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

Wingman_kz

...Still haven't figured out how to rifle them..

Amazing detail work there Tony, let us know when you figure out the rifling!!!

Some more progress last night, hardly pic-worthy though. The forward framing on the radiators on the booms, added those right out of the kit. (there's a spot where the aftermarket could really help), blended them into the radiator bulge with some putty, left 'em to dry. And I gave the scratched cockpit walls for that radar operator a coat of interior green, will need to pick out those cables & boxes tonight.

~gasp~ we're on page 2?? Better fix that!

Superchargers hit with a coat of Humbrol red-brown, drybrushed silver & light wash of black, my recipe for burnt metal on exhausts. (thoughts?) I think after I install they will get some more soot weathering, should blend alright.

I went the putty route to blend the front faces of the radiator housings...

(just realized I didn't take a pic of the final product! You can sort of see them below.  )

A little gizmology in the gear bays, used fine brass wire for the bundle of wiring (now that it's done, I do think it is too straight, not wire-ey enough. Next time!) and a formed paper clip for the thicker hydraulic hose (I think that's what it is...) I had blanked off both ends & cleaned up the roof of the bay a little as well.

Cockpit pics... pilots cockpit just needs a few little bits of PE to finish it up, leaving those off until last so I avoid breaking them off! Resin Ultracast seat is beautiful, I'd definitely spring for another of those in the future. Eduard PE, I don't know, it's all nice, but how much will I see afterwards?? Especially the IP, hidden under the shroud in a P38. Scratchbuilt some basic boxes & wiring (without going nuts!) for the rear sidewalls. just need to give it a wash to blend it a little better. The rear seat gets masking tape seatbelts - my first time ever. Now I need to scrounge my PE frets for something shiny that can pass as a buckle!

And the radar unit... I, uhhh, repurposed, the radio box, mounting it lower & painting one section in a grey to busy it up some. I think I need to pull out the artistic license for that one. Needs a few cables running from the bottom to sidewalls maybe?

All for now, final cockpit work tonight hopefully, then close up that wing section after finishing the visible ribs for the flaps. I probably should look at the brass portion of the flap actuators before closing too, I'm thinking that I should use a "double-L" shape so that I can anchor them inside the wing and into the side of the flap for a better hold.

Well, let's give it another bump...

Nice work yourself Vance! Everything is looking good. On the pics I've looked at those superchargers and exhausts have more shades than you can count. Fun little project in itself. I like your artistic license work too. Been wondering how the flaps were coming along for you. Look forward to seeing them.

My kids were here over the weekend so I haven't done much. Mostly working on the seams around the booms and wing. I did open up the spokes on the wheels but haven't quite figured out how I'm going to fill in behind the spokes. Starting to get a little nervous about an NMF finish.  Ever seen pictures of the Scatterbrain Kid P-38? If I could get a better pic of the images on the radiator housings and tail fins I'd try to print them and go with a three color scheme. Probably won't though...

Tony

Hey Tony, glad you like Vance's P-38 Improv Show. I'm trying all kinds of stuf I hadn't done before, so I'm allowing the accuracy to wander a little, just to make sure I don't go (more) nuts! Flap detail I parked for a bit, to let me focus on some other things that will let me close up the wing halves. The cockpit areas are nearly done though, back to the flaps next.

I just did some googling & found "Scatterbrain Kid"

And "Scatterbrain Kid 2":

#2 looks like a nightfighter setup + the pathfinder nose, but the camo pattern looks the same. Can't say I've ever seen that pattern before.

Guys, sorry I've not been around lately but it's good to see how much excellent work is being done on this GB.

Well it's finally made me pull my finger out and tonight I got home from work and got the primer on the cockpit, first bit of bench time since before Christmas! I'll be sure to post something when it's worth looking at.

Keep up the great work everyone.

Cheers...

Lookin' forward to it Spike!

Looking good vance.

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.

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.

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.

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,

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

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!

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?

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!

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

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...!

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,,,

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!

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.

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!

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

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

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!

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

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

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.

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.

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

Sparrowhyperion

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

Quick, somebody call the vise squad!