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

B17Pilot

Looks like I'm going to have trouble as well.  Haven't got to adding the booms, but man not looking forward to it now.  I got the main wheel bays put together and modified the landing gear to be able to add them after paint.

I went ahead and attached the gear so I could do the weighting. The nose gear is still unattached, though, as are the wheels, so there's that.

Yeah...the assembly isn't super-clean. This is definitely a kit you build because you want to build a P-38, not because you want to build the kit.

Speaking of which...anybody have any ideas of how to hinge the canopy open on the Academy kits? The fit is nowhere near good enough to build it closed. Or even with the side windows up (there's a pretty sizeable gap). There's no hinge mechanism for the center canopy, and I'm not entirely sure how to go about adding one that'll be strong enough to hold up over time.

Is there any way to add a small length of wire running front to back? Use that as the hinge point & CA the canopy to it?...

I bet Hammer knows!

It's a pretty simple hinge.

Don't forget to remove the filler caps from the leading edge of the outer wings on the early P-38's. Academy put them on all their versions of the P-38.

Mike

DoogsATX

I went ahead and attached the gear so I could do the weighting. The nose gear is still unattached, though, as are the wheels, so there's that.

I got my nose weights from Terry Dean.  He makes a set specific to the Academy P-38F. They fit into the lower part of each necelle, I just better not forget to put them in.  He also has a set for the RM and Hase kits.

As mentioned, I started a rescribe. Mainly to get rid of the raised detail, as all P-38's I've seen are flush riveted. There is a panel located around the wing root that's a prominent feature of the prototype but Monogram has it molded way to thick, so much so that it looks like armor plating on an AFV. So off it came and I scribed around it to indicate it's presence. Left side done, right side untouched.

It took me a bit to determine what the molded blobs were on the nose but finally figured out they are shell ejection chutes. Pics of the "J" models usually show them so I drilled them out, squared the holes, and boxed in the inside for the chute.

Cockpit walls needed some help. I scrounged through the bin for some spare PE bits.

Then painted the parts up so they could be assembled so I could test fit.

I repainted the Eduard belts.
Currently I'm working on the seat headrest and armor plate. The kit part don't look right to me so I've made a new armor plate that's thinner and taller. I'll add some more detail thats missing to the seat. Kinda wish I had an Ultracast seat for the project but I've already spent money on decals and intend to obtain some UC wheels. Need to keep the budget tight so I'll close the canopy and call it good.
The upper and lower wings are rescribed and ready to go. Once I get the cockpit squared away I'll get started on the booms.

hk,  I love the scratch work.  You can't beat cluttering up a little space with boxes, knobs and wires.  That's going to look real good built up. 

Doogs,  there was a piece in the magazine a couple months ago where a guy drilled micro holes and inserted wires to support a hinged canopy.  If the canopy piece is thick enough, you could go in and along the canopy frame on both pieces to attach.  Rick

P-38 Guy

It's a pretty simple hinge.

Don't forget to remove the filler caps from the leading edge of the outer wings on the early P-38's. Academy put them on all their versions of the P-38.

Mike

Dude, you are a fount of information! That hinge gives me a couple of scratchbuilding ideas.

I was going to head to the LHS today to pick up some styrene rod (my stupid self put the whole plane together and forgot to put the spinner posts in the booms first...), but I forgot to measure the spinner posts to see what diameter I need. May have to pick up a few more bits for this...

hk - your work on that old Monogram kit looks phenomenal! I can't imagine rescribing that monster...

B17Pilot

 

DoogsATX:

 

I went ahead and attached the gear so I could do the weighting. The nose gear is still unattached, though, as are the wheels, so there's that.

I got my nose weights from Terry Dean.  He makes a set specific to the Academy P-38F. They fit into the lower part of each necelle, I just better not forget to put them in.  He also has a set for the RM and Hase kits.

Yeah I reached out to him and he was supposed to get back to me after Thanksgiving, but hasn't yet. Oh well - fishing weights worked fine and room wasn't really an issue.

Doogs,  there was a piece in the magazine a couple months ago where a guy drilled micro holes and inserted wires to support a hinged canopy.  If the canopy piece is thick enough, you could go in and along the canopy frame on both pieces to attach.  Rick

Rick - I read something about drilling into the canopy, too. I don't know. Need to think further about how I want to attach the hinge. I definitely don't trust myself to drill into it edge-on...I'm not that steady.

P-38 Guy

It's a pretty simple hinge.

Don't forget to remove the filler caps from the leading edge of the outer wings on the early P-38's. Academy put them on all their versions of the P-38.

Mike

Hey Mike - is that spring-looking deal coming off the hinge for the wires heading back to the vertical stabs? If so, two birds with one stone!

Taken a stab at sketching up my idea for a hinge. Thinking I can use metal tubing and run some metal wire through, a la Fruil tracks.

I was thinking I'd use styrene for the rest of the assembly, but I'm starting to think maybe metal would be better. Maybe cutting up an aluminum can. God knows I've got enough of those lying around...

Good luck, doogs. I'll be watching with interest.

Hk, great detail you added!  Looking good!  I had thought about opening up the shell ejection chutes, but now I will follow your lead.  I thought about rescribing my Mono, but after doing a Mono Phantom and Panther, I am burned out on rescribing. 

Great stuff guys.

Cheers,

Greg

Greg,
I thought I'd gotten over my scribing bug too, having done two 1/48th SR-71's in the last couple of years. Then I started this beast. I really don't mine the lines and would be fine with leaving them. It's those rivets that have to go but the cost is a rescribe. Oh well. I really want to see if I have the skills to bring the old kit up closer to modern day standards.
Last night I scratched a new steering wheel and attached it to the colum. The instument panel is a spares box PE part left over from something, don't remember what. Can't see it in there anyway as this "J" is one that has the canvas combing over the panel. Shine a light in there and one can make out that there are instruments in there, good enough.
I also finished the new head rest and armor and will be working on fitting the cockpit and radio gear into the fuse tonight. Once I make decent progress I'll post more pics.

Yes that is the wire going back to the tail.

Don't remove all the raised detail. Where the tail meets the booms there are screwheads sticking up.

Mike

Hey gang, it's your absentee group build guy here!
The Christmas push is on here at the office & carrying over to home hours - yuck!

hkshooter - rescribbing buddy? yikes! Have fun & show us all when it's done. What are you doing with the rivets? I wonder how far you can sand them down without losing them under your paint coats, easier than re-scribing those buggers. The ejector chutes look good & the cockpit is coming along as well. I need to add a little extra wiring to mine now that I'm seeing everyone elses!

Mike, you're not the P-38 Guy - you're the P-38 MAN!! Thanks again for supplying some reference material. On the canopy hinge picture, does that wire go to one tail or split to both? (Don't forget, there are a bunch of us Lightning rookies in here!!) I'm guessing my nightfighter will have the wiring running from a hingepoint behind the radioman's canopy?

DoogsATX - by all means, recycle those cans on the hinge, that's gotta be worth more to you than the nickel you'll get on returning it!

VanceCrozier

Hey gang, it's your absentee group build guy here!
The Christmas push is on here at the office & carrying over to home hours - yuck!

hkshooter - rescribbing buddy? yikes! Have fun & show us all when it's done. What are you doing with the rivets? I wonder how far you can sand them down without losing them under your paint coats, easier than re-scribing those buggers. The ejector chutes look good & the cockpit is coming along as well. I need to add a little extra wiring to mine now that I'm seeing everyone elses!

Mike, you're not the P-38 Guy - you're the P-38 MAN!! Thanks again for supplying some reference material. On the canopy hinge picture, does that wire go to one tail or split to both? (Don't forget, there are a bunch of us Lightning rookies in here!!) I'm guessing my nightfighter will have the wiring running from a hingepoint behind the radioman's canopy?

DoogsATX - by all means, recycle those cans on the hinge, that's gotta be worth more to you than the nickel you'll get on returning it!

as your Official unofficial co-host,, I am lurking!! just busy with other things in life right now.. and to Vance's comments..

my next build for the -38 build.. soon.. I hope..

VanceCrozier

DoogsATX - by all means, recycle those cans on the hinge, that's gotta be worth more to you than the nickel you'll get on returning it!

Well, I've ended up going with sheet and channel styrene instead. The size we're talking about is way too small for me to work comfortably with aluminum, and any tubing I can lay my hands on easily is WAY too big. I've got something coming along pretty well - it's craptastic, but I think once I file the edges down a bit and get it painted and installed, it'll look pretty decent.

Still...if Academy intended the canopy to be displayed open, why not include some kind, any kind, of hinge? And if not (the instructions make no mention of opening the canopy), why not just go with a single piece canopy instead? 

It's the little things like this, far more than any fit issues, that are driving me up the wall with this kit. The Lightning's a tough plane to fit together, I get that. But the sloppy engineering just...ugh!

Speaking of sloppy engineering, outside of anywhere where two parts come together, the kit hardly needs any putty at all!

So the Germans called it the fork-tailed devil.... apparently they were referring to the issues we would eventually come across when building models of this devil! Who knew?

You did go buy a fresh tube of putty for this project didn't you?

So does anyone know of a way to install the landing gear on the Revell version AFTER assembling the booms? Not looking forward to dealing with them hanging out while I'm painting!

Vance, the rivets are going the way of the dodo bird. All P-38's I've seen are flush rivetted. I'll try to keep some prominent screws on the booms and canopy in the correct places but the rest will be baby bottom smooth.

I think I'll probably leave the rivets alone on mine, MAYBE sand them down a little. With an all-black finish I'd like to keep some visual interest there.

Where's everyone gone to? We have a good list of folks in he build but only about three participating. Ya'll lose faith or something?? C'mon, get to it!!!

I'll need support and inspiration from others to continue my build!
What with all the clamps and CA and glue and CA and sanding sticks and curse words and clamps and CA and glue and sanding sticks and CA and clamps........

Got the cockpit in, wing together and panels over the guns on the nose installed, if you want to call it that. Filled the nose with shot and 5 min epoxy. Those panels fit like crap, wow. Tamiya xtra thin hold them, followed by CA in every joint, accelerator, then gorrila grinders to cut it all down.

Ya know? Seems like everytime I build something with that revellogram logo on the box is when I really trash my work space. Piles of sanding dust, every sanding stick in the inventory, most every tool I have, all on the bench.

hkshooter

Where's everyone gone to? We have a good list of folks in he build but only about three participating. Ya'll lose faith or something?? C'mon, get to it!!!

I'm stuck in filling and sanding hell. Not much reason to update when the past few nights would've been the same. "Clogging up sanding sticks with glazing putty dust..."

Hopefully I'll be throwing some primer or something at it tonight, but I already know I'm going to have to come back and fix some areas. Just need to figure out how much of them I need to fix...

Also finally snapped a pic of my stupid canopy hinge. Apologies for the weird lighting. My iPhone acts weird in the garage. Probably the multiple totally different light sources. But yeah, it's not like my hand is corrugated or anything...

hkshooter

Where's everyone gone to? We have a good list of folks in he build but only about three participating. Ya'll lose faith or something?? C'mon, get to it!!!

 

 Apologies for not getting too involved just yet. Had some computer glitches here, as well as work picking up( I work in the home building trade,so that's a good thing) , and then theres the Christmas season's demands on time. Tough to get around to all the projects , honey dos, what have you and still find much modeling time. Still forward progress is being made. 

  I have been keeping check on works underway and everyone is showing some great stuff .

 Doogs- Sorry to see the issues with that kit. Issues laying in wait as I build the same kit. Although I'm happy to see the solution to the open canopy. Was wondering how I was going to tackle that issue. 

  I do have a couple pics of work on the cockpit panels. Like I said , forward progress is being made. Just slowly at this time. I hope for a couple marathon building sessions during over the Christmas/New Years weekends.  Anyway heres the pics.

The wire hanging out in space is for the cockpit spotlight to be mounted to the windscreen frame at a later point.

Currently jazzing up the right hand cockpit wall and floor. 

 Howard

 BTW - p38jl's Night Lightning has me thinking of building the M version of the Revelogram kit in my stash. It really does look wickedly cool all dressed up in black.

I know what you mean doogs, I'm in a bit of a sanding dust fury myself. Makes me nervous about the academy kit, as I have the droop snoot in the stash. Nearly pulled it out for the GB but went with nostalgia instead.
Cool looking hinge you have there. If I were gonna go open cockpit I'd have to try that myself.

Working on attaching the booms.  Trying to figure out the best way to get them aligned.

Not really picture interesting but here's a bit of progress. Lots of work, tiny looking results.

Cockpit completed, scratched control wheel installed. Not in the pics is a PE instrument panel, it's glued inside the wing.

Lots and lots of sanding, CA, and a smidge of putty later, I have this.

Once I'm happy with the fuse pod I'll move to the booms. More scratch work will be involved and I've already started the removal of rivets.

BOOM!!!
Here are the mods I'm making. Kit boom and modified version.

I removed all excess material then added some card to provide the ramp and give the opening some depth. The door was thinned to a razor edge to bring the part more into scale.

I found some spare mesh in the spares bin to use for radiator front. It's way out of scale but it adds interest. I also installed a blanking plate on the other end to give the radiator opening some depth and to prevent see through.

Next I'll add the actuator rod to the door then repeat the whole process three more times.

wow Guys !! nice work..!

I hope to start my 2nd entry soon..

Sorry guys, I've slowly been finishing up another bird, and now I've located a couple of great buys on ebay.  (I probably need to explain myself on the hoarders thread)  I need to decide from a couple of Academy and a Hasegawa kit.  I've also got a couple of AM goodies coming in the mail.  I hope to commit to a kit early next week on my days off.  Rick.

Well, I've made a little progress. Just haven't taken the time to upload the pictures and post about it. Had exams last week and that's taken up most of my time. A couple of days to get that out of my head and my kids are here for the weekend.

However, the pit is painted, assembled and in place. Didn't do a lot to it but did make a hoop for behind the seat and made some belts from foil paper and styrene. Thought it looked good till I put it all together but it's a little large for scale. Oh well. Started to box in the nose gear well but said the heck with it. Wings are glued together. Got some brass screen at the closest tobacco shop and made some fill ins for the cowl openings. Got started on making up some radiators for the booms and that's where it stands right now.

To be perfectly honest, if I had the spare cash I would have tossed it back in the box by now and gone with a different kit. Life's too short. Must be one of those Monday kits Hammer talks about. 

Tony