P-38 GB

Thanks NucMedTech. I guess just finishing this beast is an acompishment. Not my proudest moment but then agian how many poeple out there have finished one of these bad boys, show winner or not? I guess that means something. Keep on truckin, there NucMed Tech!

                                                                                    Soulcrusher

Well I'm done finally! I can honestly say in all of the models that I have build I enjoyed this one the least out of all of them. I am not saying it is a horrible kit but it sheer size high part count and horrible boom to wing fit "X2 remember" really bring down the enjoyment level. It looks ok in the photos but to me I beleive it is a step backwards in the build quality I have set for myself. We here she is. You are going to have to cut me some slack on tihs one but I promise the next one will be better!

                                                                                  Soulcrusher

                                                                              Soulcrusher

I know what you mean there NucMedTech. it just seems like no matter how much work you do on this kit you never seem any closer to finishing it. It like it is sucking the life out you. I have to say out of the hundreds of kits i have built over the past thirty years this is one that I have received no enjoyment building any part of it. I will finish it because it is in my nature but it is nowhere near the kit i had hope it would be when i was done with it. I will have to find a way to make the best of it and move on.

                                                                                  Soulcrusher

Sorry to hear of your troubles Soulcrusher, I've put mine on the back burner too. I was getting burned out on this one project so I'm currently working on something else. Hopefully I'll be ready to pick it back up soon. I do hope you will get yours fixed, it was looking so good!

-Stephen

Well I am very unhappy with my weathered NMF on my bird so I have decided to put it on the back burned and work on my model 14. I overdid the weathering and she now looks like she has been through world war one two and three. I tried to tone it down by overspraying with some straight aluminum but some areas already have decals on them. Oh well you live and you learn.

                                                                                       Soulcrusher

NucMedTech do not get to jelious she is still a long way from done. I still have to pull off a realistic fading of the black panels and seal the decals without losing the color of the aluminum. Then of course all off the litlle fiddly bits when that is done. I do have to admite seeing it this close to being done really does inspire me to finish it. She is so darn big! I did not go crazy rescribing all of the panel lines lost during the reshaping of the upper engine covers. These panels are all painted black so the panel lines would barely be visible anyway. I will probally try to represent these lines with some paint chipping giving the illusion of a panel line. Only time wil tell if this effect looks good.

                                                                                   Soulcrusher

Dostacos,

     We would be happy to have you play along with us. As you can see, this is not the fastest thread on the forum. So pick up your 38 and jump right in.

Soulcrusher,

    Your 38 looks great!! I must say it makes the green headed man pop up knowing you've gotten this far. Did you have to do any rescribing?

The gun barrels are homemade. I just cut of the plastic barrells and glue brass rod onto the base of the machine gun. One of the rules for this group build was no aftermarket parts or decals to try and keep it simple and a short group build. It does not look like it worked though. Even though my P-38 is 99.9% OOB it has still taken six months to reach this point so far. As far as the overall fit the kit has two bad areas. the tail assembly fits great but the wing to boom fit is off and not the same shape on top. The cooler housings sit out to prominetly on the booms. I tried to thin them as far as I could but they still do not fit flush agianst the booms. The inside under wing to boom joint is the worst. Fortunatly it can only be seen if the model is viewed from underneath so i did not spent to much time tryiing to fix it. Still in all just the size of the kit makes it pretty cool I think.

                                                                                         Soulcrusher

Thanks hkshooter. Beast is a good word to describe her. I am very happy with the Tamiya flat aluminum. With some washes and more tweeking she should look great. I read all of the reviews about the crappy pin and hinge system and I trash then straight away. Right now the cotrol surfaces ae just stuck in place. I want to reference some more pics of parked P-38's before I glue them in place. I did not weigh the final total of lead in the nose but it is jammed in almost every open space not taken up by the guns and it still barely sits on its nosa wheel. It also has the extra weight of brass gun barrels to help oot. The kit barrells were pretty lame and needed to be replaced. I hope to add the decals tommorow then I can start with several different washes and see what effects I can pull off.

                                                                                    Soulcrusher

Soulcrusher, that is a fine looking project! And it looks like a beast of a kit. How much weight did you have to put in the nose, a pound?

I've wondered how the Tamiya XF-16 would look for a NMF plane and now I know. Being a Trumpter kit I'll bet the control surfaces use that captured hinge/wire/PITA set up? I noticed that your ailerons are deflected in the same direction but if they move that could explain it. 

Keep up the great work.

Thanks Harv I really appreciate the compliment. I think I will try to fade out the top side of the black panels with some Model Masters dullcoat straight out of the bottle. I have noticed it tends to lighten any color you overspray it with. Then i will try to add some paint chipping as these panel should have seen some abuse being removed constanly for matinence. I used Tamiya Nato black which already has that nice faded look to it. All of the black panels definetly make the NMF much easier to pull off. I still have alot of work to do with shading panels and weathering but I finnally feel like I am getting somewhere with this kit after 6 months. Give here a try there Harv. I am no expert at NMF but this is no beauty queen and it is not important to achive that shiny NMF found on show planes. The Tamiya XF16  is a great representation of weathered NMF plane. A couple of panel washes and some stains and I think she will look great.

Thanks Dupes also for the positive input. The kit I am building is the Trumpeter 1/32 L model. She is not for the faint of heart but if you do not mind spending a good six months on an OOB build she does look impresive when you finally get some paint on it and it is starting to come together. Hope to have some time to apply some washes tonight.

                                                                                 Soulcrusher

Soulcrusher, that looks specTACULAR! The flat black is really sharp next to the NMF.

I missed it when you first started, but what manufacturer's kit are you using? 

Finally some progress worth posting. I have the basic colors layed down but I still have a long way to go to achive thwe finish I desire. Sill it feels great to have reached the stage where you can actually see some progress. i stil have alot of post shading to do and of corse all of the fiddly bits need to be glued on but i can finally see a light at the end of the tunnel.

                                                                        Soulcrusher

I am more armor than air but I would like to play along.

DML 1/72 scale P 38 droop snoot bomber 

I have been eyeing Hawkeye's NMF products for a while. They seem to be the easiest to use and from the pictures i have seen posted the results look good. I did not consider them for my P-38 because I wanted to model a weathered Pacific theater plane where the NMF appears very dull and worn in all of the color photo's I have. I think I am going to try them on my 1/48 Classic Airframes Lockheed Model 14. As this plane would have been kept in much cleaner condition I imagine. I am going to try and paint the black panels for the P-38 tonight. If i finish up early enough I will try and post some pics.

                                                                            Soulcrusher

No problem. I have mixed up several shades of Tamiya flat aluminum to break up this huge shape. I also plan on using some post shading of particular panels to break up the shape alittle more. On Itsy Bitsy the nose is painted black as well as the top of the engine panels. This should also help. that is the main reason I chose those markings. I've got some paint on her but I want to wait until I get all of the black panels painted before I post some pics.

                                                                                     Soulcrusher

Hey Harvey

               I have done some research on this topic and it appears all L models were delivered in NMF. I looked through all of my references and could not come up with a field appied camo job. The Hobbycraft kit is just a reboxing of the Trumpeter kit. The decal sets are even identical. Have you tried the large scale planes web site?

http://www.largescaleplanes.com/

here is the only other option for decals I have found. Unfortunatly they are both NMF.

http://www.largescaleplanes.com/reviews/Decals/WW2/EagleCals/EC72/EC72.html

Mabye you might have some luck there.

                                                                                 Soulcrusher

Started filling and sanding this past weekend, and from the looks of it this will take some time. I'm doing one side at a time so that I can use the other side as reference to rescribe the panel lines and rivet holes that I will most likely lose to sanding. As Soulcrusher said "still plugging away..."

-Stephen

Trying to put the nose together with the doors and nose cone. This really sucks! I am only able to glue one section at a time and then wait for it to dry. Then bend the other end of the panel to fit the other side and try to hold it in place while the glue dries so it does nt pop back out of place. I am looking foward to putting this one behind me as there has not been much to enjoy about this kit. When it is done it will definetly look cool but i would not recomend this kit to anyone unless you enjoy massive amounts of sanding reshaping and scribing. I am hoping the sheer size of this beast will draw attention away from all of the poor fitting panels. When I finally get some paint on her i will be able to tell if it was all worth it. Alot of work done but nothing worth posting pics of.

                                                                                   Soulcrusher

Looks like you made some good progress there MucMedTech. I have my 500lber's all done up thanks to some help. They now have fuses and arming props. Just finished a session with the sanding sticks trying to smooth out all of the seems. Not the most exciting part of the build but the gaps were just to bad and much detail was lost smothing over panels where the booms meet the wing. Seems to be a constant for P-38 kits no matter what kit you try. Not much worth posting but I am still plugging away at this never ending prodject.

                                                                            Soulcrusher

It's really quiet here! I've been away for a little while. Soulcrusher how did the 500lbs bombs come out? Well I got a little bit of work done. Here is where I'm at right now.

I'm working on the gunpack now.

Thanks to dirtball I now have the detail parts for the 500lb bombs I plan on hanging of this baby. Some nice photo etch props and access panes to give them a little pop. Hope to get cracking on them soon!

                                                                                  Soulcrusher