The Bell P-39C was the first production model of the Airacobra. It was more lightly armed than later models and carried no armour or self-sealing fuel tanks. It was used for initial service trials and often was not equipped with its cannon. Because of the lack of protection, it was deemed unsuitable for operational use and twenty that were produced were sent to training units.
This particular project uses a hypothetical paint scheme by Indianola Flightcraft and Eric Johnson and uses an extensive rework of Eric Johnson's P-39D AFX for its visual model. The Flight Model, Damage Profile and Control Panel are all newly built for the project.
This project started as an experiment to see what performance differences resulted from the addition of equipment and armour in the later P-39D. When I came across the Indianola paint scheme, it seemed to make a perfect contrast to the olive drab P-39D. (In reality, the P-39C wore the same typical Army Air Forces olive drab paint.)
Many Thanks to Mr. Eric Johnson for making his AFX freely available for experimentation.
Let me know what you think of this project.
- Ivan.
