P-38 "Miss Virginia"

[P-38 guy]

This might help some. Will see if I can find some from the other side. **Edit found a couple more**

Mike

Edited May 6, 2008 by P-38 guy

[jrallman]

Awesome shots Mike, but they seem to throw a bit of a wrench into things. At least to me, those radios look alot more like SCR-522 than they do like SCR-274, yet they clearly have the V aerials. Maybe the V aerials or chin mast were not exclusive to the respective radios? Field mods?

[Randy Wise]

Hey John,

Thanks for sharing your info. You'll fit in very well here at ARC. It's a way of life on this site. Nice shots too Mike. They're keepers.

Randy

[John Clements]

Awesome shots Mike, but they seem to throw a bit of a wrench into things. At least to me, those radios look alot more like SCR-522 than they do like SCR-274, yet they clearly have the V aerials. Maybe the V aerials or chin mast were not exclusive to the respective radios? Field mods?

Mike and Jay,

Those are some great shots Mike!! I noticed they're all later model airplanes though, so it made me want to go back and look at all my resources to see what I could come up with. I didn't even get close to going through everything, and what I saw quite quickly was that all of the possible combinations got used! Then, what I tried to confine myself to was early airplanes that you could confirm (1) Type of radio gear and (2) Type of antenna used. What I saw a lot of was SCR-522 sets with both sets of antenna installed. I also saw a lot of SCR-274 sets with only the V antenna installed. (This combo was also found on a couple of well known later model airplanes, too.) I have to admit that I saw one example of a SCR-274 set with no visable V antenna (Dang it!!) I also saw one example of the 522 set that appeared not to have the mast antenna under the nose. (Dang it again!!) Airplanes that were in the South Pacific appeared to be pretty consistant though, and the 274 set didn't use the mast antenna and used the V antenna. In the context of Miss Virginia, I think this combo is what I'm going with.

Here's a picture of a P-38 in the bone yard on Guadalcanal. The radio rack set-up behind the guy in the cockpit is SCR-274. This pretty much locks it for me. I found the picture I was looking for that showed the V antenna in place in a 347th FG airplane, but it's a photo-copy copy and not an actual print. It won't show up well in a scan. I'm going to try and get a real print of this picture and post it when I do.

Photo from the Doug Canning Collection

John

Edited May 11, 2008 by John Clements

[P-38 guy]

Ok found the proper set up with SCR-274 and V antenna. These are 9th PRS a/c in the CBI.

Mike

Edited May 7, 2008 by P-38 guy

[jrallman]

Man, the amount of great info and photos you guys have put in this thread is fantastic! I suppose I better get to work scratch building the SCR-274 radio set up since the kits all come with the SCR-522. I am in the process of moving my modeling room, but when the cockpit is done, I will post some pics here as well as in the PACAIR forum.

[Chuck1945]

I keep waiting for more and trying to resist the tempation to convert this thread to a pdf file until it has run its course.

[jrallman]

Well, I think I have something workable here for the paint. Keep in mind this was just a proof of concept so the tape widths may not be correct and the panel lines have not been washed or anything, but generally I think it turned out about right. I went a bit heavy with the varnish stuff over the paint lines, but you can see the areas where I went lighter it looks really close to the pics of Miss Virginia, at least to my eye. As long as I don't slap it on too heavy I think it will turn out nice. I'd love to hear your opinions as well. Thanks!

[TausugAIR]

Well, I think I have something workable here for the paint. Keep in mind this was just a proof of concept so the tape widths may not be correct and the panel lines have not been washed or anything, but generally I think it turned out about right. I went a bit heavy with the varnish stuff over the paint lines, but you can see the areas where I went lighter it looks really close to the pics of Miss Virginia, at least to my eye. As long as I don't slap it on too heavy I think it will turn out nice. I'd love to hear your opinions as well. Thanks!

jrallman .. you've put the concept to work... a great approach worth emulating... looks like (from the forum photo of MV nose) the "tape" has the lightest of the three (/) shades) .. here's a screen shot of the model worked-on wing (in grayscale) next to the original forum photo of the MV nose......(or is it only my eyes not registering correct shade perception...I stand corrected by all means!)...

Love to know the steps you did to arrive at the simulation of the varnish and all.... Thanks

Regards....

Farouk

[jrallman]

I agree that the tape area appears the lightest in grayscale. I think once the paint is fully weathered, it will match the shading of the original. Remember, this is just paint, no other weathering or washing that I would normally do. If you look at the paint test I did next to the color photo of the wing further down, I think the shades match that photo pretty well. Here are the steps I took. 1 - paint the wing with standard unweathered OD. 2 - mask all the panel lines - burnish the tape, my first experiment the "varnish" layer got under the tape. 3 - repaint the area with faded and weathered OD - I used a base of faded OD with some overspray of brown, perhaps a bit more brown next time as well. 4 - use a paint brush to apply "varnish" over the tape lines. Varnish layer is Tamiya smoke with a wee bit of tamiya clear blue and clear green (straight tamiya smoke on the NG part of the plane) thinned pretty heavily. I need to either thin a bit more or just make sure I dont aply it too thick at one time on the real model to avoid some of the buildup along the tape lines. 5 - normally I would weather the paint more here before taking the tape off, since the real plane looks pretty weathered, but i wanted to see how the paint shades turned out, so I took the tape off at this step. All in all, I think once I add the rest of the weathering and a wash that it will match the original plane pretty well. I may do another test shot with more weathering just to try it out. Thanks!

[John Clements]

I agree that the tape area appears the lightest in grayscale. I think once the paint is fully weathered, it will match the shading of the original. Remember, this is just paint, no other weathering or washing that I would normally do. If you look at the paint test I did next to the color photo of the wing further down, I think the shades match that photo pretty well. Here are the steps I took. 1 - paint the wing with standard unweathered OD. 2 - mask all the panel lines - burnish the tape, my first experiment the "varnish" layer got under the tape. 3 - repaint the area with faded and weathered OD - I used a base of faded OD with some overspray of brown, perhaps a bit more brown next time as well. 4 - use a paint brush to apply "varnish" over the tape lines. Varnish layer is Tamiya smoke with a wee bit of tamiya clear blue and clear green (straight tamiya smoke on the NG part of the plane) thinned pretty heavily. I need to either thin a bit more or just make sure I dont aply it too thick at one time on the real model to avoid some of the buildup along the tape lines. 5 - normally I would weather the paint more here before taking the tape off, since the real plane looks pretty weathered, but i wanted to see how the paint shades turned out, so I took the tape off at this step. All in all, I think once I add the rest of the weathering and a wash that it will match the original plane pretty well. I may do another test shot with more weathering just to try it out. Thanks!

Jay:

Looking forward to seeing your finished model. I really like the effect you're getting.

I was able to contact Jim Lansdale and get copies of the pictures I wanted, along with the permission to use them. The photo credits belong to NARA for the first two plus plus blow-ups, and LRA/Petit Family for the last one.

The first shot is of "Miss Virginia" and the antenna wire is visable!

The next is a blow-up with the antenna wire indicated.

The next shot is of a 347th airplane, and the wire insulator slightly above the rear canopy is visable.

Next is a blow-up showing the insulator sillouetted against the tail of the B-17.

Here's a close-up of the kill marks on the left side of the nose of "Miss Virginia".

This whole thing has really inspired me to finally get to work on my model of "Miss Virginia". I'll be building the Trumeter 1/32nd kit with home made decals. Will really be going to town on this one; gotta use all of that P-38 reference material I've been collecting for all of these (30+) years. I think it's time!!!

John

[Chuck1945]

Page 1 of this discussion successfully converted to pdf format. If you have the ability, it is a really neat way to keep all the discussion with the photos.

John, that last set of pictures was quite interesting to me, not only for 'Miss Virginia', but also for the B-26 behind the parked P-38. Any info on it? It appears to be an early, short tail model with possibly a modified rear gunner's position. Presumably it is also the short wingspan. I dont think any later models with the tall tail and extended wings made it to the SWP.

[John Clements]

Page 1 of this discussion successfully converted to pdf format. If you have the ability, it is a really neat way to keep all the discussion with the photos.

John, that last set of pictures was quite interesting to me, not only for 'Miss Virginia', but also for the B-26 behind the parked P-38. Any info on it? It appears to be an early, short tail model with possibly a modified rear gunner's position. Presumably it is also the short wingspan. I dont think any later models with the tall tail and extended wings made it to the SWP.

Hi Chuck:

When I first saw that picture, I thought that was pretty interesting too. I'm sorry I don't have any other information on this one. I know it's from somewhere in theatre, but that's about all.

John

[Steve N]

Here's the entire pic as it appears in Dana Bell's "Air Force Colors, Vol. 3," along with the caption. Nothing about the P-38 or Marauders, unfortunately.

SN

[jrallman]

Thanks guys for the comments, and thanks again for all the wonderful references! I am quite excited about this build now.

[Chuck1945]

Here's the entire pic as it appears in Dana Bell's "Air Force Colors, Vol. 3," along with the caption. Nothing about the P-38 or Marauders, unfortunately.

SN

[photo not included to save bandwidth]

Thanks Steve. If the caption is correct, then they are probably B-26s enroute to Australia and the 22BG.

[jmclaugh]

Thanks guys for the comments, and thanks again for all the wonderful references! I am quite excited about this build now.

May I point out, too, that the upper aileron line is a piano hinge?

Thanks,

Jim

[TausugAIR]

I agree that the tape area appears the lightest in grayscale. I think once the paint is fully weathered, it will match the shading of the original. Remember, this is just paint, no other weathering or washing that I would normally do. If you look at the paint test I did next to the color photo of the wing further down, I think the shades match that photo pretty well. Here are the steps I took. 1 - paint the wing with standard unweathered OD. 2 - mask all the panel lines - burnish the tape, my first experiment the "varnish" layer got under the tape. 3 - repaint the area with faded and weathered OD - I used a base of faded OD with some overspray of brown, perhaps a bit more brown next time as well. 4 - use a paint brush to apply "varnish" over the tape lines. Varnish layer is Tamiya smoke with a wee bit of tamiya clear blue and clear green (straight tamiya smoke on the NG part of the plane) thinned pretty heavily. I need to either thin a bit more or just make sure I dont aply it too thick at one time on the real model to avoid some of the buildup along the tape lines. 5 - normally I would weather the paint more here before taking the tape off, since the real plane looks pretty weathered, but i wanted to see how the paint shades turned out, so I took the tape off at this step. All in all, I think once I add the rest of the weathering and a wash that it will match the original plane pretty well. I may do another test shot with more weathering just to try it out. Thanks!

jrallman ... sorry for the late acknowledgement... just had a computer problem.... anyway, thanks for the reply and the the educational guide on the P-38 "UNINTENTIONAL CAMOUFLAGE" .... At the moment I'm doing the decal artwork of Miss Virginia (for home-printing of the decal) before doing the actual building of the kit.. Your above pointer (which I kept on file) will be of great guide and reference...... Thanks....

[jrallman]

No problem. I haven't made any progress on my kit yet as I have been side tracked by house work, mainly moving my modeling room, planting stuff, and repainting the house. I hope I can get back to the build in a week or so, as long as SWMBO doesn't decide there are more house projects to do.

[Bill D.]

bump

[jrallman]

nothin new, any progress will be posted in the PACAIR forum.