# P-400 Airacobra 1/48



## KUROK (Feb 2, 2004)

Does anyone have the new tool P-400 from Hasegawa?
I have the Eduard P-39 as well as the old Monogram kit unbuilt. I was wondering if this new kit is superior to the nice Eduard?


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

Still waiting for Hiway Hobby to get it in.


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## Jafo (Apr 22, 2005)

P-39 being one of my favs i had to get one. i got a hasagawa one at the nats for $25 and its a great kit. much better than monogram. its on par with the eduard.
Accurate Minitaures (sp) is going to release one also with racing cup decals as well
hope this helps


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

Yup, great kit. I just got it and browsed thru it - typial current Hasegawa kit, with obvious modularity intended for other versions, lots of parts and lots of detail.


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## KUROK (Feb 2, 2004)

Great, thanks.
I suppose I'll have to get one. Then I'll decide if I want to dump the Eduard or not.
Dow do they come up with P-400?
Let's see, we have a P-40, P-38, P-47....oh....let's call it P-400, what do you say?


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## spe130 (Apr 13, 2004)

How did you get a P-38 designed long after the P-40 and even the P-51? I've always thought that the series numbers are pretty random. They still seem to be that way.

B-51 (1950s)
B-1 (1970s/80s)

F-117 (1980s)
F-22 (2000s)

If anyone knows of a logical reason for the numbers assigned to military aircraft series, I'd love to hear it.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

The numbers were assigned in the order the proposals were accepted by the government, not the order the planes were built.

The low numbers these days are because they started the numbering system over again in the 1960s. The F-4 Phantom started life as the F-110. The Navy designation was F4H, so the Air Force adopted the F-4 designation to make things simpler. After that was the Northrop F-5 (the F-111 missed the boat, I guess). Skip a few ideas that didn't sell and we have the F-15, 16, 17 (which got turned into the 18). They skipped 19, the F-20 was the Northrop F-5 upgrade that didn't sell. Not sure what 21 was. We're up to 22 now. The F-23 was Northrop's proposal that the F-22 beat out. Unfortunately the JSF should be F-24, but some yahoo decided to go with its X-35 designation and just change it to F-35, just to confuse the issue, so we're missing the whole lot between 22 and 35.

The B-1 and B-2 are the first new bombers since the B-70 failed.

The F-117 is a bogus designation given to the stealth fighter for security sake. The number doesn't actually fall in any list in order.

There ya go .


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## KUROK (Feb 2, 2004)

Thanks, JohnP.
...but where the heck did they get P-400?


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## Brent Gair (Jun 26, 1999)

Specifically with the P-400, that designation cropped up because the plane entered U.S. service in a round about sort of way. It was an early export version of the P-39 which had some differences from the standard USAAF version (the only obvious thing coming to mind is the Hispano canon rather than the Oldsmobile built gun). The P-400 proved unpopular with the British and remnants of that export order ended up being pressed into U.S. service. So, it wasn't actually intended for service in the U.S.

With regards to the other numbers...I'll add a note about the Navy designation sytem vs. Air Force. The Air Force, for the most part, had a relatively simple sequentional numbering system during WWII. The Navy system was more complicated.

You ever notice how many "F4"'s have been in navy service?

That's because the Navy added a designator code for the airplane builder.

F4F Wildcat with the second "F" representing Grumman.

F4U Corsair with the "U" representing Vought

F4G Corsair with the "G" for Goodyear

F4D Skyray with the "D" for Douglas

F4H Phantom with the "H" standing for McDonnell

Then was a grand system wide redesignation in 1962.


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## Brent Gair (Jun 26, 1999)

Hey, I just remembered the Curtiss F4C and the Boeing F4B.


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

I can barely keep the AF numbering scheme straight, the navy one gives me a headache.

Gotta build my old Monogram OS2U-3 model some day. Or was it an OS2U-1?


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## John P (Sep 1, 1999)

I just got a twitch in my eyelid from that. :freak:


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