Dora Wings 1/48 P-43 Lancer by Brett Green

Dora Wings' 1/48 scale
Republic P-43 Lancer

by Brett Green

Republic P-43 Lancer

Description

Here is my latest completion - Dora Wings’ 1/48 scale Republic P-43 Lancer.

The model was built mostly from the box but I did use Eduard's Item No. 49082 – Seatbelts USAAF WWII and Item No. EX728 – Paint Mask for Dora Wings P-43 Lancer. I also replaced the gun barrels with brass tube and the pitot tube with an industrial light filament.

I was impressed with the model and how well it fitted together, but there are a few areas to keep an eye out for.

There is some flash on smaller pieces. The larger parts are connected to the sprues by attachments on the inside surfaces, not the visible outside of the plastic parts. This is a great idea but take your time when removing and cleaning up the plastic parts.

I thought that the instructions were a bit unclear in places, especially elements of the cockpit (the location of the instrument panel and rudder pedals in particular) and the main landing gear. Consult your references.

In Step 7 of the instructions, we are directed to assemble an intricate nine-part engine mount on the front of the firewall. As good as this looks, the mount is entirely unnecessary as the engine will mount onto the inside of the front engine cowling and the mount is not visible once the fuselage halves are brought together. I didn’t bother to install the mount at all.

The photo-etched flaps are tricky to fit and I think most modellers would have been happy with scribed flaps moulded to the sides of the engine cowling. I found that it was easiest to glue the metal flaps onto each side of the engine cowling from the inside before the plastic cowl pieces were glued together.

For the most part though, assembly was easy and fit was excellent.

I enjoyed this project and I am delighted that Dora Wings has brought us a high quality P-43 Lancer in 1/48 scale at last.

I’ll be writing this one up in detail for Issue 190 of Model Airplane International magazine.

Thanks to Mark I Models for the sample.

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