Hey Tom- Count me in! I have a Martin B-26 that I would like to do as "Dina Might" once I get my T-bolts done and my Corsair. Can't wait!

bsyamato

intresting rare lightning

 

Here's an even rarer Lightning:

This one is the P-38J that belongs to the (former) Confederate Air Force (now "Comemmorative Air Force), as the "Scatterbrained-Kid".  It was rare as it was the only airworthy Droop-snoot, but went one step farther as the only Three-seat P-38 in existance.  It had the P-38M's radar operator position and well as the bombardier nose, which made even rarer....

It was restored to her P-38J configuration, but sadly, it crashed some years ago.  The remains are pieces in a hangar somewhere in a Texas Airpatch, awaiting funding that will probably never come..

This her after conversion:

As far as the Monogram P-38 Droopsnoot goes, it does have a diffirent nose-bubble... (an exact match to the Monogram Mosquito, which leads me to believe that that was the field modification, since the USAAF flew Mosquitos, too.. But that's a SWAG on my part.)

But the reason I posted the other droopsnoot pics was to show the bombardier's hatch locations, which are the same on both versions..

The Lightning has the bomb-nose with the optically flat panel in order to use the Norden bombsight.  The Norden has to have that flat panel in order to prevent distortion or refracton that would happen sighting through curved panels... Which was a problem for the other variant... So I think that the squadrons using the Monogram-type got the nose-bubble from de Haviland...

I've got another link buried somewhere that states that the 'toggler' laid prone and the ability to bail out was limited.  I would image that applied to the field mod Droop Snoots, not the pics that you posted....but I could be wrong....

That may well be the truth for one of them, but I have a ref that says they were bombardiers, not  Toggliers (they were in the B-17s, B-24s, or whatever bombers they were "pathfinding" for.. ) ... They were also rather cozy in the nose, with the ability to bail out and they had all the "comforts" of thepilot od a single-seat fighter..

As the war progressed, there were fewer and fewer bombardiers (as well as gunners) in the 8th AF, as the pathfinders or the lead ships had "real" bombardiers that targeted the primary, and then when he dropped, the rest of the formaton would "Toggle on the Leader"...  School-trained bombardiers were going to the PTO in droves by late-1944 for B-29s, and "Toggliers" and "Bombagators" were dropping the bombs...

 Regarding the heater, it was said that heater was excellent for the bombardier, but for the pilot, nothing had changed... The P-38 had a lousy cockpit heater, and pilots froze their azzes off at high-alt in the ETO..

Not a problem in the PTO though, hence you hear a lot about P-38s there, including the fact that the USA's  Ace-of-Aces, *** Bong, flew a P-38, as did the top-two and three pilots behind him (actually Bong flew several, as he wore-out two of them, at least, and was given a new one after his return from the States) and also, my dad's group had P-38s before they transitioned to P-51s and he too, said "the heater in the Lightning was a miserable POS and the only thing it kept warm was itself", lol.. 

The relief tube would freeze up after one use too.. Plus, I can't imagine getting "Mr. Happy" to get past the underwear, heated underwear, flightsuit, and a parachute harness & lad-belts to use the tube, or even a bottle of some sort...  Dad said he used a thermos-bottle for that "mission" after the relief tube froze...

I'm gettin' off-track here, so I'll leave it at that, and just say that anyone with questions they can't find answers to, gimme a shout.. I may already have what you're looking for, and will gladly help y'all out in that department..

Hans-thanks for posting the additional info-I hadn't noticed the bombardier's hatch location on the field modification version.  I still would like to get an interior photo of the field mod version, but I'm thinking a little 'artistic license' may be required.  I've still not decided if I'm going to jump into this GB and if so, if it will be with a Droop Snoot or the Monogram B-25J sitting in the stash.

Another interesting thing was that one of the sites stated that the P-38J could carry two 1000# bombs, coming close to the payload of the B-17.  Hans-based on your knowledge and reference materials, is this a factual statement?

Nuts, just when I thought I was freeing up my GB commitents. put me down for something to be named later

I'm in ,can you put me down for a 1/48 Dragon Ju88A-6,thanks

Hans von Hammer

 

bsyamato:

 

intresting rare lightning

 

 

Here's an even rarer Lightning:

This one is the P-38J that belongs to the (former) Confederate Air Force (now "Comemmorative Air Force), as the "Scatterbrained-Kid".  It was rare as it was the only airworthy Droop-snoot, but went one step farther as the only Three-seat P-38 in existance.  It had the P-38M's radar operator position and well as the bombardier nose, which made even rarer....

P-38 micro bomber LOL

well, i finished my 109G-10 for another group build. 

invader time.

Just wondering....is there a badge for this yet? I didn`t read all the posts on this thread so sorry if this question was already asked.

Thanks for asking, Len. Not yet. I'll get one together...

Might I suggest incorporating this?

panzerpilot

Thanks for asking, Len. Not yet. I'll get one together...

DoogsATX

Might I suggest incorporating this?

Excellent! Thanks a bunch, Doogs! That's exactly along the lines of what I was thinking of.

I'll cut it down to the plane and bombs and put the GB theme on it.

thats a nice pass. 

Ok, folks. I made us a badge. I hope you like. Kudo's to DoogsATX (and photobucket)!

panzerpilot

Ok, folks. I made us a badge. I hope you like. Kudo's to DoogsATX (and photobucket)!

Good Point..Corrected...

Tom- Great looking badge my friend! Should be starting mine in the next two weeks or so.

Thanks Ed! Yeah, I'll probably lag a bit on this as I need to press on with my 109G-14 build. I did just get a hassie 1/72 B-26B, with some associated AM for this build. Lots of differing schemes for B-26's out there. I like the "mixed" OD and Aluminum, or grey, with heavy wear on the OD. However, I'm going in favor of alclad, invasion stripes, and...'cheesecake' toting guns...

The old "Hey Maker" should be real sweet when you are done. I agree with you, it is hard to beat  OD, Alclad and invasion stripes. That pistol packin' mama should look good up on the nose too! Very Texas, Tom!

I am looking forward to getting started on "Dina" and wearing out that OD! Better warn my wife now she is gonna need more hairspray!

Ed. Have you ever done the "hairspray technique"? I've never tried it but it sure looks like a really neat way to do things. I found a video about it here.

Tom- Yes, I have tried it one time before. It was on an old Chevy truck that I wanted to look "used up". It worked pretty well, but I wanted it really weathered so I used the salt technique over top of it to give it that old, crusty look. I think just hairspray should work pretty well considering the fact we are just giving the impression of peeling paint, not rust. I will give you a play by play on how it goes.

Tom: Very nice badge! And thanks to Doogs for the photo.

Love those Kits World cheesecake decals, I wish I'd thought of that idea- every plane is better with sexy nose-art...

Ok here's where the A-20 light bomber stands. Fit is overall excellent. Masked and painted her undersides after I took the photo. Hopefully I'll get to the uppers by the end of the week.

Cliff

Gamera

Ok here's where the A-20 light bomber stands. Fit is overall excellent. Masked and painted her undersides after I took the photo. Hopefully I'll get to the uppers by the end of the week.

Cliff

Len

Len,

Really?  As you can see I used some putty where the rudder fit and the tops of the engine nacelles but other than that everything seemed to go together pretty well. I used a little Mister Surfacer in a few gaps but didn't have any big problems.

Guess I've built so many horrible limited run kits that by now this kit seems like a shake and bake 

work has stalled. waiting for some goodies. 

Gamera- Coming along nicely my friend! I should be joining the build shortly so it is good to see some work for inspiration.

Ed: Thanks!

Looking forward to you and Randy's builds guys!

panzerpilot

Thanks Ed! Yeah, I'll probably lag a bit on this as I need to press on with my 109G-14 build. I did just get a hassie 1/72 B-26B, with some associated AM for this build. Lots of differing schemes for B-26's out there. I like the "mixed" OD and Aluminum, or grey, with heavy wear on the OD. However, I'm going in favor of alclad, invasion stripes, and...'cheesecake' toting guns...

 

 

 

wishing to get a Marauder just to put these decals on

Nice badge!

Cliff good update there, shapes of havoc really nice!

He-111 agiain in the box