or not. All the photos of wartime
P-39’s I could find showed only the armoured glass fitted to the turnover
bulkhead.
The P-39 rudder was
fabric covered. KH have reproduced the ribbing typical of such fittings with
raised ribs. These can normally be accentuated by shading during the painting
stage if desired.
The P-39Q incorporated a 0.50 cal machine gun pod which
replaced the two .30 cal wing mounted guns of the earlier Airacobras. It was
not possible to fit the pod to an aircraft which had the wing mounted guns
fitted (i.e. any variant other than the Q model). Please bear this fact in mind
when building your model as the KH colour plates would have you believe that
both should be fitted. Step 14 of the assembly instructions do show the pod as
optional but as usual no further information is provided by KH. It’s also worth
noting that many (if not all) of the Q’s that were used by the Soviets never
had the wing pods fitted (at their request) relying rather on the two .50 cal
and 37mm cannon in the fuselage for hitting power.
Each set of .30 cal wing guns has an ammunition box located
outboard of the guns between the front and rear beams. Boxes contain 1,000
rounds, 700 of which are considered alternate load. Interestingly the
ammunition boxes, once filled, were loaded into the wing from the bottom.
SPRUE F contains
the main fuselage halves, belly drop tank and engine access panels.
The surface rivet and panel line detail is very well done.
For 1/32 the size of the rivets appear to be spot on (for my taste) and the
bulk of the panel lines are deep and sharp enough to hold a wash following
several coats of paint.
The cockpit interior
is pretty sparse (much like the real thing). In 1/32 there is always more
detail that’s worth adding. I’ll see how I feel once I get to this part when
building.
The engine covers are
actually in two pieces (top and bottom) on the real aircraft. If you plan to
leave this off your model be sure to cut these parts in half and display them
next to your model.
The P-39 fuel system consists of two 60gal. tanks
integrally built into the outer wing panels. The left wing tank includes a
reserve area of 20 gal. A droppable auxiliary fuel tank of either 75 or
150gal. capacity may be carried in the bomb rack suspended from the wing centre
section. The KH tank seems to be missing the filler cap.
“Snooks” (one of the box art choices in this kit), a P-39Q-5
seen here on March 5 1944. Note the drop tank fitted to the centreline.
SPRUE G contains
the parts for the engine, exhausts stubs, pilots seat and horizontal tail
surfaces.
The P-39 horizontal stabilizer is designed for construction
as a single unit. If these Bell drawings are accurate the KH part is missing
several runs of horizontal rivets and has too many rivet lines on the rear
section. I realize this is probably nit-picking (and literally rivet counting!!)
but it’s a very easy fix with some filler and a riveting tool for those so
inclined.
Here is an internal
view of the P-39 left elevator showing the ribs and cut-out for the trim tab.
I’m not sure about
the rivets which run over the fabric ribs as shown on the surface of the KH
part. I think for my build I’ll fill these to remove them.
The same engine, an Allison V-1710-85 (E19) producing 1200hp
were fitted to the P-39N and P-39Q. The V-1710 engine was the only indigenous
US-developed V-12 liquid-cooled engine to see service during World War II. The
P-39, P-63, and XB-42 used V-1710-Es, exchanging the integral reduction gear
for an extension shaft driving a remotely located reduction gear and propeller.
Aircraft such as the P-38, P-40, P-51A, and P-82 used close-coupled propeller
reduction gears, a feature of the V-1710-F series
Several different exhaust stacks were used throughout the
life of the P-39. The N & Q variants were fitted with six stubs each side,
each stub extracting fumes from two cylinders. The exhaust stubs were circular
in shape. KH provides each stub in two halves, a total of 24 parts all up. Get
ready for a lot of gluing and sanding. I’d be very surprised if we don’t see in
short order someone come along with some time saving resin replacements.
An excellent photo of
a restored P-39 showing the V-1710 engine in situ. Note the six circular
exhaust subs.
The Ignition wiring
harness is provided by KH. Based on comparison to photos I’ll most likely be
replacing this with wire and plastic rod on my build.
The pilot seat (like most WW2 aircraft) is a simple affair.
The kit seat seems to be generally accurate with the only thing I’d be looking
to improve is the thickness of the sheet metal. Some elbow grease and a good
sanding stick will handle this for us.
KitthyHawk provides a pilots harness in photo etch brass.
Whilst not my favourite material to represent a cloth strap, the benefit of PE
is its scale thinness compared to using plastic. For those looking to step up
the level of detailing here check out the replacement belts in 1/32 from RB
Productions or HGW. No seat cushion is provided in fighter aircraft as the
pilot literally sat on his parachute.
SPRUE H is the
final grey plastic sprue and contains all those miscellaneous bits and pieces.
We have a single 500lb bomb, the support brackets for the bomb and external
drop tank and the four .30 cal wing machine guns.
As mentioned earlier KittyHawk have chosen to supply the
metal armour plate headrest rather than the far more common armoured glass
found in the turnover bulkhead protecting the pilot from behind. I searched
many photos of wartime P-39’s and could not find any (I’m sure they exist) that
showed the metal armour panel as shown in part H42. The only example of the
metal armour plate was an ex-Soviet museum P-39Q. It’s possible that this was a
Soviet modification.
While all Airacobras
from the D on were equipped to carry a 500lb mob, few ever did.
Part, a P-39N of the
North African Costal Command flew with the Free French Air Force from Algeria.
Shown here with crew loading a 500lb bomb on the centreline cradle. (USAF)
Two .30 calibre machine guns were added in each wing
beginning with the P-39D (replacing the 0.303 weapons in earlier P-39’s). It’s
a little amusing that KH has provided the four guns with the same part, H8 and
yet two are clearly shorter than the others. They are keyed (underneath) so it’s
easy to figure out where they fit but why they chose to make the barrel lengths
different (by 2mm)? Why not make all four guns the same length (like the real
thing) and stagger them accurately in the wing?
The inside edge of
the main wheel well has a couple of pesky ejection pins marks and some nice
interior rivet detailing.
The drop tank
mounting brackets are conveniently moulded as a single piece.
A general mix of
miscellaneous parts. H57 is the top of the engine oil tank which is located in
the fuselage behind the engine itself.
The engine oil tank
is mounted in the aft fuselage shelf provided as part H22.
SPRUE GP is the
clear sprue containing the forward and rear canopy sections, the door windows
and assorted navigation lights.
The clear parts are well moulded being optically clear and
the framing sufficiently deep to allow easy masking.
The “car doors” fitted to the P-39 had windows that could be
wound down (just like a car). Unlike other kit manufacturers who have provided
the doors and glass moulded in one part KH have taken the more traditional
route and we need to glue the clear parts into the door frames.
P/E FRET
The bulk of the small PE brass fret is dedicated to the
pilots safety harness. Parts PE4 (x2) are small covers that fit on the bottom
of the circular endless belt-type magazine for the 37mm cannon in the nose
compartment.
DECALS
KittyHawk has gone all out with their decal options for this
kit. In times when manufacturers are cutting back on decal sheets, leaving modellers
to turn to aftermarket for more options, KittyHawk continues to offer 4 and
often more options to modellers. As more kit manufacturers turn to Cartograf
for their kit decals (a welcome trend by the likes of Airfix and Kinetics) the
Chinese manufactures continue to source their decals elsewhere. The P-39 decals
look good on the sheet and having used the KH kit decals before (on my MiG-25
build) I can say with some confidence that they perform well.
The decals are sharp
and in register even when viewed under magnification.
Even the small
stencils are easily legible when magnified. I confess I have not checked every
stencil for accuracy (nor do I intend to) but the point here is that the decals
will look right when on the model even for those amongst us with excellent
vision.
MARKINGS
KittyHawk have provided us with an interesting selection of
markings which range across four countries who operated the P-39 Q/N. We have
two Soviet “Lend-Lease” aircraft, one USAAF, one French and one Italian.
P-39Q, GC111/6 "Travail" Armee de L'Air, La France Combattante.
One thing to be wary of is the accuracy of the KH colour
profiles. They seem to have a habit of making one set of drawings and then just
changing the colours and markings on each option. As an example, all 5 sets of
drawing show the installation of the twin .30 cal wing guns as well as showing
the underwing .50cal pod. This is wrong on all accounts as the Q had no .30cal
wing guns (these being removed completely for the Q series) and the N which did
have the wing guns could not be fitted with the .50cal pod! A second example is
the inclusion of the direction finder loop antennae (lower fuselage aft of
wings) on all drawings. From my understanding this was only fitted to Soviet
operated aircraft.
CONCLUSION
If you’ve made it this far, thank you. When I started to
write this review I intended to do a quick one. As I got more engrossed in the
subject matter I realized it had me hooked and I wanted to learn more about
this fascinating aircraft. I hope the details I have presented help you build a
better Airacobra, I know it will certainly help me and so in that respect it
has been time well spent.
I want to leave you with one last wartime image (from Port
Moresby) that has really got my imagination fired up with the possibilities
that this kit offers.
I’m overall very happy with what KittyHawk has provided us
in this kit. I can see scope for extra detailing for those that want to open
her up and for those not interested in open panels or extra detailing to build
an excellent model straight out of the box.
Many thanks for KittyHawk for supplying the review kit and
for continuing to produce interesting subjects to keep we modellers busy. :-)
Thanks to Kittyhawk
for sending this kit for us to review – if time permits we shall build it
here on the news for you to see (even) more about it.
Appendix - Assembly instructions...
