Minicraft P-38J Lightning

[13aceofspades13]

would love to see the pictures, but dial up prevents this from happening, o well i am sure your build is going well.

 

[Quaralane]

Definitely liking the progress here

 

[Glorfindel]

Q in the house!! Thanks for the comments boys, glad to have ya.
It will seem like a small update but it was a lot of work bringing her to this point. I had some time on my hands earlier in the week and decided to show off some sun fading on the top of the fuselage by making up a very thin mix of Olive Drab, Deck Tan and a quart of 70% Iso Alcohol. (not really) Like I said very thin....translucent actually. I then misted this very liberally over the top side only, being careful not to spray the sides or underbelly.



Then came the shiny stuff.




Once dry then it was on to decals today.







Props are 90% finished. Their painted and dinged up but now I'm waiting for some Archer Dry Transfer prop decals to come in so I can get those detailed and sealed up. I popped them on here to get an idea on what I was looking at. The red on the spinners is a mix of Tamiya Flat Red, Flat Brown, and Neutral Gray....my concoction for Insignia Red. I didn't write down the ratios, just started adding drops until the flavor felt right.





I'm thinking of lightly damaging a decal or two. What do you guys think?
Pin wash next and maybe finish up the props. Cheers!

 

[wyoroy]

Looking good.

 

[Glorfindel]

Thanks Roy.
Today's update. The Archer Dry Transfers came in on Friday so Saturday, after shoveling 18" of snow from the storm, I worked on finishing up the props. It's the first time I've worked with these and I just love them. I quickly developed a way to work with these smaller decals, really just expanding on Woody's video on the Archer website, and used de-tacked scotch tape to hold the entire decal in place while I burnished it. If you don't do that then the transfer dances all over the place even when a strip of tape is used along one edge as he shows. The result would be a curved, or bent decal (over a rounded/curved contoured) surface like a propeller. These are great decals and add so much to the props that I will definitely be using them again in the future.






So first I used AK Winter Streaking Grime as a pin wash on the upper fuselage and decided it just wasn't dark enough to help the panel lines pop. I wiped that off and started fresh with a mixture of black pastel, AK black pigment, water and liquid dish soap. From here I moved from a liner brush to a small flat brush and achieved better results with this wash. A little more clean up is needed on the top and bottom fuselage still but the wash worked well.






Then a little spread of oil colors to help wick out the oil on two sheets of paper. Normally I use cardboard but I had none around so paper will do. As you see I noted each color so I know which color is which. I'll let this sit a day or two so I get to apply a dry, really a less moistened paint that will actually dry much faster then if it wasn't wicked. Now I may not use all of these colors but I'm giving myself the options on added weathering.

 

[wyoroy]

I realy like the chipping you achived. Looking good.

 

[Chris S]

Very nice work Anthony, she's looking well used ;D The way I like em . great tips too

Chris.

 

[Glorfindel]

Thanks Roy. Chris my man....always a pleasure Sir.
Short update today. I couldn't help myself and mocked up the props to get a feel for how she'll look. I think they look the part.




Started some work on the landing gear with some clean up of the seam lines. Also assembled some struts after deciphering the instructions. Their awfully vague as to how they're supposed to look but after a bit of research I figured it out.



Painted and installed the Superchargers. First pic is right after a wash and they still look very wet. They've long dried since then. Couldn't get the camera to get the pic just right on the chargers but in person they look real neat.





Hoping to finish up the landing gear, some antennas, nose guns and drop tanks. Bay doors are finished but they, along with the other bits, need a final dull coat. The end is near.

 

[wyoroy]

Thats looking good.

 

[Myke]

This is a great looking build. I love all the chipping.
I think the archer transfer "mishap" works in perfect with the weathering.

 

[Quaralane]

Definitely looking good.
This is one of the birds I want in my collection

 

[Glorfindel]

Thanks Roy, Myke, Q.
Great to have you guys aboard. Another little step closer to completion. Landing gear is definitely not my strong point by any stretch. As a matter of fact I disdain it. Any and every time I have ever gone to tackle gear and wheels they kick my butt and it's no different with this build. So last night I painted and gave a wash to the gears themselves and this morning cleaned up any excess wash. Got them looking as good as I can get but it's the attaching of the wheels then the attaching to the gear bays that strangle me. Wheels kept popping off even with CA. I eventually ended up widening the holes where the gear pegs match in to and that helped on two. But one of the pegs on one gear eventually gave away and broke off....too much fiddling with I'm sure is the culprit. I finally did manage to get it attached but still had issues installing the gear in to their bays. After going the rounds with Tyson, he won, but i did get the landing gear in. Also attached the props and windshield.










I need to tackle the rear end windshield again as I'm trying to form it in to place. After I did a dry fit of it it seems that one side lines up perfect and the other is just inside the cockpit by maybe a full millimeter. Anybody know of a method to widen it without stripping all the paint off? I set the part in to a dish of very warm water knowing full that the Future I had on previously was going to wash away. I held it in to place firmly under cold running water so it could conform to it's new shape but that didn't work either. Should I just leave well enough alone and chalk it up to bad clear parts or is there a method to correct this? Unfortunately I'm willing to settle.

 

[wyoroy]

Landing gear, I feel your pain that's why I moved to building armor ;D

Can you pose the clear part open? It looks great on the landing gear.

 

[Glorfindel]

Thanks Roy. No I can't do that with this bird. I am going to show it with the canopy open as the top portion flips back on top of the rear canopy glass. One side window will not be placed on as these are capable of rolling down much like driver side windows did before power windows. The rear canopy is fixed and does not move. I can live with the slight gap.

 

[Glorfindel]

Roy this is what I mean by the top flipping back. The bottom pic shows the pilot with his hand on the rolled down window. The instructions with the kit suggest not placing the window in for the rolled down effect which I will do on the one side. Rolled up on the other.




Some P-38 variants open over the top from left to right but not this one.

 

[wyoroy]

Now I understand :-[

 

[billb]

Can you put a couple of bits of plastic on each side of the base of the bulkhead behind the seat to act as a bit of a spreader bar to force the canopy wider?
Glue them and paint them up and they'll just look like bulkhead whilst also holding the canopy to the right width when you glue it on?

The other approach which i've had to use on the fixed parts of my A-10 canopy was to just wedge (don;t glue) a spreader in to get the canopy to the right width. Be careful that: 1 - you can get the spreader out after everything is glued in, 2 - the spreader doesn;t get moved by things like those radio boxes when you actually place the canopy and 3 - you make sure you've got enough play in the clear parts not to crack them.
Then spread a good bead of white glue on the inside of the canopy base and seat the canopy. Wipe off everything you can, esp from the outside & let the white glue set up. With the white glue acting as a barrier on the inside canopy/ fuselage join you can now super glue the canopy into place to get a good solid join without fogging the clear part.
Let everything cure for a day or so and then remove the spreader with tweezers and problem solved. Unfortunately I think getting the spreader out will be the issue with this approach on your P-58 unless you can use a [ shaped bit of something so the long bit sits in front of the bulkhead and the short bits spread the canopy.

good luck

 

[Glorfindel]

I see exactly what your saying Bill. I was actually thinking of soaking the piece in hot water then placing a spreader in there while the clear part is some what malleable and let it then sit in cold water over night. Earlier I tried this briefly by hand to no avail.

 

[Mike T.C.S.M]

wow she looks like she's been though hell and back

 

[billb]

If you are going to hot soak it maybe try putting the spreader in first.

btw, this is too late and the wrong variant but they're cool photos
http://clubhyper.com/reference/showandtell3droopsnootdb_1.htm