1/48 Eduard P-39

Gallery Article by Zafer Yilmaz on June 10 2011

 

This is my 1:48 Eduard P-39 that I tried to convert to a P-63A with help of Keith Davidson who runs Redpegasus decals...

The most attractive thing was 'KISMET' word.  My dear friend Alper Akkurt called me and mentioned to me about this plane.  Hell yes, there was 'kismet' on her nose.  At that moment I decided build it.  Kismet is a well known word in Turkish as 'destiny' or 'chance' I already known that it was used in America too.  First time I had heard it on movie 'Curious case of Benjamin Button' After a little search I learned that kismet is originally from Urdu language (Our brothers Pakistani people speaks it)

Well, when I said to Keith I would use Eduard's P-39, he warned me about differences between P-39 and P-63.  Location of cockpit, spinner, rudder and size was slightly different.  I tried my best, modified the spinner, partially cut off the rudder.  And of course I had to delete the barrels and armament.  The only available P-63 in 48th scale was from MPM modells; sadly it was too late when I was informed about it...

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I used Eduard's colored seat belts on cockpit and as I mentioned used Red Pegasus decals.  They got along pretty well with decal solution.  No shining was observed.  I painted the entire plane with Gunze black.  Construction was fine.  It is not a piece of cake like Hasegawa's P-39/P-400 family.  Wing roots required a bit Vallejo putty and underneath the tail needed some extra attention and sanding.  Generally it was Ok.

In the end, it was a nice project for me, an American plane with a Turkish word on it! Plus this was my first civil plane.  Another one?  Yes please! :)

As usual I would like to thank a few good men; my bro Emad Tabsh from Beirut, Keith Davidson, my best Ayhan Toplu and Alper Akkurt (who made me learn this plane).

The source that helped me;

Best wishes from Turkey..

Zafer Yilmaz

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Photos and text © by Zafer Yilmaz