ManCave Modeler presents...
Bell P-63 King Cobra

1/72 scale. Dora Wings

A The next generation of the P-39 Airacobra, Ground based based interceptor aircraft developed by Bell Aircraft. Similar in many respects to the P-39, the P-63 featured an Allison XV-1710-6 twelve cylinder engine mounted behind the cockpit and nose mounted armament,

 
The Kit...
Nice kit, 6 sprues of parts plus a set of decals and a paint mask, a nice little addition i would like to see more manufacturers include in their kits. The parts have engraved panel lines wich aren't overly deep as seen on some small kits. The Decal set includes markings for 2 military and 2 civilian aircraft.

One thing I noticed was the instruction. The drawings don't always match the assemblies. It appears Dora has used some of the drawings fron the 1/48th kit in the 1/72'nd kit.
Not a big problem but it did cause some momentary confusion looking for parts that didn't exist. The 1/72'd kit I bought is the "E" model. but it comes with the dorsal air scoop for the "A" and "C" models as well.

               
(The last photo in this section is a comparisong between the 1/72nd. & 1/48th kit

The build...
A strictly OOB build, With the exception of the "E" model sccop, the fit of the parts was exceptional. A place I usually find an issue, attaching the wings to the fusilage was tight with no gaps to be filled.
For this build, I chose to use the "C" model scoop. First, It's more aesthetically pleasing to me and it fit better. The "E" scoop just didn't look like it belonged to this kit.
The Cockpit is painted the usual chromate green typical of the era. there's minimal detail on the instument panel so the decals are used. The seatbelts are part of the photo etch supplied with the kit and fit pretty well.

Note: Not mentioned in the instructions is the need for weight in the nose. It will require a good amount, but there's plenty of the room in the weapons bay for it.

                   

               

The kit was primed with black. the walkways and anti-glare panel was masked off then overcoated with Alclad Dull aluminum. the decals were applied and required a couple applications of Solveaset to thet then to lay onto the surface correctly.
the entire kit was then clear coated with Alclad's Semi-matt

       
Click to enlarge images


Final Thoughts...

I really liked this kit. Outside the occasional confusion with the directions, this kit went together well.
There were no ejection marks to fill or file and there were window masks, something I would like to see other manufacturers put in kits that can't cost all that much to produce.
the only issue I found was with the Model "F" scoop which required a lot of filing to fit and really just didn't look right. Other than that, no complaints at all


My two cents worth


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Last Updated November 26, 20198