Hasegawa's 1/48 Airacobra

This is the original-release kit from late 2006, a P-400. The kit is solely a P-400 in terms of the visible items (exhaust stacks and nose gun) so the alternatives are a P-39D, a P-39F or a P-39N, which all had similar exhausts. My original plan was to do a P-400, but this was altered when I spilled Tenax on the decal sheet. I ended up doing “Girlie,” from the 110th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron in New Guinea, circa Spring of 1943,from the Cutting Edge sheet “P-39 Airacobra #4,” CED 48146. The instructions say the airplane was a P-39D, but in fact no P-39Ds served there by then; it might have been a P-39F, since that sub-type used the same exhausts as the P-39D and exhausts are about the only visual difference between Airacobra subtypes. A P-39N uses the same exhausts as the P-400, so I decided that was the sub-type this would be.

To my mind, the Hasegawa kit is the superior P-39 in 1/48 and right now still the best P-39 in any scale. You need to give it extra weight in the nose due to the fact the gear legs are the correct length so it sits tail-low.

4 additional images. Click to enlarge.