P-38 GB

Well I finally found some time this weekend to sit down at the bench and managed to assemble the cooler assemblies for the booms with the photo etch grills. Now the bad part. The do not fit flush on the fuselage even after hours of sanding to thin them down. Time to break out the squadron putty and sanding sticks and say goodbuy to all of the fine rivet detail on the cooler housings. I new this would not be as easy as it looked.

                                                                                Soulcrusher

Here are a couple of photos of my progress.  I figure I should finish by the weekend, if all goes well.  It's a standard olive drab/neutral gray scheme, although I did spray a couple of panels with a lightened olive drab as part of my weathering preparations.

Well, I managed to get the major components together and painted today.  No photos as yet.  I was surprised at the fit of this Pro-Modeler kit, though, with particular attention to one boom and the underside of the wing attaching to that boom.

The boom didn't fit real smooth like the other side did, and I was unfortunately not able to get it into proper alignment with the wing root.  A little putty took care of the problem, mostly. 

The wing underside appeared to have been not the exact same size as the upper surface, so there was overhang along the wing tip and next to the boom.  Sanded that down to eliminate the overhang, but I was not happy with the fit issues.

Oh well.

Well I stumbled upon some of the kits short comings today while attaching the coolers on the booms. The fit leaves alot to be desired. It is time to break out the standing sticks and putty. I guess it was inevitable on a kit this complex. Nothing that can not be handled though it is a pain to sand and fill in the boom area without loosin detaiil. Starting on the nose wheelbay and nose guns next will post progress pics soon.

                                                                            Soulcrusher

No pilot with the Pro-Modeler kit, which is just as well since I rarely use them.  (Kinda funny to look at any of the finished kits I have built wheels up to hang from the ceiling, but there's no one at the controls!)

Today I did a little seam work, basic sanding and put down some primer for the wing tips and spinners that I will later paint red, and the propellor tips which will of course be yellow.  I'm hoping to make steady progress this week and start putting on the olive drab/neutral gray scheme this weekend.

Lookin good, does that kit come with a pilot figure?

Keep posting pics,

David

Ok, now some photos of my progress.  (Thanks to Tropical Storm Erin today, I decided to work from home and managed to sneak out to the workshop for a little modeling ... shhhh, don't tell my boss )

Any way, photos include mostly cockpit details, in addition to the nose landing gear.  I put a small strip of regular household foil on the gear oleo rather than use silver paint.  The remainder of the gear is painted aluminum.

Instrument panel - looks like I got a bit too much yellow paint on the tip of a filed down toothpick I used to do the dial faces. 

Cockpit in progress with seat, control column, IP and pedals installed.  Used a silver graphite pencil to effect the wear and tear on the floorboard.

Side panels to show off the 3D effect of real wiring as opposed to the molded on wiring.

Cockpit with one of the side walls installed.

Nose gear strut.

Hey David just google P-38 Squadrons and you find alot.

As for my progress,  I started my first year of college on Wednesday, and my airbrush parts still have not arrived  So my Hobby time is reduced but I will try to get a little bit of time in.

Chris

Hows everyones coming along?

Does anyone know of a site that has a list of all the squadrons that operated Lightnings?

Did the Navy ever try to land or takeoff and a Lightning off a carrier and did the Marines ever opertate them?

Thanks,

David

Finally, I have started.  I don't have any photos just yet, but then again, I don't have a lot to photograph at this point either.

I've started off by grinding away the molded wiring details in the cockpit and replacing with real wire from my supplies box.  I also added brake lines to the main landing gear.  I'm going to try again to scratch-build seatbelts since this kit doesn't come with them, even with a decal.

Nice work there Screaminhelo.  Nice to see that I am not the only one to have nose fit issues with my "M" conversion.  I had just as much problem with my F-5 conversion as well.

I got alot of building done this weekend on my P-38s (this GB and the South Pacific GB {which I am overdue on}).  Will try to post some photos later this week.

Hey guys, sorry to interrupt! Sounds like you all are having fun!

Are any of you building a Hasegawa P-38 wheels up? Somehow, one of my landing gear parts (R3 to be exact) has gone the way of the do-do bird. If anyone has a spare, or knows where I can find one, I'd be very appreciative! Thanks guys, and keep up the good work on your Gabelschwanzteufels!

Looks great, both of you, sscreaminhelo, keep posting WIP shots.

David

You are putting more into the office than I did, it looks great.  This one will be hanging from a 2-year-old's ceiling soon enough and it will hopefully be a good warm up for the main event.

Screaminhelo looks good. I was able to get some work done on my 1/48 Revell Droop Snoot. Here's the cockpit. I used the wheel left over from the Hasegawa P-38F kit, Added the frame behind the seat and some Eduard belts.

I don't want do do a blow by blow posting of this kit because it was actually started earlier for the R/M build but I thought that youguys might be interested in the progress of my NightLitghtning.

I'll post a couple more when I make some good progress

Thanks for the encouragement Guys, I really do not know what I was thinking when I did that, but I am awaiting AB parts in the mail so when they get here I will start painting.

Chris

Chris-
I see some potential in the way you are doing the wash.  If it is dark enough and you are careful with the finish color, it may show through.  I say run with it the way it is and see how it turns out, you can always apply another wash later on if the lines are not dark enough for your tastes.

Mac

This is a terminology and perhaps application misunderstanding.  Washes are highly thinned paints applied after you're finished painting.  What you're attempting to do is preshade.  Typically, preshading is done with a much darker color, i.e. black or burnt umber.  It can be applyed with either brush or airbrush along the panel lines.  You don't have to be precise with preshading, in fact it's better that it's not precise.

Preshading is tricky because you can easily cover it up when applying the paint coats.  You'll have to apply OD and Neutral Gray in multiple very thin coats, almost misting it on.  You want the preshade to be slightly visible through the top coats.  

A wash is a highly thinned oil or acrylic paint that is applied selectively to panel lines or wheel wells, etc. to pop out the detail.  A good reference site is swannysmodels.com for tips on washes and such.    

Mac and David, Did I do my wash wrong?  This was my first time ever doing a wash on the outside.  I was planning on using MM Acrylic OD and Neutral Grey on the outside.  To my understanding P-38s in the pacific weathered really fast so I was going to mix Flat White in with the OD to give it a light look.  Mix about 20 percent the first time and about 60 percent on the second coat.  Does that sound like it would work?  If my wash gets covered to much then I will just do it over what I sprayed since the thinner will not hurt the acrylic.

David Future can be airbrushed straight from the bottle.

Chris

Model Man, the panel lines look good althoug I've never seen them done that way.

Can anyone give me a idea on a wash from start to finish. Such as materials, future coat and such.

Is future airbrushable?

David

ModelMan-
I have never done panel lines that way, what is the final finish going to be.  I am looking forward to the finish coat to see how those lines stand out.

SC-
That Trumpeter beast looks pretty good so far.  Seeing as how it is a P-38 and you are seeing your first fit problem, I guess that is all you have done so far.  I really like the way they treated the 'chargers, just about like the real deal.

They look great Soulcrusher.  From what I can see one of your booms could eat my P-38.  Keep the Pictures coming.

Chris

As promised here are the two booms all closed up. I am going to start on the cleaning up the seams tonight. I have come across the first fit problem in this kit. The radiator faces are too deep and hit the engines  before they are flush with the engine panels. It should be no problem to fix though they just need to be thinned down on the backside.

Thought it might be better to give some idea of the size of the boom in 1/32 so I posed it next to the RM 1/48 F 5 that I finished last month.

                                                                   Soulcrusher

Soulcrusher, please post some pics of your beast.

Here is my progress today, I put a wash in the panel lines and it is the first time that I have ever tried this.  Does it look right?  I posted in the AC Forum as well.

Chris

I just noticed this, but between major kits, I've always built a $5 Airfix 1/72 kit.

David

ww2modeler wrote:

PLease post some pics. I'm wrapping up painting my F-18 then I got a 1/72 Beaufighter weekend build and then I hopefully will go out and purchase the 1/48 Revell kit. And then I got to work on my Pershing and then a Spitfire and............................ David

STYX had a hit song that went..."I've got too much time on my hands and it's ticking away with my sanity. I've got too much time on my hands. It's hard to believe such a calamity." Maybe they were thinking of us? Probably not.

My 'replacement' Lightning should be here by 8-24. I'm sitting on G and waiting on O. 

PLease post some pics.

I'm wrapping up painting my F-18 then I got a 1/72 Beaufighter weekend build and then I hopefully will go out and purchase the 1/48 Revell kit. And then I got to work on my Pershing and then a Spitfire and............................

David