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

P-38 Guy,  Well I've got the nose glued together and packed with lead shot.  Thanks for the heads up, you've probably shamed me into a little body work on the nose.

HK and Wingman,  I think I'll just lag behind you guys and follow your lead.  I have started cluttering up the wheel wells.  I don't look for mine to be technically accurate, but I do hope to make them busy.  I'll shoot to get a shot of them this week.  Rick.

 I've also gotten past the Christmas rush and found some serious time at the bench. Having the week off between the holidays helps too.

 Here's some WIP pics. 

First are my scratched rudder pedals. although you can barely see them in the completed pit. Still better then little blobs of plastic.

 A couple pics of the completed office. Needs washes and weathering at this stage.

 Wanted a more accurate way of 'rolling down' the side windows, so I trimmed off the side edges of the pit at an engraved panel line just under the top edge of the pit.

 Then filed back on the inside edge and sides of the pit opening to make clearance for the windows, followed by building a guide and shelf to support the window.

A couple pics of a test fit with the left hand window. I think I found the look I was after.

Also note the first ,but evidently not the last bit of putty to go on this model.

The landing lights look like painted on the inside clear plastic. Will drill them out and replace with something more realistic.

Here's where I'm currently at . 

Going to jazz up the wells some , as well as detail the radiators. 

I like what I've seen from HK and Wingman ( great work ,guys) , I've gotten some great ideas from your work. Does anybody make a hexagonal screen mesh in this scale?

I have an idea borrowed from reproducing door handles and such with model cars . It involves aluminum foil , super glue and a mold master.

 I have the Trumpeter 1/48 C-47 in my stash. I plan on using the PE oil cooler screens , burnish a bit of foil on the PE , Then remove the foil , fill in the back of the pattern with CA , trim to fit my application on the Lightning . Voilà, hex radiator, oil cooler fronts(hopefully). 

 BTW Doogs- hang in there . I checked out your model site and I like your piece on destination / journey kits. I must add a thought , sometimes the challenge of a destination kit can be quite skill building and enjoyable in the end. We just don't realize it while we're trying to fill countless gaps, gluing many tiny bits of stretched sprue switches, etc.  

Howard

Looking good, Howard!

Vance, sounds like you are having a rough go of the holidays. I hope all improves for you and yours soon.

Tony and Wabash, you have some good looking work going on there! I get excited to see someone going a few extra miles to improve and add detail to what's in the box. Loving this GB!

You know, the funny thing is one of the reasons I started building airplanes was to make myself stop cutting cars apart and rearranging them. Didn't quite work out.

Vance, my sympathies to you and your family.

Howard, looks like you're making the most of your time. That's very nice. The pit looks great and I like the roll down window. I've tried foil casting a few times and just don't have the touch I guess. Good luck.

Rick, looking forward to seeing your progress. My kids will be here this weekend so there probably won't be much modeling going on.

I gotta agree with you hkshooter, GB's are fun.

No progress from me tonite. I did work on those bulkheads a little but nothing to show. I think the part I dread the most is getting the nose and gun bay doors looking decent. Nothing really matches up at the front. But then, I haven't even tried the windscreen and canopy yet...

Tony

Wingman_kz

You know, the funny thing is one of the reasons I started building airplanes was to make myself stop cutting cars apart and rearranging them. Didn't quite work out.

I've tried foil casting a few times and just don't have the touch I guess. Good luck.

 

 

  I used to build model street rods before getting back to my modeling roots, building airplanes. Did quite a few chops , bobs, engine swaps, what have you. Still have a good stash of car kits and extra parts. 

 Now, after spending more than a year scratching most of the interior on a Revellogram 1/48 B-24J backdated to an H ( still need to detail the inside of the tail turret and other fiddly bits to finish it off), I keep promising myself some basic OOB builds. 

Usually find myself adding little extra detail here and there , next thing you know, it's "I did the cockpit up to this level , can't leave the engine or wheel wells where there at.".

 Read Doogs blog site about destination kits and journey kits. These Lightning kits are definitely of the destination variety. Especially the Revelogram kit. Like the 1/48 Liberator kits , they're the only game in town in that scale. 

 I only tried foil casting some automotive scripts years back with limited success, but the radiator fronts I'm going to try are much larger and should be easier to deal with. I'll post WIP pics if it works out. If not , I'll go with some fine mesh screen .     

 Howard

daddy1

 Read Doogs blog site about destination kits and journey kits. These Lightning kits are definitely of the destination variety. Especially the Revelogram kit. Like the 1/48 Liberator kits , they're the only game in town in that scale. 

Wow, thanks for the plug Howard! I'm honored! If anybody wants an easy link - here ya go.

My poor Lightning's been sitting neglected on the shelf for several days now - seems I've been spending most of my nights either working on the Jug or avoiding painting altogether because of the rain. But the extended family is leaving today, and the wife and kids are going to visit the in-laws in Houston...so I've got a good two or so days of absolutely no one around. Hopefully the Lighting will get some attention!

Doogs I read your blog too and it was an enjoyable read, keep up the good work.  I like your idea of journey and destination kits, although I find all of my builds a journey of their own, just some of them are more treacherous than others.

Got the main gear bay done. Enough.
I see that they are not mirror images of each other but it'll have to do. Done with that part and time to move on. Next will be the nose gear bay.

This is how it sets right now. Booms are on and the second round of filler is curing. I'm not to sure how much work I'm going to do in the nose gear bay. I'll box it in to hide some of the ugly but beyond that it may not get much. I'll see what happens when I get in there tomorrow.

HK. wow.. nice work !

vetteman- Well said ,Randy. Sometimes those treacherous journeys can be very rewarding in the end. At the modular home plant I work at , seems like the nicest , most well appointed houses are often the hardest , most involved to build. I find a lot of similarities with scale modeling, at work they're just in 1/1 scale. 

 This hobby often tests our problem solving skills.

hk-  Those wheel wells look great . Your work will be a great reference when I build the Revellogram in my stash. I had once thought of painting the wells in flat black to deemphasize them, but now .

 It'll be interesting to see what you decide with the nose gear well.

Howard

Ok, finished the front gear bay. I boxed it in and added a small fraction of the spagehetti that lives in the aft portion of the bay. I have an excellent pic of this area but there is no way to tell what goes where. This is an attempt to fill the void.

This is the piece I made and installed.

I gave about five mintues of thought as to how I could duplicate the relief for the retracted wheel. I took some blue tack and pushed a tool into it to form a sort of mold then heated a sheet with a candle. This I laid over the mold and pressed it into the mold. I cut out the resulting bulge and gave it a rough trim then cut out a hole in the ceiling of the bay. After a bit of messaging I CA'd the bulge into the opening then trimmed the opening. The part isn't painted so the clear CA looks like holes in the part but once it's painted it should look the part. I hope so.

I've went through round three of seam work and hit it with some primer. I think one more round of seam work should knock out the body work then it will be time to move on.

Tried masking the canopy today and about had a mental breakdown. $*$@#$%#% Academy!

Now...do I go with the set of True Details Fast Frames I picked up? Or do I bite the bullet and go with the old, gray Eduard mask that came with the kit? I've heard the old masks are quite bad, but they can't be any worse than my failed masking job!

Fast Frames suck, doog. They don't look right at all. And you are right, the gray vinyl masks suck too. They don't stick well and you'll get paint under the edges. My advice, if you can't mask it yourself locate and buy an Eduard mask of current production, the one made of tamiya tape. Now might be a good time to learn to mask yourself though. Have you read swanny's technique on masking? He does a good tutorial of it and I've been using it myself for years before I ever met Matt. It works though it's time consuming.

Well guys, unfortunately I'm out, at least for some time. 

The family's out of town, so I decided to work inside tonight. Was masking the wheel wells ahead of painting the underside. Got up for a minute to grab a drink when the yellow lab decided to explore the table for any stray food. He had some surgery about two weeks ago, and so he's been wearing a cone of shame, which somehow manages to knock into everything. Including my P-38. It slid off the table, and when Smith left the table and came back to earth, one of his front paws came down smack in the bottom of the canopy pod. Broke the Lightning's back.

I'm sure a better modeler than I could fix it...but yeah...I'm not up to that kind of surgery. 

Pics of the wreckage...

Doogs - sorry about the damage cause by your lab.  I really enjoy your posts and work.  My lab is 14 years old so luckily she wont be jumping up on my work once I get started.  Hope you stay in the group and start on another Lightning.

Thanks Dante - I'm definitely tempted to get in with another Lightning...just maybe not immediately. Got a bunch of other kits I'm eager to build, so I think I'll tackle at least a few of those. But I'll keep my eyes peeled for another Lightning at the right price!

doogs,, man.. breath in... breath out... wooosah...

Wow.. sorry about that.. thats a bummer for sure..

Take breather,,, build something else,, and wander back,,

We'll be waiting for ya.. I also enjoy your builds and posts...

p38jl

doogs,, man.. breath in... breath out... wooosah...

Wow.. sorry about that.. thats a bummer for sure..

Take breather,,, build something else,, and wander back,,

We'll be waiting for ya.. I also enjoy your builds and posts...

Yeah - I'm taking it as a sign that maybe I should do a few other things before attempting another Lightning. The Jug's in the home stretch, so I've got Eduard's 109E-7 Trop soaking right now...

Sorry to see your misfortune doogs, but maybe you can turn it around and try a crashed P-38 or one in the bone yard? Just a suggestion if you arent going to try to repair it.

Doogs, dude sorry about the major crash.  I second the crash recovery dio in your near future , or a factory scene perhaps?

Well I've been a little under the weather and haven't gotten much done.  Coughing and sneezing way to much.  Any way feeling better and got the final major assembly done on Glacier Girl.  The tail fins straightened out really well, and I think I'm going do the same trick on all my twin boom birds.  See for yourself, not to bad if I do say so myself:

Well I also got Terry Dean's nose weight in the bottom of the booms, and the nose cone on, so with that, final assembly is done.  Bring on the putty

Final assembly done:

OK gang, I'll be back in full-on modeling mode here shortly. (Cold's basically gone; but gotta deal with a funeral early this week). A quick look & I think I see a few names not already on the build list - apologies, I've been tied up. Will do some updates asap.

In the meantime, this just in, from "The Department of getting Vance off his a$$ & working..."

opening up the various little air inlets...

SOMETHING has to go in those empty areas, added a quick vision block. Scrap sprue glued into place to give me something to butt up against when boxing in the landing gear bays......

Very basic boxing-in of the gear bays happening here, I plan on using some thin sheet shims & superglue to flatten that center joint out, and the sidewalls. Likely adding a few hydraulic lines from scrap wire...

Holy Flash Batman! These need a little cleaning up...

Alright, just realized I don't have the cockpit pics with me, that'll be up shortly. Bear with me gang, I'll be back on track soon!

Not much of interest to show. I've been working on the main gear and canopy, cleaning up badly molded parts and adding detail to the front strut.

The canopy is a real PITA. I assembled the canopy and car windows on the fuselage to see how things fit by taping the front and rear pieces to the plane then adding the top portion gluing it to the front. There is a considerable gap in the frames once the front and rear pieces look like they fit the fuse as good as they can so I added a shim to the frame to take up space. Next I test fit the rear portion then glued it to the front and glued in the car windows. There are molded in tabs for the side windows to hook onto the ajacent frames and I removed these.

When I first looked at the test fit and saw the huge gap I was a click away from ordering a vac canopy. At the last second I opted to try and use the kit part in the name of saving hard to come by money. At the moment it's together and curing. Once I get it Futured and masked I'll install it to the fuse and try to message the join lines by fairing it in with CA. The front windscreen fit is the worst and don't look like it's going to be easy to fair in.

While the canopy dries I'm stuck. Until the Ultracast order comes or I can get back to the canopy there isn't much to do.

The UC order still isn't here yet but I've been working on other stuff.

Got the canopy installed and faired in but I'm not really happy with it. Some cement ran inside the windscreen and will be visible when the kit is done. Hate it when that happens. Overall, the assembled canopy is a little wider than the fuse too. I'm really begining to think I should go for the vac unit. We'll see how I feel after the paint is on, I can always change it later.

While waiting for the UC order to come in I started work on the gear doors. One left side is missing from the kit so I had to make another out of sheet styrene and strip. I've added detail to the doors by drilling lightening holes, adding crude hinges, and bosses for the rams to link to. I still havent decided how I'm going to attach the doors yet.

So far I think it will look like a P-38 when it's done.
Meanwhile the props are killing me. Does anyone know of aftermarket props for the P-38?

Hk.. as far as I know, no one makes aftermarket props.. but thats just my own memory..

That's what I thought. I hate the way they are molded to the spinners. If I get bored or energetic maybe I'll do something about it.

Not knowing whether this would be possible or not, but maybe props from a P-40? They both flew the Allison, and the spinners and props look of a kind...maybe?

Interesting observation doog. I'll look into that.

DoogsATX

Not knowing whether this would be possible or not, but maybe props from a P-40? They both flew the Allison, and the spinners and props look of a kind...maybe?

I don't think it will work,, first, the 38s props are handed,, and in looking at my P-40 sitting next to my 38M, the 40 props look smaller..( just measured,, the 40 is smaller)

Thanks, P38. I hadn't even thought about them being handed. My search for resin P-40 props came up empty anyway.
I hope the UC order comes in today. I finished the main gear doors last night so now it's time to move on. Paint may fly tonight if I feel up to it when I get home.