In the heyday of muscle cars, if the buyer knew what boxes to check on the order form, they could get a rocket right from the factory, in effect doing the much same thing as having Yenko or Baldwin-Motion “improve it” after driving it from the dealer’s lot. This dealer option was abbreviated COPO---Central Office Production Order.

Revell’s re-released their ’69 Nova SS kit in a less-glitzy COPO version, with additional parts for the 427-cubic-inch L-72 V8, and applicable chrome parts as well---the SS chrome parts are still included in the kit.

Quickboost has added the P-51D propeller to their line of resin aircraft accessories. The blades are molded separately from the spinner and a tool is provided for the proper blade pitch during installation. This latest addition is molded in a grayish resin, smooth, seamless and bubble free. One thing of note is that they are easy to remove from the mold block taking only a couple of minutes with a saw blade to remove them.

The package states that it is for the Tamiya kit but it should work with any other P-51D kit. In comparison with the Tamiya kit parts, I don’t really see all that much of a difference in the final product, the difference that does stand out is in the assembly. The Tamiya blades are molded together with the pitch set and will have to have the mold connections removed and sanded down. This can be a little slow and tedious especially when there are 3 of them between the blades, trying not to accidentally cut one off.

Background

Dave Johnson bought this kit from a swap meet or mail order. He let me build it and review it. Then it goes back to Dave. This saves me from taking up my already meager shelf space.

The Aircraft

The kit calls itself a P-39, and it is. But it’s also a P-400, which was the Export/RAF version of the Airacobra.

The P-39 was notable for the engine mounted behind the pilot and the 37 mm cannon in the nose. The 37 mm made it a great strafer, and the Russians got their money’s worth out of theirs. The other great trivia fact: The cannon was built by Oldsmobile.