Eduard P-400 Weekend Edition

[JMac]

I started this kit around Christmas time. The kit was originally started by someone else, I had to strip the original paint. The only thing I've added after market was a resin seat, and I used the Eduard masking set for the kit.

Most of the main assembly and painting work is complete, just the final details, decals and weathering remain.
I think this is a great kit if someone is looking to build a 1:48 Airacobra. The assembly can be a little tricky in spots, but not to bad. I almost didn't need any filler. The only spot where I should have paid more care was the fit of the can-o-pea to the fuselage. Next time, next time...

Thanks for stopping in and taking a look.
Jason

 

[nicholassagan]

Wow! Looks great so far!

 

[Bullet21]

Great job painting the office, looks awesome.

 

[Quaralane]

Definitely looking sharp

 

[yanpol]

Looks great! What paints did you use? Are the seatbelts part of the resin seat or did you make them?

 

[JMac]

Thanks Nicholas, Bullet21, Q and Yanpol.

What paints did you use? Are the seatbelts part of the resin seat or did you make them?

I use Vallejo pretty much exclusively, this model is painted with a mix of Model Colour and Model Air paints. The seat belts are part of the the resin seat. The seat I used is an UltraCast seat. Some builders can do incredible work with PE, I can never get the PE belt to conform to the seat in a natural way. I prefer the resin seats with the molded-on belts over using PE for belts - the final results just seem to work out better for me.

Jason

 

[rookie]

Nice work J, looks great. Cool kit too, don't see to many air cobras.

 

[JMac]

Nice work J, looks great. Cool kit too, don't see to many air cobras.

Thanks. I agree, very cool plane - but it's unconventional layout is causing me a little grief...

I've got most of the painting done, just a little detail painting on the doors left. I managed to paint the wheels, assemble the landing gear and doors to the airframe. The problem is that even though I added a weight to the nose, it's not enough...right now I'm weighing my options... :

Front wheel held down with blu-tack.

And popping a wheely.

 

[adampolo13]

I'd say for the sake of being easy, glue a piece of polished clear styrene under the tail...

 

[rookie]

I'd say for the sake of being easy, glue a piece of polished clear styrene under the tail...

Or you could make a stand and depict in flight, take off or landing.

 

[JMac]

I'd say for the sake of being easy, glue a piece of polished clear styrene under the tail...

Or you could make a stand and depict in flight, take off or landing.

Thanks for the ideas guys. I had a few other ideas to add;

1. Drill a hole in the front wheel and insert a small rare earth magnet. I got the idea from some of Nicholas Sagan's builds here on the SMA forum - he used the magnet to hold the props in place. Then I could build an airfield scene on top of a sheet of steel (I have access to a lot of sheet steel at work - easy to buy and cut a piece). Not sure if I could find a magnet strong / small enough though.

2. Cut open the nose right behind the prop spinner (it's not permanently attached yet). Remove the existing weights and replace them with something heavier. Afterwards cover the hole with the prop spinner. The problem with this is the prop would be permanently fixed in place and unable to turn.

Not sure - I'm very close to finishing the HE 219, so I think I might put this on the back burner (on low heat ;D ) for the time being and let it stew...

Jason

 

[adampolo13]

Even tho the prop wouldn't spin, I think option 2 would be easier for sure.

 

[JMac]

Now that the Uhu is done, I'm back on the P-400 build.

I solved the wheely popping problem I mentioned last time.
First I chain drilled the front of the nose and removed the steel washers that had been placed there as weights. After cleaning up the hole, I filled the space with flattened fishing lure weights - I didn't have much room as the main bulkhead that forms front of the landing gear bay was only about 8mm (3/8") behind the opening.

After adding the fishing weights, I packed any remaining spaces with Tamiya epoxy putty. I think the fix looks not too bad, and she stays on all three wheels now (barely).

Thanks for stopping in.
Jason

 

[zappa]

Awesome ar usual Jmac!!!!! Love the camo paint job!

Zappa

 

[smokeriderdon]

Looks great! Good fix on the nose weight.

 

[JMac]

Thanks for the encouraging comments Zappa and smokeriderdon.

Not much progress this weekend.

For me, it was a busy and sad weekend; I worked an open house at the school where I teach - we had strong interest in our program and it appeared to me that in general the open house had greater attendance than years past. As well a close friend passed away Friday night after a year and a half battle with cancer. When I tried modelling, I just found myself sitting at my desk staring at parts and not accomplishing much.

On the P-400 build, I did manage to get a jig made to assemble the prop. Eduards kit has all of the blades, spinner, hub and cannon moulded as separate parts. I made the jig from scraps of sheet styrene I had kicking around. I'm going to save the jig as I plan to build more of these excellent Eduard Airacobra kits in the future and the jig will work for three or four blade props.

Jason

 

[JMac]

A few weeks ago I've begun decalling and finished the major decals - still have all the little stencils to go . It's been something of a chore, the Eduard decals won't snuggle down into the panel lines - I've tried multiple applications of both decal-sol and Adams suggestion of using Tamiya X-20A thinner. No luck. Not sure what I'll try next, last week I tried cutting one decal on the panel line and applying decal-sol again, and still no dice.

Ideas? Suggestions?

Jason

 

[JMac]

All done.
I'm still trying to get the white balance worked out on my camera, same light/camera set up and sometimes a white background and sometimes a yellow background...

Thanks for taking a look and following along.
Jason

 

[zappa]

Awesome build this is, no doubt !

Zappa

 

[nicholassagan]

nicely done!!!