1:48 Bell P-400 Airacobra - Landing Flaps for Arma Hobby

The Airacobra the British did not want

The designation P-400 was carried by machines ordered for the Royal Air Force under the name Airacobra Mk.I. They proved poorly suited to the British: an engine without a turbocharger ran out of breath at the altitudes where the fighting over the Channel took place, and the fighter was not fit for its task. The airframes that were not taken over went to the US Army Air Forces, which sent them to the Pacific, where in New Guinea and over Guadalcanal they turned out to be good for something quite different, namely attacks on ground targets. Instead of the large-caliber cannon on the propeller axis they carried a smaller gun of European pattern, which is the most conspicuous recognition feature beside the serial numbers.

Lowered flaps change the silhouette

Of all the interventions in a wing, lowering the flaps is the most visible of them all. A standing aircraft with the flaps down looks quite different from the same machine with a smooth trailing edge, and a viewer registers it sooner than any detail in the cockpit. The photo-etched part moreover brings what a molding cannot: the real thickness of the sheet and the ribbing, which is visible from behind through the gap between the flap and the wing.

What has to be considered in advance

The work is more demanding than it seems. The flap has to be cut out of the wing and the opening reworked, because a space the kit does not deal with is to arise beneath it. The cut runs across both halves of the wing, so it is made before they are glued together. Trace the outline from the photo-etched part, not from the engraving on the plastic; that tends to be a good deal narrower. Anyone who does not want to go through this will get less out of the finished model than the set offers.