1/48 Academy P-38J

[nickdanger]

Aloha from Hawaii,

Just getting started on a heavily loaded Lightning.

Doing the Academy kit. I've come to really like the Academy kits in terms of quality and price. Only complaint is the decals - brittle and just a touch too transparent, but for the money saved you can always pick up for aftermarket decals.

Speaking of aftermarket decals, I'll be using the leftovers a previous P-38 build from a couple years ago.

Here's the previous build btw:

I'll be building "St. Louis Blues" based out of the Philippines in 1944. I don't know if this plane ever carried the loadout that I'm planning (bombs and rockets) but going for it anyway.

BMF with Alclad is the plan, with panels set off in slightly different shades.

Cockpit pieces ready for preshade and chromate green

Painting begun

[Marlin]

Hi,

Nice start

/Bosse

[nickdanger]

Cockpit is painted and assembled, futured and oil washed

Dry fitting has begun

[Azgaron]

Very nice work so far Nick!

Cheers,

HÃ¥kan

[nickdanger]

Thanks for the kind words.

Here's some new WIP pictures.

I painted, futured and weathered the landing gear bays before installing them in the nacelles.

To make sure that I don't have a tail sitter I stuffed four nickels in each of the nacelles and secured it with poster putty. Adds quite a bit of weight - feels good a hefty now.

Few more seam lines to sand away and some rescribing, then I can start in with the Alclad.

[Azgaron]

Looking great Nick!

Cheers,

HÃ¥kan

[nickdanger]

Ahem. Somebody pointed out that I installed the yoke upside down.

Fixed now.

[nickdanger]

Major assembly is done

Not super happy with the fit of gun compartment hatches

Still need some rescribing on some panels

Academy made a couple weird engineering choices on the model that makes fit/panel finishing kinda tricky. I think I prefer Hasegawa's.

Edited March 28, 2010 by nickdanger

[HOLMES]

Its blooming GOOD....

[Azgaron]

Looking great so far Nick!

Cheers,

HÃ¥kan

[nickdanger]

Filled and sanded, masked and futured to prep for Alclad

In the paint booth

First coat

Duraluminum is the basecoat

I'll be doing different panels with various shades of Alclad. In this picture only the right aileron has been differentiated with semi-matte aluminum

[Azgaron]

Very nice paint job so far Nick!

Cheers,

HÃ¥kan

[nickdanger]

Alclad is done.

The masking took a while, but I like the results.

There are actually three different shades but two are pretty similar and they are hard to tell apart.

Next step, prep the fiddly bits

Edited April 4, 2010 by nickdanger

[Azgaron]

Looks great with different tones on the metal!

Cheers,

HÃ¥kan

[nickdanger]

Oh the fiddly bits. I did a quick count.

Cockpit + nacelles + wings + landing gear bays = ~35 parts

Everything else (propellers, spinners, landing gear, gear bay doors, tires, guns, rockets, rocket rails, bombs, pitot tube, elevator mass balancers, antennae, etc.) = ~60 parts. And all requiring paint and prep. It's like two more models!

BEFORE:

And yes, that is a LEGO Darth Vader head off the starboard wing.

AFTER:

I threw in half of a drop tank to make it easier to see the Alclad painted parts.

Closeup of the rockets:

[nickdanger]

Not a tail sitter! Whew. First test to make sure that I stuffed enough weight inside.

Started in with the decals

Painted on the anti-glare panels

Painted on the squadron markings as well

Few more decals to go.

[nickdanger]

So, I wasn't planning on doing the full complement of stencils but...

Since I was raiding a half used after market decal set, all of the stencils were gone, plus the Academy kit doesn't really have a full set of stencils - Sure it come with the fuel tank red circles and a few more, but not down to the "Oil Cooler Drain", "Jack Here", and "Fillet Jt." details.

And since I was in budget mode, no more after market goodies for this build.

Then I remembered some left overs form the more than 4 decade old Monogram kit that I've built a couple times. Even though the kit is old, it's fantastic with one of the most ridiculously detailed in-box decal sets I've ever seen:

I built a couple for my son (6 years old), and since he wants cool looking rather than correctly marked, I had plenty of leftovers:

So the current build is a combo of three different decal sets. There are still a few more to go, but I'm getting close. Rough count is about 50 decals in all.

The checkerboards come in three parts and require some patience:

[nickdanger]

Decalling is all done (finally) and saved the best for last:

The Sharkmouths were, not surprisingly the trickiest of the decals in terms of placement. The solvent still is doing it's magic in this picture.

You have to paint the front of the intakes red since the decals don't cover that section. I can't seem to get the exact right shade, but it's pretty close.

I think with a layer or three of Future, it'll look ok. On to weathering and final assembly.

[Ro-Gar Hobbies]

Really nice work, look forward to seeing it finished!

Robert

[nickdanger]

Thanks Robert.

Landing gear are on now

And I flattened everything with Vallejo varnish

I've done about as much weathering as I think is appropriate. I think flattening the whole plane was weathering in itself - the pictures I've seen of the South Pacific Lightnings look to me like the aluminum wasn't that shiny gloss that you see in BMF P-38's preserved today. That tropical sun took it's toll.

Some fuel stains on the caps, and of course the turbosuperchargers

Maybe add some dirt to the tires. Now just to add the ordnance, landing gear bay doors and other fiddly bits, canopy and rigging...

[nickdanger]

All done. Quite an enjoyable build.

I'll post some more pics in the completed thread.

Edited May 26, 2010 by nickdanger

[Neo]

Wow

Shes a real beauty good work

Cheers

Neo

[Ro-Gar Hobbies]

Your P-38 came out great, perfect finish and subtle weathering....Great job!!!!

Regards,

Robert