Kittyhawk P-39 WIP: Center wing section
Here's the fuselage with the rear bays (mostly) assembled and painted. the upper wings are also attached.
This is the Special Hobby lower wing, with scratchbuilt landing gear bays and wing spars. The SP kit has the correct bulge and better-proportioned, full-depth vents.
The upper part will be the floor of the engine bay.
The inner gear doors are Eduard parts with brass strip hinges. They needed to be installed at this point to anchor them from the inside of the part. Th upside is the connection is so strong it would be difficult to break them off during construction.
Here's the port gear bay. the roof is evergreen corrugated sheet, and the side walls are from an Eduard set.
The radiator grill is photo etch from RB Productions and the old cooler grills ere borrowed from an Eduard set for the P-40.
Here the belly is finally glued to the fuselage. The dihedral is set by clamping the wings to the spar, which also makes the wing attachment quite hardy.
With the spar attached the outer gear bays were built onto the top wing.
The gear struts are from G Factor, but since there are no attachment slots in the homemade bays, I drilled a hole through the part and fixed a brass rod. It extends into the wing and is anchored by styrene blocks.
The G Factor brass is super hard. Great for sturdiness, but tough to drill!
Here's a shot with the Kittyhawk lower wing dry-fit in place.
I still have to finish and paint the outer bays, add intake ducting up front, and fuss with various other details before the lower wings can be glued. After that, the Eduard flap bays get installed, then on to the engine, cockpit, and nose bay. Stay tuned
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24 October 2017, 01:34
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I've made some progress on this unwieldy project: The Kittyhawk P-39 corrected by kit bashing the Special Hobby lower wing section, and detailed by opening up all the major fuselage maintenance stations.
