Special Hobby's 1/72 Bell XP-77

When the United States officially joined in World War Two, the Pacific Theater caused lots of worries throughout the American chain of command. The vast areas to cover, the possibility of shortages of important resources, and the shock brought about by the incredible performance of the Japanese A6M "Zero," which no current US fighter could effectively match, led several manufacturers to devise "alternative" options for fighters.

Bell came up with a plane that, at least on paper, met all of these concerns—the XP-77. Built primarily out of wood, the XP-77 was an extremely lightweight (empty weight of only 3700 pounds!) fighter that packed an incredible punch. An estimated top speed of 410mph at 27,000ft made this plane a definite hot rod in the sky, and the two 20mm cannons and two .50-caliber machine guns gave it a fighting edge to match. The specifications were so impressive that an initial batch of 25 aircraft were ordered before the prototype was even finished. Unfortunately, problems with the engine, most notably the lack of a suitable supercharger, held production back. By the time the first XP-77 was ready to fly on April 1, 1944, the concerns that had led to the design had not materialized and the original order had been cancelled.

This diminutive fighter is well represented in Special Hobby's 1/72 kit of the XP-77. The first thing you are struck with when you first look at the sprues is just how small this plane really was. The plane’s full-size length of only 23 feet scales out to a mere3.5 inches in 1/72 scale. One sprue is all that's needed for this kit. The cockpit is provided in resin, and it's a good thing because the bubble canopy is very clear and very revealing. I imagine the visibility from the cockpit left one thinking that he was actually sitting outside of the plane.

The resin seat and cockpit tub are very well done, and some careful painting is all that will be needed to bring out the detail. The complex engine front is also done in resin, and it will take some time to paint up all the detail present in that part. Once done, though, it will really add a lot to the final look of the kit.

The plastic parts are for the most part very well molded, with the panel lines very finely recessed. The only downside is the texture present on the plastic. While it looks shiny and smooth, it actually has a very pebbly texture to it. I experienced the same thing in the Special Hobby Yak-17 and a couple of MPM kits, so I feel that it is something to do with either the quality of the plastic in the Czech Republic or the quality of the molds. It isn't too difficult to take care of, though, and in preparing the parts for the natural metal finish it will all be smoothed down. The decals are very nicely printed by Propagteam, and are very thin. They should go down very well on the natural metal finish. The Bell Aircraft logos are little works of art in themselves.

Construction of this kit is very basic, and it looks like it will be a weekend project at most. The wing is a single piece, and the only place that filler will be needed is in the wing-to-fuselage joint, a typical filler area on many kits. One challenge of the kit is finding space to put the nose weight. The box art doesn't show it, but the XP-77 has tricycle gear, which means that you have cram a lot of weight into that small nose in order to keep it sitting right.

This kit looks to be a great one to practice natural metal finishes on, as its small size and simple layout lend itself well to experimentation. It would be very easy to try out a couple different styles of doing natural metal finishes without wasting a lot of time or paint. Once painted, the rest should be really straightforward to finish. The only thing that I would add or change would be some sort of locating pegs for the landing gear, both to make alignment easier and to add some strength.