P-38 Lightning group build - Are we there yet???

After 3 hours of futzing around trying to get the boom sections to fit right, I have for now given up on the Minicraft.  Instead, I have opened up my Academy kit.  The one I had planned on selling.  It's as different as night and day.  The parts fit beautifully, the detail is crisp and pretty accurate from what I can see so far.  The Design and a LOT more logical and I am not going to have to waste hours just getting the booms to fit together correctly.  So it's going to be the Academy and the Revell first and if I am feeling masochistic enough, the Minicraft when I am done with the other two, if I have the time.

Rich

All--I have to agree with Sparrow.  The Minicraft kit is not the greatest but it has gone together fairly well.  I dressed up the LG doors with some perforated ,5 mm sheet to match photos I had,  Also got the OD on topside.  Here are a couple of photos:

This plane will be Jeanne, a 20th FG with sharkmouths on the nacells.

Ueh know...  As soon as I hit the Post button, I knew that someone was going to say that......

Rich

VanceCrozier

 

Sparrowhyperion:

 

...and best of all a really nice swivel 360 degree hobby vise....

 

 

Quick, somebody call the vise squad!

Vance, you've really gone to town on them flaps, it's looking excellent.

Rich your work bench looks a little like mine, complete and utter clutter, keep up the good work.

Finally have some pictures to post, not the best as it's dark and I'm crap at photography,

I've used a bit of artistic license on this as the PE set is for the Hasegawa kit but I wanted to "busy" it up a little. The back panel needs making vertical before I glue it.  I'm pretty pleased with my scratch built seat though.

Cheers...

on scene... [View:/themes/fsm/utility/:550:0]

Sparrowhyperion

...and best of all a really nice swivel 360 degree hobby vise....

Quick, somebody call the vise squad!

Well here are a few shots of both kits.  I have a LOT of touch up to do before closing up the wings and booms on both.  I also have some sanding and filling to do.  That Minicraft kit is horrible...  I may scrap it and open up either my Academ 1/4 kit or my Revell 1/32.

The bottom two are the Minicraft.  Nasty kit. 

I got a nice surprise last night from my dear Wifey.  She got me a couple of late Bday presents.  She got me a new can of thinner (always useful), a new jar of Interior Green MM enamel (I needed it after a cat stupidity related incident), and best of all a really nice swivel 360 degree hobby vise. :)  I am probably going to be using that vise a lot with the Minicraft kit.

Rich

Thanks.  I will try and send up a few images later on today or tonight.

Wabashwheels

Welcome Rich, This has been a great group and personally very rewarding for myself.  Hope you enjoy!  Rick.

See Tony, it is an addiction... as soon as you make that one little improvement it turns into "well, if I'm doing that, I should do this too..."

OK, pics to follow up my previous post. This is all falling into the realm of "probably not accurate, but I'm having fun!!" category. Apologies to the purists.

Busying up the now-open flap area...

Thinning out the cockpit sidewalls to allow me to drop the windows into a pocket of some kind...

Oh, almost forgot this one! I don't really like the look of the rocket rails - they may be "to scale", but they just don't look right to me so I'm not mounting them. That being said, there should be some evidence of them having been there. So, I'll need to pay attention to the area when I'm finishing/weathering. How do I remember where to do this? Well, I could take a few measurements or make an paper template of some kind... nahhhh, I'll add attachment points that probably aren't even on the real thing... (You're right Tony, it's a sickness now!

Finding the locating holes that Revell provides, taping the other side for location..

Attachment point built out of scrap styrene & a piece of a staple - Hammer would be proud! You can't see it here (I can't zoom in much more than this) but there are a pair of holes (tip of an exacto blade) added to the lower portion of this too, just to add some phony detail to the units.

Welcome aboard Rich.

I've gotten a little work done. And of course, took pics. But haven't had time to sort, edit and upload. Hopefully Wednsday. Got the guns painted and assembled. Still working on getting some lead shaped into pieces I can hide so haven't glued in the guns and tray yet. Am hoping I can get the port side access door situated to open and close correctly. If not, there's plenty of room for ballast.

Up until I started working on the booms and decided to try to represent the radiators I was just going to put everything together and paint. But one thing has lead to another and... Anyway, that means I had glued the wings together without doing anything to the nose gear bay. I gotta fix that now so, I pieced together a little drop-in bay over the weekend but still have some plumbing to add. Also made a few brackets and got some wire together to add a little plumbing to the main gear bays. I don't know why, maybe it's an addiction. Or maybe, just maybe, it's because it delays trying to pull off an NMF...

Tony

Welcome Rich, This has been a great group and personally very rewarding for myself.  Hope you enjoy!  Rick.

Thanks.  If I have time, I might have another one to build.  I have both the Revell 1/32 kit and the Academy 1/48 kit, but I will have to see what time is like before I decide if I am going to try for three.

VanceCrozier

Never too late Rich, I'll add you to the front page as soon as I can - welcome aboard!

Never too late Rich, I'll add you to the front page as soon as I can - welcome aboard!

Hi guys.

I has started two P38 Kits last night then I saw that there was a P-38 build going on.  Is it too late to get in?  I have two kits, both 1/48, one Minicraft, and the other is the classic Revell kit. Both of these kits are not that big on detail so they won't take long to do.  About all I have done with either is the cockpit assembly and some painting.

Rich

wow - that is a big difference B17Pilot, nothing worse than a surprise involving a canopy! Not as much time as I was hoping but I did make some progress...

The cockpit is mounted to the upper half of the fuselage/wing section, has to make some adjustments to the sidewall details that I scratched - they are all in there but jammed in a little tighter than planned! I added some scrap sprue (not visible) to mount that rear seat to. I also added some phoney structure near the flap areas to block off that big open spot I opened up. Some styrene "L" stock with lightening holes cut through, and a random tube of sprue behind. (Not accurate unless I've completely lucked out, just adding some busy-ness.)

I also spent some time on the canopy, deciding how to handle it. If I put the roll-down windows where they should be, I get a gap of at least 1/16" ahead of the windscreen, I see some putty coming for that. A little sanding takes care of the height issue at the rear canopy-fuselage join, maybe a touch of putty. I cut out some material to make way for the windows to be rolled down. I think I will be adding a little styrene to beef up the framing that mounts the pilot's canopy, it just looks like it needs to be more significant. I also opened up a few inlets of some kind, to either side of the superchargers. I'll post a few pics sometime later today, too much to do at the office this morning for any more than typing!

So I went to put on the Squadron canopy, even though they say recommend for Hasegawa kit, I've put on Squadron canopies designed for one make on another make before, but this time it was different.  The vauform canopy is really big!  I put the kit's canopy inside the vac one and still had 1/32 inch of room to spare on all sides.  Kinda curious to see if the Hasegawa kit is off or the Academy one is, dimension wise.  I then tried the front windscreen, put it in place over the model and yikes, just as bad.  Well spent the last hour or so removing the imperfections from the kit's canopy.   Won't look as good, but don't have a choice now. Hopefully a dip in future will help.

Well found a seam I missed so that'll keep me occupied till the canopy dries.

Thanks for that, mine is actually fitting pretty well already, but I'll check that out, it could be the last step towards twin-boom perfection!

Vance...!

A quick tip for those building the Revellogram.. ( I hope not to late for some.. ) but the gap between the wing and the booms can be lessened by filing down the top of the V that forms when you glue the booms together.. IT does fit into the female groove of the wing fine, but if you file down the top of the V in the booms, the fit is way better,,,

Me too - the family is away until 8pm tonight, so I can wolf down a quick meal & then head right to the table. The goal tonight is to get the connection areas for the flaps set up tonight. Starting to get anxious to close up the two wing halves...

Vance - good work on the flap area! Looking forward to seeing it all come together.

I think I'm just going for the stock ones on this build.  Not quite ready to invest in those wonderful aftermarket goodies that are out there just yet!

That's great Benjamin, I'll add your name to the builders' list on the first page. There are several others working in 1/72 as well, there will be no problem getting answers out of this crowd! Any luck finding a set of decals yet?

Okay Vance.  I'm in.  One Academy P-38J in 1/72.  I promise I'll post photos as long as fellow builders will answer questions.  It's been quite awhile since I've done any building so I'm just getting back into things.

It will have to share my workbench with a Tamiya P-51D in 1/72 but I think they'll get along okay!

Hey Benjamin, never too late to throw your hat in the ring for this group build, I can add you anytime yo like. As for 1/72 decals, we've discovered that the Lightning is under-served by the aftermarket! A quick search at Squadron found two sets:

http://www.squadron.com/SearchResults.asp?offset=0

You may have to do a little searching in various locations, but there are some out there.

Edit! Found some more at Hannants: http://www.hannants.co.uk/search/index.php?search=P-38+decals+1%3A72

I know it's a bit late in the game to join the GB but I could think of no better place to ask the question:

Can anyone recommend a set of aftermarket 1/72 decals?  I have the Academy P-38J and was looking for something different than the kit decals.  Any input would be appreciated!

Thanks,

A little progress last night, finished painting up the masking-tape seatbelts on the radarman's seat. Looks a little amateur sitting beside the resin seat + PE combo beside it, but I'm happy with the first-time result, I'll be doing that again. Machine gun & cannon assembly in the background still needs some brass colouring on the ammo belts.

And back to the flap area. If you look close, it's a little rough, but it won't be really easy to see when the flaps are actually in place anyway. Now I need to add some strip to either side of these areas so I have someplace to mount the flap actuators.

You're right Rick, Scatterbrain in the B&W pic is really hanging low isn't she? I really have no idea. I'm just guessing, it could have something to do with how the damping is set up on the main gear legs - there must have been a way of adjusting it to suit the landing strip being dealt with, paved vs rough.

Vance, I love how "Scatterbrain"set on all three.  That nose is really up in the air.  I tried to get that look with my photo recon F5, and still didn't git er tipped up that far.  But I noticed that different P-38's set at different angles.  Is there any insight on that apparent variable?  Rick.

Looking good vance.

Lookin' forward to it Spike!