Bell P-39Q Airacobra by Eduard

1/48 scale
Kit No. 8470
Retail: $30.00
Decals: Four versions, all U.S. Army Air Force
Comments: Engraved panel lines and recessed rivet detail; detailed cockpit, separately molded car doors, option for center line drop tank or 500 lb. bomb

History

The Bell P-39 Airacobra, also known as “The Iron Dog” — a commentary on its strengths as well as its weaknesses – was perhaps the most heavily armed single seat fighter of World War II. Its main armament, a 37mm cannon firing explosive shells through the propeller shaft, could bring down a bomber with a single hit. It was also armed with two .50 caliber machine guns in the nose, synchronized to fire through the propeller, and varying combinations of .50 caliber and .30 caliber machine guns in its wings.

The Airacobra flew for the first time on April 6, 1938 and in addition to its weapons, incorporated a number of radical design features, from its mid-fuselage mounted engine located behind the cockpit, with its crankshaft running beneath the cockpit floor, to its car door over the wing. Impressive though its armament was, the P-39’s guns were rarely if ever brought to bear against bombers, since it was notorious for being unable to reach the altitudes at which bombers operated.

Ironically, the P-39 was initially designed as a high altitude interceptor (hence the 37mm gun), for it was first conceived with a turbosupercharger as an integral part of its design. However, two factors outside the control of Bell Aircraft doomed the Airacobra’s future as a high performance, high-altitude interceptor before it even went into production. The first was that after its evaluation of the XP-39 prototype, the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics recommended the deletion of the supercharger. The reason is unclear. There is no record of Bell Aircraft’s reaction to this recommendation, but in light of what it did to the subsequent reputation of their aircraft, in hindsight it was the kind of official interference that should have been fought tooth and nail. The second factor was the U.S. Army’s decision during 1940 to fit all aircraft with the low-altitude Allison V-1710-37 engine. These two actions sealed the Airacobra’s fate, ensuring it would never be much more than a low-altitude fighter-bomber.

Entering service in 1941, the first P-39’s were delivered to the 31st Pursuit Group in time to take part in the September-November 1941 Army maneuvers in North Carolina. During this time the 31st developed the techniques and procedures that held them in good stead in the first years of actual warfare. The P-39 would enter the fight in the Pacific less than a year later, with units being shipped to the 8th Fighter Group in Brisbane, Australia, which soon sent planes to forward bases in New Guinea. Another early recipient of the Airacobra in the Pacific Theater was the 347th Fighter Group based at New Caledonia, east of Australia. After a period of training, aircraft of the 67th Fighter Squadron flew the 350 miles over water to land at Guadalcanal on August 12, 2942.

Early operations pointed up a lack of maneuverability, but there was a desperate need for dive bombers at the time, as the Japanese struggled to reinforce the garrison on the island by sea. The P-39 was initially well-received, for it excelled at dive-bombing and low-level attacks generally. In addition to its array of guns, it could carry a single 500 lb. bomb, or smaller bombs in pairs. One 347th Fighter Group report dated November 13, 1942 reported “”the P-39D-2…is a splendid attack plane.”

The P-39Q, the subject of this kit, was the most numerous variant of the P-39, with 4,405 units built before production halted in May of 1944. The P-39 was able to operate from extremely rugged airstrips. While on New Caledonia one flight operated from a 2,800 foot widened dirt road without difficulty. A rugged aircraft, the Airacobra was very stable and flew with little maintenance. Combat experience showed that it could operate with little more than an airspeed indicator and gear box pressure gauge intact. Its controls tended to go stiff in prolonged dives, which was later cured with the addition of servo aileron boost.

Often maligned for its decline in performance at altitude, the Airacobra was actually regarded with respect by the Japanese who found it difficult to shoot down. In the Aleutians, Captain A.T. Rice of the 54th Fighter Group was able to shoot down two Japanese floatplanes using only the 37mm gun. Four shots were fired at one target, two at the second; there were only two hits, but with the high explosive 37mm ammunition, one hit per aircraft was all that was needed.

P-39’s initially destined for France were instead sent to Britain after the French surrender in June 1940. The RAF evaluated the type and found it wanting, unable to match the climb rate of the Hawker Hurricanes it was intended to replace. The two RAF units assigned to Airacobras soon exchanged them for Hurricanes and Spitfires.

In Russia, the Soviets had a very different experience with the Airacobra. More than half of all P-39’s built were sent to Russia as aid under the Lend-Lease Act. Russian pilots loved it for its ruggedness, ground attack capabilities and superb performance at altitudes below 13,000 feet, where most combat with the Luftwaffe occurred on the Eastern Front.

As newer types came into service, the P-39 was gradually withdrawn from front-line units, but it did a difficult job well during the dark, early days of the Pacific War, buying time for the industrial might of the United States to fully gear up for war.

The Bell XP-39 prototype, showing the mid-fuselage location of the turbosupercharger. Based on the recommendation of the National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, the production versions of the P-39 were denied this critical piece of equipment, severely hampering their performance.

The Kit

Eduard’s P-39Q Airacobra is injection molded in grey plastic and consists of 137 parts, including six clear parts for the cockpit glazing, armored glass and gunsight. The kit features engraved panel lines and recessed rivet detail on the external airframe, regular or realistically flattened tires, and a choice of exhausts.

The cockpit is nicely detailed with an engraved bucket seat, separate PE seat straps, and separately mounted main instrument panel, control yoke, rudder pedals and clear gun sight.
The fuselage interiors feature lightly scribed detail for the cockpit sidewalls. The instrument panel bears raised detail that can be highlighted with a bit of dry brushing, but there is also an instrument panel decal provided for those so inclined.

There are boxed in wheel wells and separate radiator faces for the wing center section, and the landing gear are well detailed. The kit includes a 500 lb. bomb to be mounted on a center line bracket on the Airacobra’s belly, with an option for a drop tank in the same position instead. Provision is also made for gun packs containing a single .50 caliber machine gun under each wing.

While there is a choice of two different types of exhausts, the kit references only one. There are separately mounted car doors, one for each side of the cockpit, although in practice many pilots used only the door over the right wing and taped the other shut, particularly in the Aleutians where drafts in the cockpit were an ongoing problem, moreso because the cockpit heating units had been disabled. Great attention was paid to sealing off crevices through which cold air could enter the cockpit! As the car door parts are completely clear, the window portions will have to be masked for painting.  The canopy over the cockpit is a single part, again requiring masking at the painting stage to address the different color of the framing. The airscrew features individually mounted propeller blades, but there is unfortunately no option for the different types of gun barrels employed on the 37mm cannon during the P-39’s production run.

Markings

There are four versions of decals. Curiously, all versions call for the propeller blades to be painted entirely in silver/natural metal, with no other color on the blade tips.

The first is for a P-39Q-5, serial no. 42-20351, flown by Lt. William A. Shomo of the 82nd Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron, 71st Tactical Reconnaissance Group, 5th Air Force, based at Dobodura, New Guinea in March 1944. This machine bears an olive drab over neutral grey paint scheme with a yellow spinner, white leading edges on the wings, a white stripe about a third of the way to the windscreen from the rear edge of the spinner, and a white tail section.

The second version is a P-39Q-1, serial no. 42-19467, 46th Fighter Squadron, 15th Fighter Group, 7th Air Force, based at Kanton Atoll in the Phoenix Archipelago in August 1943. This is the aircraft featured on the box art, and bears a paint scheme, according to the instructions, of Flesh upper surfaces over Light Blue undersides, with the spinner also painted Flesh. While this scheme is meant to camouflage the P-39 against the light colored sand of the Kanton Atoll, on which there was precious little cover as it lacked much vegetation, modelers may wish to substitute an appropriate sand color.

Third is P-39Q-5, serial no. 42-19896, flown by Lt. William W. Gambill of the 363red Fighter Squadron, 357th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force, based at Oroville, California in the Autumn of 1943. This machine appears in a scheme of Olive Drab over Neutral Grey with a Red stripe on the Olive Drab spinner and a Red tail section. While the 8th Air Force is renowned for its operations in Europe during WWII, prior to that time some of its fighter units were based stateside and trained in aircraft such as the P-39 before shipping out to Europe and converting to the P-51 Mustang. This is one such aircraft.

Fourth is P-39Q-5, serial no. 42-20043, 70th Fighter Squadron, 347th Fighter Group, 13th Air Force, based at Torokina Airfield on Bougainville in the Solomon Islands, Autumn 1943. This machine appears in the standard paint scheme of Olive Drab over Neutral Grey. Initially ordered to the Philippines on December 5, 1941, the 70th for a time was stuck in Hawaii once he Philippines fell to the Japanese. It was briefly deployed to Fiji and finally to the Solomon Islands in November 1942, where it remained until the Spring of 1944. In that time, the 70th Fighter Squadron engaged in combat operations against the Japanese and was credited with over 50 enemy aircraft destroyed in combat. This small part of the P-39’s record may be sufficient to demonstrate its value and quiet its detractors, for it was a robust combat aircraft compromised by decisions that frustrated the vision of its designers.

Conclusion

An excellent kit of a late version of the P-39. Highly recommended.

Reference

Profile Publications No. 165: The Bell P-39 Airacobra by Jay Frank Dial; Copyright Profile Publications, Leatherhead, Surrey, England (no date provided).