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


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Feb 5/15

A bit of an update finally. After a month since my foot surgery I can finally sit at my workbench for a few hours without my foot swelling up like a watermelon! A few more weeks and I should be back to normal, whatever that is.

This update is not very exciting, but the work involved is extensive and I think very important to the final product. Before I show anything, I think I’ve decided that since this P-38L doesn’t really exist today anyway, I’m going to paint it the way I want it and I’ll put whatever nose art I want on it, with the end goal of making it look as pretty as possible. One real Lightning survivor that looks really nice to my eye is “Marge”, that has a combination of painted aluminum, extra shiny almost chrome-like polished aluminum and bright red accents on the prop spinner, tail and wings. What I like about this bird, other than the color scheme, is that it’s not all polished aluminum and the contrast with painted aluminum is both eye catching, but more realistic looking than if it looked like the Red Bull Lightning, which is all chrome- even the props. There’s a good link to some pics of Marge here so you can see what I mean:

http://www.kazoku.org/xp-38n/walkaround/oshkosh_eaa/index.htm

With the engine and landing gear assemblies almost complete, it’s time to finish off the fuselage booms before I glue everything together. One curious feature of the P-38 and this kit, is the circular clear parts on the inside of each nacelle where there is a mirror-like panel to help the pilot see that the nose landing gear is up or down. In almost every picture I can find of the P-38, it shows that this panel is oval shaped, but I did find a couple where it could be circular, which is maybe why Trumpeter molded it that way. Why they made it out of clear plastic is a mystery, but I suppose a guy could paint the inside of the circle in chrome to get a real shiny finish on the outside. Unfortunately, these little clear discs do not fit the openings very well and you need to sand both the outsides and top to get them to fit flush. Unaltered, they fit like the one on the left.

Boombits1.jpg

With a little work sanding them down, they fit pretty good.

Boombits2.jpg

This picture doesn’t show it very well, but the application of Bare Metal Foil in “Ultra Chrome” to the panels looks the part. Now that I’ve got them to fit properly, I will leave them off until I paint the rest of the fuselage so that I don’t need to mask them off. Further, if I don’t like the look against the new Alclad finish, I can still change the color accordingly.

Boombits3.jpg

The P-38 has a lot of scoops and radiators, with two prominent ones on either side of each boom. Here’s the kit parts for one side. Like most of the model, the panel lines and rivets are not consistent, with some quite deep while others hardly show. There’s also lots of pin marks that you would be able to see if you peaked inside the intake.

Boombits4.jpg

The first order of business is to get the intake assembled with no pin marks or seam line. I filled the pin marks with CA glue and sanded them off, because in my experience with putty in a circular pin mark, the putty sometimes pops out later. For the interior seam line, I added extra plastic cement to the join and really squeezed the parts together, allowing the instant “liquid sprue” to ooze out and form a fill to the line. After it dried for a day or two, I sanded the inside and the seam line disappeared for the most part, with more CA glue used to fill any remaining gaps.

Boombits5.jpg

The 3 pieces of the exterior radiator cowling need some work to get them to fit better, but they also need the base sanded down quite a bit to fit into the recess on the fuselage boom. Here I’ve just started to sand the parts and rescribe panel lines and rivet detail.

Boombits6.jpg

Here it is dry-fitted to the boom after the above work and the addition of some nice Eduard PE for the radiator door at the rear. The rear of the shroud doesn’t look like it fits very well at the rear, but once it is glued in that panel line gap will shrink in size. I glued the radiator door in the wide open position, which is not typical but I thought it looked more interesting to see the side flaps of the door which I've seen in a few pics. Note that you can also see under the intake, where there is a clear gap between it and the fuselage. Amongst other areas, this area needs to be painted first before gluing the cowling in.

Boombits7.jpg

At the rear of the radiator cowling is a raised panel that is separate from the main fuselage, as supplied in the Eduard kit. With some bending to conform to the fuselage surface it looks quite good, but the two thin braces behind it will never hold enough CA glue to keep it securely in place, so added a bit of styrene between the braces to serve as an anchor point for glue that you will never see.

Boombits10.jpg

Before the radiator cowling is glued into place, I painted some of the interior detail with Alclad Aluminum after a primer coat of Gloss Black Krylon lacquer, because it’s almost impossible to spray paint smoothly in an enclosed space due to air turbulence. Note that I left a rectangular bit of bare plastic for the styrene part above it to adhere to.

Boombits11.jpg

Still dry fitted, this is how it looks when placed on the fuselage.

Boombits12.jpg

Edited by chuck540z3
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And with the radiator cowling in place. None of this will be glued until I get the fuselage halves glued together, for ease of handling and to avoid damage to the Eduard PE parts.

Boombits14.jpg

The interior of the rad cowlings were also painted in aluminum, including the interior of the front intake and the swinging door which has more Eduard PE detail for the actuator rod to attach to. The brass screens were painted in Alclad Steel to make them stand out.

Boombits13.jpg

A look at the screens from the front.

Boombits8.jpg

And although you can hardly see it, the interior of the intake is pin mark and seam line free.

Boombits9.jpg

The turbo/supercharger intakes are fairly crude with huge rivet marks at the front that should not be there, but the seam line where they glue together should remain as it does on the real deal.

Boombits15A.jpg

With the rivet marks and the front of the seam line filled around the intake collar, I painted them in Alclad Chrome to see what it would look like to replicate the polished aluminum of Marge. Pretty close. Note that I also added some small brass tubing to the sides where there is a vent of some kind. I will be adding some tiny rivet detail to the seam line because looks like a bad glue job where I screwed up and left a seam line where there shouldn’t be one. With rivets, people will know that this panel line exists and they are on the real deal anyway. I know, I know, I shouldn’t worry about what people might think of my models, but I worry about everything!

Boombits15.jpg

For my next update, I should have the fuselage booms glued together and then I can get after the nose gear well and cockpit. Thanks for your interest in this build!

Edited by chuck540z3
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Great to have you back Chuck!! glad to hear your foot is doing better and you're back on the saddle!! nice update, I really like how you take care of small details which at the end add up and make those outstanding models you show us!

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Glad to have you back, chuck!

See, I got used to read your previous works in a row, as they were already finished. Now, I´m having a hard time getting used to your rithm :rolleyes: Nevertheless, I´ll follow you ´till the end without complains (Maybe a few, here an then)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Feb 17/15

Thanks guys!

As you know I want to build a so-called restored P-38L Lightning, but for the subjects I have decals for (at 20 aircraft), it will wind up to be a “whatif”. I’m not a real big whatif fan and one restored P-38 that really catches my eye is “Marge”, which is a P-38J, 44-53236, that has been beautifully restored to replicate Richard Bong’s own aircraft in which, along with other P-38’s he flew, he shot down at least 40 Japanese aircraft. This aircraft is housed at the EAA Museum in Oshkosh, WI and you can see some great pics of it here:

http://www.kazoku.org/xp-38n/walkaround/oshkosh_eaa/index.htm

What I really like about this P-38 is the contrasting polished aluminum and painted aluminum along with bright red accents. Decals, however, were a problem because the only ones I could find on the ‘net were out of production. Well it turns out they are still available as “PYN- up” decals from The Fine Art of Decals owned by Dave Klaus of “Cutting Edge” fame. Who knew!

http://www.fineartofdecals.com/goodies/bodos-p-38j-marge-model/

So I bought the decals and I now have a subject that really exists! I will try to match this aircraft as much as possible, but I’m not going to worry about tiny details like “J” vs. “L” differences since the kit is an L.

Now a real update. I have spent a LOT of time tweaking and assembling the fuselage booms, re-punching every rivet hole and re-scribing every panel line. I’ve also added more rivets and panel lines, so I’ll let the following pics tell the story rather than point out every one. In these pics you’ll notice that I have given everything a wash of Tamiya panel line accent color in black. I find that this not only shows the panel lines and rivets better, but it also picks up a lot of build flaws that you won’t likely see until the first coat of paint, like sanding scratches, missed panel lines and glued seams that still show a gap. At this stage, it’s a lot easier to fix, so I now use a wash on every part before I commit to painting.

I mentioned above that the side radiator housings would fit just fine after I glued them down. Wrong. For some reason they would not sit down at the rear no matter how much I pushed them into the recesses, until I finally figured out the culprit. It turns out the brass radiator screens were getting in the way, even though I was very careful to glue them in as centered as possible. The fix, thankfully, was pretty simple. Using a Dremel tool and grinding bit, I filed down the areas of the screening that were high, preventing the housing from fitting flush to the sides of the booms. While I was at it, I added struts to open and close the doors. The Eduard instructions would have you glue them to the rear of the Eduard face plate, but that is way too far forward and reference pics show that the strut should be attached almost at the radiator screening. This is easy to do while the housing is off, but very hard when cemented into place, so I glued some pins in place as shown below.

Boomdetails1.jpg

As shown earlier the turbo/supercharger inlets are fairly crude with huge rivets around the front that are way too big and deep.

Boombits15A.jpg

I removed the rivet depressions and initially painted them in Alclad chrome, but now that I’m building Marge, they should be in painted aluminum. Here they are repainted along with the inlets under the spinner, which should both be painted off the model so that you can get smooth coverage without airbrush turbulence.

Boomdetails2.jpg

The bullet shaped inlets have some subtle rivet detail along the central seam and around the front collar, so I used some very small Archer raised rivets to replicate same, even though they aren’t really raised. From a few inches away, however, they look the part, along with some brass tubing I used for the side vents.

Boomdetails3.jpg

As indicated earlier the engines sit way too low in the nacelles, so I used pins to make them sit higher. Here I have glued in the engines a bit too high on purpose.

Boomdetails4.jpg

This is because the entire spinner is a bit too big, which also makes it too wide. Note the rivet detail is also wobbly and way too deep.

Boomdetails5.jpg

By sanding the spinners down, they are flush with the top and sides, while the crude rivet detail is removed and replaced with finer rivets using a needle in a pin vice. This spinner still needs a bit more sanding, but you get the idea.....

Boomdetails6.jpg

I made the turbo inlets to fit very snugly into the sides so that glue is not required. That way they can be placed on the model at the very end of the build without getting in the way of painting the booms.

Boomdetails7.jpg

Another part that should be left off the model is the side mirrors which I sanded down to fit the opening and covered with bare metal foil. I don’t think I’ll stay with the foil because it’s a bit rough and I will likely paint them later in chrome. Note the front grill inlet has been cemented into place then the edges sanded down to fit flush. This part is a bit wide and there are noticeable overhangs if you don’t.

Boomdetails8.jpg

The central seams were filled with CA glue and sanded down. You can still see them here because the glue is clear, but the black wash tells me that other than the very front on the left, all is well. A little more CA glue will fix that. This pic also shows the Eduard PE I used to replace the side vents which were cut out and for the screening on the bottom vent.

Boomdetails9.jpg

Edited by chuck540z3
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At the end of the build, I will also be adding the Eduard door which has been painted in aluminum to match Marge.

Boomdetails10.jpg

This pic shows the bottom of the gear bay. Even after lots of trimming and dry fitting, there is still a bow to the gear bay to fuselage sides and the ends of the gear bay have fairly large gaps. The sides were glued from behind with lots of CA glue oozed down the sides, while the ends were filled with more CA glue then painted interior green. Here you can see the gear door struts are very much in the way, so I highly recommend that you glue them in much later when you attach the gear doors.

Boomdetails11.jpg

As mentioned much earlier, the radiator cowling assemblies sit very high within their recesses on the booms, so they should be sanded from below in order to get a flush fit.

Boomdetails12.jpg

The rivet and panel line detail at the rear of the booms is weak, so I deepened everything. It looks very harsh in these pics with the dark wash, but it will be toned down with the BMF finish later. The rear rudders do not fit very well, so I recommend you dry fit them and sand them before assembly so that they will move freely.

Boomdetails13.jpg

As shown earlier, the radiator cowlings were painted and detailed on the inside before cementing them onto the booms.

Boomdetails14.jpg

Not all seam lines need to be removed, however. The one at the back is real, while the one between the rad cowlings should be eliminated. Some of the panel lines match fairly well at the seam while some are offset, so you need to fill them in and re-scribe at least half of them.

Boomdetails15.jpg

The top is identical. Make sure you fill that deep groove in the back because you can see it when the rudders are offset slightly.

Boomdetails16.jpg

The seam line at the top on the front should stay, where it forms the join between the engine cowling panels. All Dzus fasteners were enlarged and deepened with a Mega Tool punch. Here you can also see where I slopped on thick CA glue to the gear wells to make them strong from behind.

Boomdetails17.jpg

And finally a pic of the front. This pic also shows how smooth and shiny the plastic is due to sanding. This will make a terrific base for Alclad without any roughness coming from behind.

Boomdetails18.jpg

With the fuselage booms done and out of the way, I can now turn my attention to the nose gear well and cockpit. Just looking at the Cutting Edge resin cockpit I’m going to use, I have a LOT of work ahead of me!

Thanks for checking in,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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Lovely work as always Chuck with your signature fastidious attention to detail. I notice from the photographs that Marge has aluminium wheel wells whereas you had painted yours in green before deciding to replicate this particular airframe. I would assume that at this stage you intend to leave them that way now and claim a little artistic licence.

Keep up the good work. It is inspirational.

Derek

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Thanks guys for the kind words!

Lovely work as always Chuck with your signature fastidious attention to detail. I notice from the photographs that Marge has aluminium wheel wells whereas you had painted yours in green before deciding to replicate this particular airframe. I would assume that at this stage you intend to leave them that way now and claim a little artistic licence.

Keep up the good work. It is inspirational.

Derek

Thanks Derek. No, I'm going to be sticking with the green wheel wells and I'll probably do a few other things that are not accurate for "Marge". I prefer the color contrast and to tell you the truth, Marge has been painted and re-painted so many times nothing is really "accurate" anyway. I'm going to go with what I think looks good first, followed by accuracy second.

Here's a build tip that you guys might be interested in. It's not for everyone, but this stuff was all new to me only 2 years ago.

Gluing Together Two Large Parts Seamlessly

Ever apply glue to a large wing or fuselage half and by the time you’ve glued all around, the beginning is already dry? Frustrating, isn’t it, which makes you apply glue even faster and likely make a bit of a mess during your rush. To add to the stress, this is usually when your wife walks in to talk or the phone rings as beads of sweat drip down your face. :bandhead2:/> Well, I found a better solution that I learned awhile back from a source that escapes me right now, but I’d like to pass it on for those who might not be aware of it. I used it on these P-38 fuselage booms and even though the fit is fairly crude, the results look pretty good if I do say so myself. I first used this method on my Mustang build, so I’ll recycle the same pics if you don’t mind. Here’s the drill:

1. Make sure both halves are clean of flash and other high spots, then dry fit to make sure every mating surface is flush. This is usually not a big deal, but on Trumpeter kits, especially the A-10, the mating surfaces can be very crude and this step can be a lot of work.

2. Using Tamiya Extra Thin Cement, cement both sides of the parts for about 1 ½” then squeeze them together using masking tape. Don’t worry about glue oozing out, because that gooey mixture is now your friend in the form of liquid sprue and don’t worry about glue getting under the tape and making a bit of a mess. You have a lot of sanding ahead of you anyway.

3. With a used #11 knife blade, spread the parts until you can see where the glue ends and about 1 to 2” of unglued plastic is exposed.

Closewing3.jpg

4. Use the very thin Tamiya glue brush between the parts to insert more glue where the glue was spread apart, then along another 1” to 1 ½” of unglued plastic. Squeeze this portion together and apply more masking tape to keep it together. Again, don’t worry about any glue mess. You’re better off having too much glue than too little.

Closewing4.jpg

5. Repeat #3 and #4, until the entire wing, fuselage or other big part is fully glued together.

Closewing5.jpg

6. After about 20 minutes, remove the masking tape and let the seam dry for at least 2 days. The seam will be rough with glue and oozing plastic.

Closewing6.jpg

7. Sand down the seam until it is smooth. Most of the gap between the parts will be removed, but not all.

8. Using thin CA glue, apply a bead to the seam line everywhere, about 6 inches at a time. There are gaps you can see and gaps you can’t see, so just assume they are everywhere.

9. Let the CA glue dry for about 20 minutes and if it hasn’t dried already, apply some CA glue accelerator. Don’t apply accelerator right away because it will make the CA glue bubble up as the outside dries and the inside is still wet, which creates bubble pockets. After 20 minutes or so, you should be safe to apply the accelerator.

10. Sand the CA glue down immediately, starting with 400-600 grit sandpaper, finished off with 1000-1500 grit. If you let the glue dry for too long, it becomes harder than the plastic and sanding is very difficult.

11. Re-scribe panel lines and re-punch lost rivet detail while the CA glue is soft.

12. Apply a dark wash to the seam line to make sure it’s all gone. If not, apply more CA glue and repeat.

Now some examples from my A-10 build. Here is the bottom where you can see the old seam line which has now been filled with CA glue and rough depressions that were filled with putty. Unfortunately this sanding also removes the raised rivet detail, so I used more Archer decal rivets to replace same and then rescribed the panel lines across the seam.

RearRivets5.jpg

After a dark wash, the seam appears to be gone.

Preshade13.jpg

Confirmed by a coat of paint.

DSC_16222Small.jpg

Hope this helps!

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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Feb 24/15

Thank you Gentlemen!

With the fuselage booms pretty much done, it’s now time to turn my attention to the front landing gear well and the cockpit. The kit cockpit isn’t as horrible as many Trumpeter offerings, but if you want some nice detail, the old Cutting Edge resin set is a nice alternative. This kit isn’t as awesome as the CE A-10 cockpit kit I used recently, which I would give a 9.5/10 for accuracy. This is more of a 7.5/10, which means that some parts are quite good while others are only so-so. Here’s a pic of what you get in the box.

CockpitBegin1.jpg

Getting most of the parts off their resin bases was not much of a problem, but cutting the rear deck behind the seat off the resin block was a real bear, especially since the part needs to be shaved down at the bottom in order to fit the cockpit properly at the rear. Here’s a couple of warnings if you use this kit:

1) The instructions are essentially non-existent. They just tell you to substitute the resin parts for the kit parts and to follow the kit instructions and there are “no surprises”. Well, there are quite a few surprises, including a couple of parts that I could not find in the cockpit instructions. It turns out that 2 of them are used many pages later for the gun sight and an instrument on the canopy, while I have yet to find a location for a V-shaped rod.

2) The resin part at the rear has a notch that you can cut out to match the kit part, which is where the backboard (with head cushion) attaches. Unfortunately the resin backboard does not have a tab at the bottom to insert into this notch, so you either have to use the kit backboard instead or re-fill the notch- another unnecessary surprise. I decided to re-fill the notch because I’m not going to use the backboard at all. In a review of many restored or surviving P-38’s, almost none of them have this backboard anymore and I want to display the instruments behind the seat unobstructed.

3) The resin instrument panel is not better than the kit offering, although there are challenges with the kit parts as shown below. On the left is the resin IP, while on the right is the kit parts. The resin is not cast very well and the instruments behind the bezels are very crude. For some reason, the kit IP is made of CLEAR plastic and has NINE pin marks, all on the FRONT! Why!? There is no reason for this part to be cast in difficult to work with hard clear plastic and why aren’t the pin marks on the back where they belong? Here you can still see some of the flash at the top of the IP, which is on every pin mark.

CockpitBegin2.jpg

Carefully cutting off the flash with a knife, I then inserted some CA glue into every pin mark and carefully sanded it down before it got too hard. This is difficult to do without scratching up the IP bezels and it takes a long time. Here’s how it looks after filling the 9 pin marks, with one of them barely visible on the far right.

CockpitBegin3.jpg

Fortunately after a coat of black paint, the pin marks have vanished, or at least enough that you don’t notice them anymore.

CockpitBegin7.jpg

Although the IP should be flat black, I don’t use flat black in my cockpits anymore and use Gloss Black Lacquer instead for the following reasons:

1) Lacquer paint is much finer than enamels (or acrylics) and it won’t fill in any delicate cockpit detail.

2) The Gloss paint is ready for tiny IP decals without the need of a Future coat

3) The lacquer is the perfect base for Alclad, since many of the instruments will be painted in aluminum

4) The shine will be knocked down with dull coat later to achieve flat black.

5) I also like the “shadow effect” of painting black on everything, so that I can direct the subsequent green and metallic colors from above, leaving a black shadow on the bottom. Here you can see the other parts painted in black, other than the landing gear side walls. The seat was painted black first, then green. I also painted the kit acetate on the rear with phosphorescence yellow/green to make the instrument detail “pop”, a trick I learned from Roy Sutherland in his terrific Barracuda resin instrument panel for the P-51D.

CockpitBegin4.jpg

It’s tough to see in this pic, but there is a bit of shadow on the seat back and the rivet holes remain black. The seatbelts are from HGW Models I also used for my P-51D build, which appear to be very close if not identical to those used on the P-38. As a restored bird, I don’t really care if they are accurate or not and they are way better than the kit or Cutting Edge offerings which are made of vinyl and impossible to cut without making a mess.

CockpitBegin5.jpg

A close up of the HGW belts. Really nice detail and VERY hard to put together, but they are worth it! I think the HGW instructions might be wrong for the ends of the shoulder harness, which had the tabs at the bottom in the up position rather than down, which I found to be true in looking at reference photos of the real deal. Swapping the left for the right fixes that possible error.

CockpitBegin6.jpg

Next up will be masking off various areas of the cockpit and spraying both Alclad and Interior Green paint, which also takes a long time to do it right, followed by decal and other painted detail. Thanks for your patience and continued interest in this build!

Chuck

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I've been following this build (as well as your others) very closely. The P-38 is one of my favorite WW2 airplanes and I'm excited to see a model of one given the "chuck" treatment. I'm looking forward to seeing more of this build and all those little tidbits of advice you give along the way.

Can't wait for more.

-MattJ

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Hello Chuck, what makes you a great modeller, is not only the skill and technique that you have, but also the ability that you have to pass on to others what you do through the many and espilcative photos and detailed descriptions of intermediate steps and if I or someone else can not get your own results is always a pleasure, because for sure you are inspired because your works provide many inspiring. I am not speaking almost never in your wip because my English is not sublime but I look and learn.

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Thank you Gentlemen for your kind words!- and encouragement to continue posting "how to" information now and then. As I've said many times, much of what I show I learned from others and I'm just passing it on. What's really cool about our hobby is that I still learn new things almost every modeling session, which really keeps it interesting and fresh.

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Thank you Gentlemen for your kind words!- and encouragement to continue posting "how to" information now and then. As I've said many times, much of what I show I learned from others and I'm just passing it on. What's really cool about our hobby is that I still learn new things almost every modeling session, which really keeps it interesting and fresh.

It's because of all the information you give that your builds are a source of inspiration cause you explain everything so clear it almost seems easy!Othrewise it would only be an invitation to pick a different hobby and just watch what you do! lol

I don't want to sound like an a** kisser but there are some things that jus need to be said and repeated, just in case you would ever think to give up on those "how to's"

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Thank you kike, you are very kind.

Now a quicky update because I'm really happy with how the Instrument Panel turned out- kit parts and all.

To go over things again, the kit IP is better looking than the Cutting Edge resin offering, but it has 9 pin marks that need to be filled at the front.

CockpitBegin3.jpg

I then painted the IP with gloss black lacquer.

CockpitBegin7.jpg

Followed by the addition of a few IP decals from Barracuda Studios (Roy Sutherland) which are made for the P-51D. Roy doesn't make an IP stencil set for the P-38, but many of the decals are almost universal and besides, you really can't read most of them anyway. The red switches were a bit of this decal film cut to size and the red and green push buttons were painted with a toothpick, while the rest of the decals are similar to what I see in reference pics. If anybody is interested, Roy's site for these decals is here and they are HIGHLY recommenced!

BarracudaCals P-51D Set

IP%20Done1.jpg

After the decals were sealed with Future applied with a brush, I applied a VERY subtle dry brush coat of silver to make the bezels around the gauges pop a bit, followed by Testors Dull Coat Lacquer. The gauges, which were previously painted from behind with phosphorescence yellow/green paint, were then "glued" to the back of the IP with more Future. Each gauge was then filled with a drop of Future to give it glassy depth. Here's what it looks like from a usual viewing distance of maybe 6" away.

IP%20Done3.jpg

And if you really want to see a closeup, here it is from about an inch and a half away, flaws and all. It's really hard to photograph the details within the gauges, which looks really good to the naked eye.

IP%20Done2.jpg

Here's another less flattering shot where I illuminated the gauges from the front to show the details within.

IP%20Done4.jpg

I will be using a lot more of these decals on the rest of the cockpit side walls and other instruments. Stay tuned!

Edited by chuck540z3
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It is not uncommon - probably more of a rule actually, that flying vintage aircraft have been updated with some modern instruments, like newer radios, transponders and navigation equipment, like hand held GPS receivers and the like. Do you have plans for something like that? Since you´re using artistic license and the cockpit isn't that accurate to begin with, a modern GPS with a digital map would be quite a fun addition, and would probably annoy some experts out there, don´t you think?

As always a pleasure and and an inspiration to follow your builds.

Best regards

Erik G

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This just isn't fair guys!

All these un-bee-leev-able tips and tutorials tucked away in an obscure In-Progress build ... this is such a treasure trove of techniques! And I won't even mention the out-stand-ing photographs!

And what a build! Holey Smokes! I'm gonna hafta check out your other builds ... such eye-candy!! :yahoo:

Chuck ... thanx very much for your presentation efforts ... it is most appreciated!! :worship:

Pete

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Thanks a lot guys!

It is not uncommon - probably more of a rule actually, that flying vintage aircraft have been updated with some modern instruments, like newer radios, transponders and navigation equipment, like hand held GPS receivers and the like. Do you have plans for something like that? Since you´re using artistic license and the cockpit isn't that accurate to begin with, a modern GPS with a digital map would be quite a fun addition, and would probably annoy some experts out there, don´t you think?

As always a pleasure and and an inspiration to follow your builds.

Best regards

Erik G

Geez, I never thought of that, but the mere idea of bothering P-38 experts with inaccuracies is VERY appealing, especially since I can do just about anything I want on this build. :gr_devil: I'll give it serious consideration!

I should mention a few other things, just in case you are wondering.

1) Painting the rear of the instruments is not my idea. I got this tip from Roy Sutherland when I bought his Barracuda IP set for my P-51D build, which suggests you do same. I have since used it on my A-10 build as well (see bottom pic) and I really like the look.

2) That white square decal in the upper left side- why? I have a few pics of P-38 survivors that have a fairly large white placard in this area with weak writing on it. I have no idea what it says or why it's there, but when I take these super close-up pics it looks kind of useless. From 6 inches or more away, however, the white decal draws your eye to the rest of the IP decals and other small details like the red switches, so it acts as sort of an eye-catcher to look for more. A bit of an artsy concept, I suppose, but it's the artistic part of modeling that I enjoy the most.

3) The Barracuda P-51D IP decals can be used on a LOT of other things, other than IP's. Here's a few more examples where I used them on my A-10 build.

The refueling receptacle on the port side sponson has all sorts of switches with lots of writing under each switch.

Fueldoor1.jpg

I scratch made a Data Transfer Unit which sits behind the seat, which is a sort of "black box". On the front is some writing, which the Barracuda stencils were perfect for.

DCU5.jpg

And of course these decals can be used all around any cockpit. Every decal you see, especially around the HUD, is from the P-51D stencil set.

NewTop8.jpg

As mentioned earlier, I just ordered two more sets of these decals from Barracuda. I've gone through two sets of these decals already and I just know I'll be using a lot more.

I also have some PE bezels and other bits coming from Airscale, which I will use on future builds. Peter at Airscale is kindly sending me some samples, so I'll be sure to show them off when I can.

Cheers,

Chuck

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