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1/32 Trumpeter P-38L Lightning- "Kicked Up A Notch"


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Chuck,

The engine intakes aren't a single screen that goes across the three intake openings, but rather the outside intakes are separate screens, while the few pictures I have of the middle intake has no screen. I'm not totally convinced that there shouldn't be a protective screen there.

Joel

Thanks Joel. I guess that's the beauty of this being a restored bird. Accuracy isn't as important as usual and I kind of like the screening all the way across.

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Chuck,

the more I looked at that picture, and others similar to it, it actually seems as though the middle intake is set further back then the two outside ones.

I do see your point that one large screen does look good in a reduced 1/32 scale, and it's a very minor point. On my 1/48 scale build, I left them as is, since you can hardly see them as they're recessed so far back.

Joel

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Hi Chuck,

The freedom of a restored/what-if bird will be a nice break form your normal builds of extreme accuracy and super detail, not that this will be any less detailed.

I'm really looking forward to this build and your step by step approach will help others in their builds, I for one will be putting a P38 on to the construction line in the next few months

James

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Chuck, good luck with this build! Looks like you got stuck straight into the thick of things, must say heat-treating that trailing edge is pretty gutsy.

I like that you're giving yourself a little more leeway here and there, something I should also do.

:thumbsup:

Marcel

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Another great start mate!

If I canone suggestion:the landing gear from SAC are cast in white metal,right? If so,a tip from my time as professional figure painter: when working on medieval knight in white metal,the best way to realize a plate armour was to refine the pieces frome seam lines and other cast residue,with a brass brush on a minidrill polish all the model;in this way you obtain an highly polished shiny metal that can work for the landing gear oleo...

I'm waiting for more update!

Gianni

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Thanks guys. I must admit the leeway of not doing everything super duper accurate is very appealing for a change. As mentioned, it's giving me a break and allows me to concentrate on what I like rather than what I need to add to the build to make it as accurate as possible.

Another great start mate!

If I canone suggestion:the landing gear from SAC are cast in white metal,right? If so,a tip from my time as professional figure painter: when working on medieval knight in white metal,the best way to realize a plate armour was to refine the pieces frome seam lines and other cast residue,with a brass brush on a minidrill polish all the model;in this way you obtain an highly polished shiny metal that can work for the landing gear oleo...

I'm waiting for more update!

Gianni

Hi Gianni,

Thanks for the tip. The landing gear on my A-10 was worse than the SAC set I now have and looked like this out of the box.

Gear1.jpg

After turning them in a Dremel tool and cleaning them up...

Gear3.jpg

They looked like this with some help from Eduard PE. Ha, it appears I took that pic almost a year ago!

Gear16.jpg

For this build, I'm going to do something similar, but also use some of the kit plastic. Stay tuned!

Edited by chuck540z3
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OK guys, I have a question. What is the "normal" length for the oleo's on the landing gear? Here's a pic of the SAC metal main landing gear and kit parts. The SAC oleo looks way too long to me- and the scissor link is a mess. I think I'll be using the Eduard scissor links instead on the kit parts.

LandingGear1.jpg

Now the front gear. The kit oleo now is way too short...

LandingGear2.jpg

Here's a link of a restored P-38J to show you what at least one P-38 looks like:

P-38J-LO (44-23314)

Looking at many other photographs, the front oleo appears to be on the long side most of the time, but not all the time, so I might go with the SAC nose gear in this case. Thanks for any input you can provide. Remember, this is a "restored bird", so the oleo length might be just hydraulic pressure being reduced due to the aircraft sitting all the time.

Chuck

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With a full load of ammo and fuel the a/c would sit lower and thus the oleos would be down. Also oleos normally use air pressure.

Jari

Except, most of the museum P-38's are darn near empty and they have the shortest oleo lengths.

Edited by chuck540z3
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Except, most of the museum P-38's are darn near empty and they have the shortest oleo lengths.

Which means the air pressure in the system was most likely drained since it was high pressure and they don't want things to get loud, if you have ever accidently hit the pressure relief valve on an air compressor you'll know what i mean.

Jari

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Thanks guys.

It looks like my pic of the Red Bull P-38 answers my own question: I'm going with kit parts all the way. This P-38 was flying that day and the day before, so the shorter oleo lengths are not due to the aircraft sitting too long. The kit front oleo is still too short, but I really don't like the super long look of the SAC gear and the clean up required on the rough metal is substantial.

Red_Bull_P38.jpg

To strengthen the main gear for additional weight, I carefully drilled holes both top and bottom so the holes almost touched....

LandingGear3.jpg

Then inserted a pin both top and bottom after cutting off the top sphere. The pins were coated in slow setting CA glue, so that I could get the pin totally inside the leg before the glue set. Using glue for the whole length of the pin is really important I think, because the glue fills the gaps and won't allow the pin to slide, forming a very solid core.

LandingGear4.jpg

The deep pins marks were then filled with liquid sprue (on left vs. right), which works better than putty that might pop out or shrink. In a few days I can sand the leg smooth when the LS has hardened enough. You can see the pins inside the square cutout on the bottom of each leg.

LandingGear5.jpg

Not a big update admittedly, but I think an important decision on landing gear has been made. I'm a bit relieved, because the SAC gear is really poorly cast and VERY soft, so it is easily damaged.

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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I built that model a few years ago and I added weight everywhere I could. Even with weight in the engines you'll still need a good amount in the nose. I think if you didn't get weight in the engines you'd never get 60 grams of anything in the nose, it's not a big space.

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Chuck I looked thru the manual and found some landing gear info:

Main struts: 2.5” with full load 3” with light load - pg 77 of file pg 121 of the manual

Front strut: 4” - the rest is continued on pg 126 which is missing so I don’t know if the 4” is max or min see pg 81 of file pg 125 of manual. Also the gear struts were both pneumatic and hydraulic.

Jari

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Chuck

My name is Ernie and I've been following your builds . Your work with so so kits is amazing!! You have ensipired me with a lot of new tips for improving my building skills! Right now I'm following Mustang build ,I go to the Reno Air Races every year and my Tamiya P-51 wil be modeled after Merlins Magic!! Your current build of the Trumpeter kit I will be following with great interest.I'm also a big fan of the P-38 Lighting! Here is a link that might be helpful with your build!!!

http://mikeashey.com/AIRCRAFT%20ARTICLE%20%20PDF%20FILES/PROJECT-BUILDING-THE-TRUMPETER-P-38-LIGHTNING.pdf

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Chuck,

I really need to remember your pin procedure, as it will come in handy on some of the bigger 1/48 builds as a viable option rather then AM metal gear, which as you know is a lot of work to bring up to standards

Joel

Edited by Joel_W
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December 8/14

Thank you Gents!

Finally another update. What you are about to see doesn’t look like much, but it took me a LOT of time!

As shown above, the scissor links on the landing gear are just plain wrong, so I decided to go with the Eduard replacements. This brings up another tip for those who don’t yet have one: Get a Photo-etch brass folding tool! This particular model is the “Hold and Fold” from the Small Shop, but there are a few others that I’m sure are just as good. Sure, you can use a variety of other methods to properly fold PE brass, but for complex pieces like these little scissor links, nothing beats it for precision and ease of use.

Geardetails1.jpg

Unfortunately, the Eduard links are not very realistic either and are far too wide. Here’s a pic of them on the left, the kit ones on top of the gear leg and the SAC metal link on the right. Pics of the real scissor link on the P-38 reveal that it’s a chunky little devil with no “cutouts”, which is quite different than the Mustang. The SAC link looks the most accurate, but it’s a mess, it opens too wide and has that cord-like rope on the top.

Geardetails2.jpg

Scratch-building something better didn’t really seem like an option, so I decided to bite the bullet and clean up the SAC links, then drill holes in them where there are hinges. Here’s a cleaned up one on the right vs. the original on the left.

Geardetails3.jpg

I used small pieces of drill bits as the central bolt for each hinge. Looking at the top of the SAC link, I now believe that “rope” is supposed to be the brake line that drapes over the scissor link. Note that it has a fitting on the end of it on the left. Whatever it is, nice try….

Geardetails4.jpg

To clean up the scissor links I used a variety of tools like a Dremel tool with a burr bit, metal files and sanding sticks. I’m guessing this represents about 4-5 hours of steady work. Not exactly perfect, but it beats the crap out of the kit parts.

Geardetails5.jpg

To attach the link to the leg, I had to cut off some of the bottom “link fork”, then created a similar fork for the top. These forks fit over the drill bit bolts I created and then I applied a liberal amount of CA glue to the bottom of each join so that it can’t be seen from the top.

Geardetails6.jpg

Here’s how they look attached to the legs. I also drilled small holes at each landing gear brace junction to replicate what I see in pics. I’ll add the brake lines to the gear legs after painting.

Geardetails7.jpg

Geardetails8.jpg

The front gear was also very challenging. Besides being a complex jig-saw puzzle of many tiny parts, there were seam lines everywhere and many gaps to fill, but the Eduard scissor link was perfect and looks the part. One key characteristic of the front leg is the hydraulic reservoir tank thingy with two prominent stainless steel hydraulic lines that form loops in the front- and there are piston like rods along the sides of the leg that are attached to the top join assembly by hangers. The part that is supposed to replicate this is very crude and was cut off at the front, as shown on the bottom, as were the rods in the back, leaving the central cylinder. I then glued on rod styrene, drilled out in the middle and then drilled holes in the back of the side cylinders and the base of the tank. Nickel wire was then used for the hydraulic lines and more drill bits for the rear rods. To replicate rod hangers, I glued on bits of brass from the stash that I also drilled out to hold the rear of the rod on each side. The wire and rods are only dry fitted and will be removed before painting, to retain their natural metallic color.

Geardetails9.jpg

Geardetails10.jpg

Edited by chuck540z3
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