A pair of P-39 Airacobras DONE

[41chevy]

These are the pair I'm building. Mainly to see what the offer. The P-39 Q is the ARMO Hobby kit @$64.00. The second is the Eduard P-39N Profi Pack kit @ $33.00. Aside from radio wire harness, antennas and brake lines the kits are going to be out of the box. The ARMO kit is plastic with 7 grams of nose weights, one 3D part and a down load to 3D print the seat. The Eduard kit come with Pre Painted PE for the cockpit and fuselage. So far the kits are pretty equal.The ARMO kits fuselage halves need a small bit of grinding to fit the interior tub. Also the ARMO kit has the shaft tunnel through the cockpit install a bit vague. It goes in first not as the instructions infer after the rear bulkhead. THe kits so far are both good.

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EDUARD PARTS

ARMO

[kyledehart5]

Those Arma kits realy do look nice. I do have one of their PZL P7s in my stash and it looks nice but I’ve yet to build it. Looking forward to watching your builds!

[handiabled]

Nice start to both! A side by side build really illustrates the detail difference between the two scales. I'll be watching for more.

[aaronw]

I'm a sucker for the oddballs, runners up and also rans. It is nice to see some new P-39 kits and late versions offering US markings. I see Arma offers the N and Q in 1/72 as well.

[buddho]

Awesome work on the cockpits of both. You sure can see the difference in both kits.

[Steve Zuleski]

That's a rather big difference in cockpit detail, wow! Keep goin, they're looking good to me.

[41chevy]

Did a lot before my trip to Dallas Mecum auction. So here is a rather longish up date. Also did both in their colors. I used the Q parts in the Eduard kit. Eduard has all the parts to do the P400,the P39N and the P39Q. As of now they kits both have issues but the ARMA kit was three of unexpected ones. One side of the wing will no fit as well and required sanding and shaping. The locating rib one one side is just plain off. The interior fits in the fuselage halves locate the halves together perfectly with the locating tabs design used.  The wing assembly would not fit into the fuselage. Both wing root filler flares needed to be sanded down about 1/32" on each side. Because the interior and fuselage fit together so precise you can't even squeeze the fuselage to fit in the wing unit. That was a pretty normal issue. The big issue came with the canopy fit.  85% fits almost perfect until the area between the armored windshield and the left door. There is close to a 1/16" miss match because either the canopy is miss molded or the cowl area is miss molded. I would say it is the cowl since the canopy fits on both Eduard kits fine. If you try to shim the cowl than the door will not fit and it changes the instrument panel location. I ended up thinning the cowl to hide the mismatch as much as possible. I also would use Resin Wheels on the ARMA kit. Pic shows how undersize the Arma Tires are. Those issues are easy the deal with if they ore known.

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GUN PODS They are early ARMA and late styles Eduard

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[handiabled]

For the fitment issues you described it looks like you got past them just fine. Both birds look great!

[406 Silverado]

Sounds like that Arma kit is giving you a definite run for your money Paul BUT.........you're making some short work of it all by your diligence and hard work. Both of these are coming together quite well. That's also crazy about the scale difference for the wheel/ tire issue. WOW!!

[kyledehart5]

Holy smokes!! Awesome job working through those issues

[stuart]

Great stuff. I have the Eduard kit in the stash and have been thinking about building it for a while now as it's been over a year since I built a 1/48 kit. Glad to hear it's not a bad one.

[41chevy]

They are done less antenna wires. Can't get the plastruct I use at this time.

Both kits build up well, pretty close to equal. Out of the box the Eduard is slightly better over all. It has better detail on 50's landing gear areas and has the never seen bomb and drop tank stabilizer rods. Arma kit ha some fit nits but some what easy to fix or blend in to hide them. The Eduard comes with all the parts to build a P400, a P39N, the Q version or a RENO air racer. Price the ARMA @ $66.00 reasonable but needs a resin wheel set. The Eduard Profi Pack is $33.00 and comes with PE.

Bottom line is in my opinion he Eduard kit is a 9 and the ARMA is a 8.9 only because of the glazing issue discribed in the build part of the thread.

The Coral P39 is based in the Gilbert Islands late 1943 and the O.D. P39 is based in Oroville California mid 1943  Coastal Patrol.

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[handiabled]

Two wonderful looking cobra's! I really like the schemes you made each of them in!

[kyledehart5]

Those are a couple of great looking builds for sure!! Love your camo choices as well. And thank you for the comparison between the kits!!

[406 Silverado]

What a great comparison thread and well-built Airacobras at that Paul! I saw the completed thread yesterday but only had my work computer (which does NOT show the pictures) but now have my computer back from the repair shop so I can see these two beauties just fine now. What a price difference on the kits at almost half the cost for the Eduard offering. The last time I built one of these aircraft, it was the Monogram kit when I was a teenager, and it was a rough build.

Thank you for sharing these insights on both of these model build ups bud. +1 Karma to you.

[TJ]

Excellent finish on both of these Paul. I've built the Eduard and liked it very much. I think I have a chart on what pieces to use to make any version of the P-39 with the Eduard kit.

[TJ]

Found it

[Jeankes]

Nice job, cool to see the comparison between 2 kits.
I've got the ArmaHobby kit in my stash and seeing your finished builds made me want to start mine