Your cockpit work is outstanding.  The attention to the details makes this stand out.  I can't wait to see your progress on this model.

Beautiful work!!

                         knox 

Awesome, thanks guys! Taking my time on this one. Back in a few with pics of how perfectly this model goes together. In many places you can't even tell there are individual pieces. 

Tim's Corner

Beautiful detail in the cockpit - it's very inspiring! And well done on the close up's as well. I know those ones aren't easy!

 

many thanks from my corner of the world Tim! i was laughing reading your close up comment. I must have hit refocus a hundred times taking those shots lol

Well as promised here are a few pics of the fit. Ive watched a few builds and listened to the comments from the guys in my local clubs and I was really excited to start this one. But i have to say no one has over sold this kit. Amazing fit.

in this one that diagonal panel line is the seam

Herself the wing seam. Up close and it's still hard to see. I rolled over it with some 1500 grit paper wet sanding it and it disappeared 

This oil cooler section drops right in. Carmen Santiago challenges you to tell where in the world the seam is ;-)

and here's where im at so far. Booms are together, fuselage is together. Turbos are done but iM saving those pics for later when i can place everything and show how they're going to look.

Great subject -- lol!  It's a wonderful kit, isn't it?  Awesome cockpit with the Quinta details. Looks great so far. 

Ohhhhhhhh, whatta beautiful job on the cockpit!!!

I love how she's coming!

MUST RESIST URGE TO START ON MINE TILL I GET SOME STUFF FINISHED...

Thanks Gamera. Hopefully we'll see yours one day soon!

mine is looking like a Lightning now! 

weathered up the gear bays a bit with a sand colored Flory wash

this is in i's dried state, still have to wipe it down and get the look I want.

Now I'm working on tons of little stuff. Lots of details to put together. I need to get the canopy all set so i can spray everything at once and keep the colors consistent. This kit is sooo much fun!

Looking great so far. Good approach to painting everything at once since there's quite a bit of OD real estate on the windscreen and rear canopy. I painted mine separately and didn't quite get the colors matched up. 

Thanks Hoss. It seems like it shouldn't be an issue but, like you, I've painted from the same bottle and it just ended up noticeably different. screwey as Bugs Bunny would say!

I've got Beautiful Lass  in white primer today. Have thought about this alot. Found this great WWII site

Over 300 P-38 photos on here. I saved about 50 of them that would help with the build and weathering. Tried a few practice runs with dark and light primer and 2 different olive drabs. Have settled on white primer (obviously lol) and Tamiya rattle can olive drab that will be decanted and sprayed.
So looking at the pics of Pacific Lightnings and at the graphics that go with the decals and Hoss WA's build ... 

My plan for tomorrow is to spray a lightened coat of olive drab, maybe 20% white or yellow zinc chromate added to it, as the 1st coat. Then I'll apply the tape the seams like they did to ship these babies to the Pacific. Then some grimey black and some mottling to give it lots of wear. Should be a crazy Monday!

This little experiment should be interesting. I'm setting up the chipping on the wings this morning. Have done this on a smaller scale before so hoping on a full wing it looks realistic. In an attempt to get some depth I've splattered liquid masking across the surface.

Taped the crap out of all the surfaces not to be exposed. 

after this dries I'm going to pulll up some lines to try and get the look of the many panel lines on the wing. That seems to be the only missing element on this kit. This central wing area is smooth.

edit- and sometimes the belated value of posting wip threads is new ideas. I think along that central wing i should put the mask on a piece of stright sponge and dab it on there. Going to try that after this round dries. Ok off to lunch. Can't have too many new ideas or it'll end up a total do-over lol

Will be looking in on this one and looking forward to seeing how that chipping method works out.

mustang1989

Will be looking in on this one and looking forward to seeing how that chipping method works out.

 

me too buddy! Might be tomorrow thobefore i can rub it off. Day is getting away from me and I have a fantasy football draft tonight thati just realized is going to be a delay to modeling.

now here's a goofy experience. Probably a watch out for you guys with one in your stash. I was decanting my olive drab when I noticed a big dot on the tail boom. Thought, oh crap did i spritz the plane! Nope, turns out a perfect hole appeared in the boom,

have you ever seen anything like this? Weird. I didn't really study the booms before assembly so I'm not sure what features may be back there or if there was a sign of an incomplete fill. Working on plugging it up. Then sand and primer that spot again.

Looks like it's supposed to be there. I haven't been able to confirm this but I've read that it's supposed to be an upward clear recognition light. Either way there's a hole there. Zoom in on the picture below and check it out:

Oh man you're great Mustang! There's no references to it in the instructions. Can't believe they missed it. There is a small clear part for it on the tree. And looking back I can see the hole shadowed in the side view of the boom, the pic that just shows the profile of the finished part right at the top of the right boom step.

No problem bud. Any friend of Joe Rix is an automatic friend of mine and besides.....I need to start hangin' out with birds of a feather again here in the aircraft section. Glad I could be of help Mongoose. 

BTW....what's your first name? I'm Joe 

Hey Joe I'm Chris during the day. I morph into plastic at night  yeah Joe Rix and a bunch of us had a great time out in Vegas!

This light is really goofy. There's no ledge to set the clear lens on. Kinda glad i cemented a rod into it. I can just drill out enough to sit the lens in now I think. 

Oh wow, never thought of using liquid mask for the interwing chipping. Please keep us informed in how this goes. 

And I didn't know about the fuselage navigation light, whoa you learn something new everyday!   

TheMongoose

Hey Joe I'm Chris during the day. I morph into plastic at night  yeah Joe Rix and a bunch of us had a great time out in Vegas!

This light is really goofy. There's no ledge to set the clear lens on. Kinda glad i cemented a rod into it. I can just drill out enough to sit the lens in now I think. 

 

I've gone down the rabbit-hole on this one! So the pic Mustang1989 posted above is Miss Virginia, definitely a G model and in New Guinnea so same thaetre of operations. It definitely has the formation light in the boom. Can't seem to find any other pics that show it as clearly as that one. I will say it's damn hard to find an F or G pic, want a J or an L you're in good shape. And then find a shot from the rear right quarter, hah it must not be her best side, EVER ;-)

And Tamiya is confused as well. Here are the Miss Virginia layouts from the kit, note the profile and top views don't match.

No portrayal of the hole for the light

oh, hey what's this perfect circle of a shadow on the boom

So, what's the outcome of this plastic rant you ask...well since it's the same model, same theater of operations, and I like to be different, AND most importantly because I need to fill this hole with something im going to claim it could have been there and go with it lmao

Listening to the Reds game tonight. 7 innings of baseball to get about 3/4 or so of the tape done. The score was tied but I didn't have it in me to do any extra innings. Tedious stuff this is. here's how the top is looking

Looking good so far Chris! I hear you on the tedious stuff. Seems like we're just spinning our wheels sometimes but it all comes together in the tail end of the project. 

Sheesh man.....got the Cowboys game against the Bucs tonight. I'm a fan and I'm hopeful but given their history and the way the Bucs are I just don't know man.  I mean .....anything can happen but I'm expecting a spanking on the Cowboys tonight. 

Mustang if you guys had a kicker that game would have been different! Regardless it was an awesome game to watch.

today the preshading is all completed. This 1st set is what it looks like with the black sprayed over the tape. I did it this way to create some soft shadows as your eye moves away from the tape line. Looking at the photos it seems there is randomness to how the black shows up under the olive drab and neutral grey. I thought this method might simulate that. We will see :-)

in these i used gloss black on the top where olive drab would be. Then i used grimey black on the bottom. It's much softer, has some blues in it And should be better under the gray.

I used light ghost grey on the tape lines to get a contrast once i put the cover coat on the underside. 

and a half way decent tape ball as a result. Almost as much as i use on a 1/32 Thunderbird!

gonna be a fun day tomorrow applying the final color coats 

Yeah ol' Zuerlein has got some work ahead of him or they'll end up fixing that. You're right.....that was probably the best Cowboys game I've seen in years.

All this paint prep work on this Lightning is gonna make this sucker turn out suuuweeeet!! Super light coats will bring out the best in all of this and I'm looking very much forward to seeing your results.

Here's a few shots of today's progress. All the primary colors are done. Tamiya olive drab and neutral gray decanted from spray can for this one. Thinned with mr color leveling thinner. I traced the camo pattern right from the color instruction sheet, that was a perk.

A little nato green and yellow zinc chromate to create some blotches/weathering in the paint.

This one's got a preview of what the chipping will look like

Yes indeed! Looks great so far. 

I like how you did the tape marks- tedious but looks convincing in the end. 

Coming along very nice.  I'll be starting this one again soon.