Hobby Boss P-39Q Airacobra Airplane Model Building Kit

3 reviews for Hobby Boss P-39Q Airacobra Airplane Model Building Kit

1. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Casey Hendley – November 20, 2022

   Exactly as expected, nicely molded & little flash. Will buy others in this series. Shipping was prompt and arrived a day early.

2. 

   Rated 5 out of 5

   Amazon Customer – December 3, 2022

   Delivered in new condition, on time, as advertised. I love the easy build while still retaining good quality of Hobby Boss Models. This will be a good edition to my model collection.

3. 

   Rated 3 out of 5

   Casey Hendley – January 8, 2023

   I haven’t finished this model yet, but I have (almost) finished constructing it. This would be able to go together in a single evening (not including filling, sanding, etc.) but the inevitable cockpit detailing (which in this case consists of nothing but painting and throwing a wash onto it) will slow down construction considerably. There is not a lot of detail in this kit, but it’s not bad. There are no gauges molded into the instrument panel, nor does it come with a decal to represent them. There are no rudder pedals, and you see light through where they would go (and it will remain this way because of the way the nose gear fits into the cockpit assembly). This cannot be built with the gear retracted, despite the box art. There is a considerable amount of flash but it’s pretty easily dealt with. No major sanding had to be done just to get the model to fit together. I was able to dry fit most of it together at different stages of construction in order to see how things would fit, etc. The only thing you really need to worry about on this model is the cockpit. The rest of it can be built and primed all in one go with the exception of the drop tank (which has enough of a locating pin [x4] to make painting it separately a piece of cake). The canopy is quite thick, and I’m not sure I want to try dipping it in Pledge (formerly Future – why do they have to make things so difficult?) because I’d actually prefer most of the cockpit detail (or the lack thereof in this case) to be obscured. This model is a bad tail-sitter, also. You will absolutely need to add some weight to the nose to get it to fall forward onto its tricycle landing gear. I’m planning to coat a couple of small fishing weights in white glue and just roll them into the nose while the glue is wet. Hopefully that’s enough.

   Having said all that, it also has recessed panel lines on all the exterior surfaces and some rivet marks, so this is probably pretty new tooling.

   I am not a pro modeler. I am not even a *good* modeler. I am returning to the hobby after two decades away and wanted to start with some cheap kits to hone my skills before moving on to (much) more expensive ones. This was the first one I’ve finished building (but not painting) so far. This would be a good kit for kids, especially with a little help from an adult. It dry-fits together well. It does need a lot of filling and sanding but it’s not required just to make it go together. It includes markings for USAAF and Soviet air force out of Ukraine circa 1944.

   The P-39 being such a cool aircraft certainly helps this kit, but it’s not garbage by any means. For $10 I’ve seen a lot worse.