P-38 GB

Please post some pics of that Nuc, I really want to see how it turned out.

Q:DId any P-38s fly over Japan? Any in Korea?

Thanks,

David

ww2modeler wrote:

Q:DId any P-38s fly over Japan? Any in Korea? Thanks, David

David,

The top scoring ace of WWII was Richard Bong in a P-38J with 40 kills....all Japanese aircraft.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bong 

Not like against Japan, like over the Japanese Home Island. I couoldn't find this out but was wondering if anyone had some info on this.

Thanks,

David

I beleive I read somewhere the first Allied planes to touch down on Japanese soil after the surrender was a pair of P-38's. The pilots "claimed" they were low on fuel and had to land or risk crashing. It is more likely that they were looking to grab some glory to be the first to touch down on Japanses soil.

                                                                          Soulcrusher

Well this GB is going rather slow. I'm still plugging along. After cutting brass strips a drilling literally over a thousand holes, this is the best I could achieve for my framing. Alot of the holes ended up out of alignment which you'll notice in the pics, but if you stand back ten feet you don't really notice. So here is what I achieved.

As you probably guessed, I'm only going to do one side. Now that this part is over, hopefully I can move more rapidly through the rest of this build.

NucMedTech wrote:

Well this GB is going rather slow.

You're the first post in a month...I'd say you're right. I find that this is the only issue with having a GB that covers a loooong span of time - a lot of people bang out their builds starting on day 1, and some people just try to fit them in with all of the other numerous GB's they're a part of, leaving large gaps with no production. I guess the drawback to shorter duration builds is that a lot of people will sign up, and never get around to building in the required timeframe. 

NucMedTech wrote:

As you probably guessed, I'm only going to do one side.

Holy cow I should hope so! Looks really good but I can imagine it must have been a bit tedious and repetitive ...how did you get the brass to sit still to drill the small holes? Some sort of a vise? Or did you use a press?

Dupes,

     A bit tedious is an understatement. I started off just holding the brass in place, that didn't work to well. Then I tried taping it down, this worked quite well and as an added benifit the tape made it easier to mark the drill points. I taped the brass strips to a block of wood to handle it better.

Ahhhh....smart idea. I wouldn't have thought of taping it to a wood block.

So were you just using a Dremel-y type thing? Or some larger power-tool style device? 

Wow, that looks great. How many hours do you think you put into making that? I wish I had that patience.

David

Dupes, I've got an 8" drill press that I used with a tiny drill bit chucked in it. The hard part was drilling in the right place, it was hard to see and made my eyes go cross.

WW2modeller, I really don't know how many hours I put into. It was a lot of trial and error though.

thanks for the encouragement though, hopefully I can get more done now.

Looks like you've done some hard work there NucMedTech. I have not posted in a while but I have been hammering away at this monster and I have made some progress. The rockets and the rocket trees have been taking forever to clean up. Also the lack of good photos of the 5 inch HVAR held me up. I found only one good picture online but I can not find and pictures how the fuse arming wires were attached to the trees. I know the wire comes out of the back of the rocket but I do not know if it attaches to the tree or the wing. Anybody have a good shot of this I really have exausted all of my resources. Right now all major sub assemlies are done and mocked up but not glued togehter yet. Hence the tape. Well here she is I hope to find some time soon to get started agian. I still have not caught up from the holiday season and a nasty Flu that put me out of comission for a week. 

                                                                          Soulcrusher

Jeez, it looks like a beast on your bench. Looks good so far. Keep us posted as it comes along.

David

ww2modeler wrote:

I guess, since that is only the serial numbers and nose art. But can you try the kit decals first and then if they don't work get the AM ones? David

Do we have to use the kit decals? I can't as this kit is old and the decals have faded bad.

It's the Virginia Marie. If we are not allowed to use AM decals then please take me off the list and I will put the P-38 away and concentrate on two others.

I am not really in a P-38 building mood anyhow.

Hi Mike, I guess AM decals are fine. The object was to keep costs to the minimum so that was why I had said no AM. But a set of AM decals are only what, $7. So go ahead and good luck on your build.

David

Thanks David.

I wasn't aware that cost was the factor, I thought that maybe you wanted an even playing field for all involved since AM decals can look better.

If you all want I can get a set a Monogram decals from a friend of Richard Bong's "Marge" and use them. If not I will make it into something else with some other AM decals.

Let me know what you prefer as this is your GB my friend.

The Monogram would be "better" although if its a pain to get them then stick with the AM ones.

David

Soulcrusher,

    She is coming along quite nice. I've got the booms pretty much finished, now I'm working on the nose landing gear and cockpit. Unfortunately it looks like I may have quite a few seams to fill. I'll get more pics up when I have something to show. 

ww2modeler wrote:

The Monogram would be "better" although if its a pain to get them then stick with the AM ones. David

David,

A friend is sending me the Monogram Richard Bong "Marge" decals so I will be attempting my first Alclad II finished aircraft ever.

Well, thanks for going out of your way to stay in the "rules"

Looking forward to see your build coming along.

David

After building Tamiya P-47's this Hasegawa P-38 is a piece of junk!

How could they release such a horrible fitting kit?

I could have bought the Monogram and saved some money and had the same fit.  

What doesn't fit right, or is it the whole kit. I thought all Hasawega was ralatively good.

David

ww2modeler wrote:

What doesn't fit right, or is it the whole kit. I thought all Hasawega was ralatively good. David

Really there are no good P-38 kits although some are worse than others.

I am in the first steps of installing the landing gear housing into the fuselages and they fit bad.

Good thing I have clamps to hold it all together while I line it up as best I can a glue it.

At least I have enough putty.  

I may end up just depicting a P-38 that got ran over by a Panzer.

That is true about P-38 kits. Its always the booms that are terrible IMO.

You could make a whole new P-38 with that amount of putty.

Anyway, good luck.

David

Hey Mike,

     I'm working on the same kit and have the same problem. I decided to model it with the gear up. Even then the gear bay doors have gaps all around the edges. I'm using mine as a test bed for the Hobbycraft P-38. Mostly for the NMF since I've never done it before and would hate to mess up the bigger model. 

NucMedTech wrote:

Hey Mike,      I'm working on the same kit and have the same problem. I decided to model it with the gear up. Even then the gear bay doors have gaps all around the edges. I'm using mine as a test bed for the Hobbycraft P-38. Mostly for the NMF since I've never done it before and would hate to mess up the bigger model.

I hear you. I have never done a NMF paint scheme either so this will be my first.  

Hopefully I can get back to you on the Academy kit soon.  I will finally get to finish my M soon for the long ended R/M group build.  I have built the Hasegawa kit before and didn't have trerrible problems.  I don't know if it's because of my kit or his kit, but mine wasn't bad except where they all seem to have problems.

Soulcrusher,

    I looked in my detail and scale book for pictures of the HVAR rockets. I've got a good picture of the front but not of the back. The caption said that "each Christmas tree launcher required only two mounting points under the wings, and only one firing circuit was needed for each." I don't know if this helps but it's all I've got. 

Yes that is the same problem I am having. I can  not find and pictures of what the back of the rocket tree looked like when all of the rockets were attached. It is a choice of somewhere on the tree or at the hardpoint mount for the rocket tree itself. I am stuck with no reference pictures so I guess I will have to use my own judgement and make it look as real as possible. I hope to get some bench time soon and get rolling on this baby agian.

                                                                                            Soulcrusher