I pre-shaded the model with flat black over all panel lines, then painted the tip of the vertical fin and the spinner flat white. I then painted the undersides with Gunze Sanyo Neutral Grey. I painted the upper surfaces with Gunze-Sanyo Olive Drab 41; I lightened this with white and went back over it to simulate sun fading. When all was dry, I shot two coats of Future and let it set overnight.

Decals:

To do the nose art, I attached the cockpit doors in the closed position with a drop of cyanoacrylate. The SuperScale decals went down with no problem, though I used several coats of Micro-Sol to get the nose art to completely settle down. I used the kit decals for the stencilling. When all this had set up, I washed the model to get rid of any setting solution residue, then shot another coat of Future.

Final finishing:

I used Tamiya Smoke to simulate exhaust staining and gunfire residue, then used a very small brush with Testors Model Master Aluminum metalizer to make some paint chips in the obvious areas. I painted mud on the wheels, assembled the landing gear and fit them in position. When all this was done I shot several coats of Flat Future overall to get a flattened, sun-faded finish one would expect to see in New Guinea.

What a honey of a model! The Airacobra may not have had the best operational record of the war, but it was certainly one of the best-looking airplanes of the war aesthetically, and the tricycle landing gear makes it look very distinctive. There's going to be a Profipack version with decals for other users than the US, and the usual Eduard photo-etch detail fret. However, like the company's recent releases in World War I airplanes, the "basic" version is more than acceptable. I think Eduard has found themselves a "tentpole" model for future releases. They are going to do "Cobra I" and "Cobra II" with resin conversion parts; all you air race fans can thank me for convincing them to try this (please buy them when they come out and prove I was right that air racers will sell).