Eduard 1/48 P-39L/N Dual Combo "Airacobra in the MTO" By Scott Hackney

Introduction

I think the P-39 may be Eduard’s most prolific kit. I can find at least six different releases not counting the Accurate Miniatures racer release. The latest is the Dual Combo P-39 L/N Airacobra in the MTO (Mediterranean Theater of Operation).

The Eduard P-39 has been around a few years and has been well reviewed. The kit accurately captures the shape of the Airacobra. There are no real issues building the kit. As with all Eduard kits you need to take your time and carefully fit everything and you will be happy. The only consistent complaint is the overly thick trailing edges of the wings. A few minutes with a sanding stick will take care of the issue nicely. The cockpit is not overly detailed, but there are several after market items available and with the Dual Combo issue Eduard has given you some new options.

The Kit

So what comes in a Dual Combo? As you might imagine you get two kits – both P-39s. The kits are popped in Eduard’s normal olive green plastic. The P-39 kits have always come with a nose weight and you get two of those. The canopy and wheel masks are now the yellow kabuki tape - enough for two kits. The etch metal, including color-etch is really nice. They are not the new self adhesive etch, but I still have some glue left. The color etch parts include seat belts and instrument panels. There are enough instrument panels for four aircraft! I assume there are two L instrument panels and two N instrument panels but I can’t find any references in the directions to tell me which is which.

The box says these Airacobras are P-39L/Ns which are mid-production aircraft. They are the first P-39s to have triangular vents behind the upper guns to help discharge gun gasses that were leaking into the cockpit. Those vents are available in the kit. The L introduced a redesigned nose wheel which was larger. I don’t know how much larger or what nose is in the kit. I would bet if Eduard measured a real aircraft it was a late model and the nose wheel is correct. Ls and Ns had different props, the Ns being slightly larger, but I can’t tell the difference. The bottom line is to put the vents on and you’ll have a mid production Airacobra ready for service in the MTO.

I already have several Eduard P-39s. I was drawn to the Dual Combo P-39L/N Airacobra in the MTO because of the kit’s Mediterranean flavor. There are six different markings for Med Airacobras; three USAAF, two French and one Italian. I have seen the French and Italian markings before, but the USAAF markings were new. I tried to do some Internet searching on P-39s in the MTO and found very little. There’s a lot of information on Airacobras in the Pacific and in Russian service. The only reference I found to MTO Airacobras was the statement that P-39s were used extensively and effectively in ground attack. The box art shows a reasonably well weathered aircraft. I found a picture of the aircraft on line https://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/album/showphoto.php?photo=2341 and it looks pretty worn. The picture appears a bit washed out from the quality of period negative and it looks scanned from a book. . The yellow band is dark which is common with WWII era film. There appears to be a battle damage repair on the right side of the cowling above the nose art. Cobra!: The Bell Aircraft Corporation 1934-1946 refers to the French aircraft as war-weary and has a nice picture to prove the point.

Conclusion

I like the Eduard P-39. The color-etch, and the marking options make this an attractive boxing. If you like the markings or need a couple of nice P-39s- don’t delay -this one may not be around long.

We thank Eduard for the opportunity to review this kit.