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Virginia Marie using Trumpeter P-38 Lightning


dmthamade

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Finally found some time to put time in on the build. The engine area needed a bit of work, i added some brass tube, thinned, for the blast tubes on each half, as well as thinning the vents above them. The outlets for the coolers on the sides were worked on, the doors were thinned and bevelled. The mirrors on the inner halves are represented as clear parts, i installed them and will probably represent these with....something else.

 

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There is an area under the nose of the engine that should be open, Trumpeter has the contour right but it is sealed over. I took a scriber and scored the area to "open" it up, i may go further, though nothing can be seen if i did open it up. This slot is where a bit of oil leaks out of, so it's important to be there.

 

before

 

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after 

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The engines are built to act as a place to hang the props, i'm filling each with $0.30 CAN  to help keep the nose down. I glued on a sheet plastic cover to keep it in place.

 

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This piece needs a "bit" of work to ensure the halves join without a big gap and so the bottoms will align.

 

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Working on dryfitting of all the parts inside the booms, lotsa stuff happening inside

 

Don

Edited by dmthamade
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It's been a great weekend to get some modelling time in!! Low temps are setting records, no snow to shovel, so time at the bench!! Still working on the booms, the rad assemblies are a bit of work to fit. Lots of scraping needed for a good fit, plus some more rivet filling (yippee!!). Trumpeter would have you build up the engines/ductwork/tubes/exhaust/turbos/wheelwells/door linkages/firewall/main gear into one big assembly....NOT doing that. I'm just using enough engine parts to hold the props and locate the engine, everything else goes into the spares. The wheel wells i'll add after the engines are installed.To allow installation, i modified the wells and boom parts. The wells are modified by removing part of the rear locating lugs, shown highlighted in red.

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The boom rear slots are modified by opening up the front of them, shown in red.

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This allows me to install by dropping them in from the top.

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Then sliding them backwards into the slots.

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I installed the main gear struts only into the wells, but not gluing them down. They fold up into the retracted position, i'll use a blob of Blutak to hold them. Doing it this way allows me to work on the booms without worrying i'll damage any of the well parts. Door mechanisms,/piping/retraction struts can be added later. By not gluing the sides of the wells yet, i can also spread out the top of the booms easier to help eliminate gaps between the lower wing panels and the booms, a well documented problem with this kit. I will glue one locator in the boom, so the well will stay in place front to back.

 

The props i've dryfitted to check fit and locate the engines. I'm using the revell props with the Trumpeter spinners. Trumpeter would have you install the propshaft into the engines early, i 'm going a different route. The shafts have a large boss on one end to be retained in the engines, i reversed this and cut half away so it would fit in the half round hole in the Trumpeter Spinner. The fit of the shaft to the Revell props is snug, just like it belongs. This makes things easier to line things up during assembly.

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When i dryfitted the engine to the boom then added the props, i found the engine sat low. I added a shim to the oil cooler/intercooler part to raise the front, shim in red.

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This gave me a great fit.

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It looks complicated and like a lot of work, but doing this allows me to work out fit issues and not have to install so much at once. Off now, for more dryfitting and rivet filling...

 

Don

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Very nice work. I love your idea of hanging the sprues on pegboard! I'm going to have to do that

 

I started the pegboard idea after losing parts and tossing sprue trees that i thought were stripped of parts....if anything is take off for dryfitting or if it's a subassembly i put it in a sandwich bag and hang it up, too. Some progress over the long weekend. I managed to complete the two booms, i'll glue on the small outer horizontals after wings joined to booms. Rudders i'll glue on later. The rad housings needed a lot of scraping and dryfitting, otherwise the fit was ok. The coolers and intercooler openings at the nose seem "off". The provided PE screens seemed to have a too large grid, the center one for the intercooler i think the grille should be deeper in. I wish Trumpeter would have spent more time on these parts than waste energy on engines that can't be displayed.

 

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No way around it now, time to start filling the wing parts. I'll have to get another bottle of Mr. Dissolved putty...

 

Don

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I can see why you'd redo the rivets for a natural metal machine. I'll be doing one this year too (I hope), but mine will be an OD/Gray machine, so I'll use the rivets to assist in the heavy weathering it'll be getting.

 

What will you be doing for the 'pit? There really don't seem to be too many choices available, varlindun or Grand Phoenix, neither of which look all that impressive to me.

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If you can find one of the old cutting-edge cockpits. you can use that one to. The Verlinden one's not too bad but if you look at your photos and look at the cockpit pictures. really not much in there

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Guest Peterpools

Don

Very nice progress on the P-38 and the booms look good.. Loads of work but in the end: A Beautify for sure

I've been there and of course, done that. Now I keep the sprue bags and trees until I'm actually done: just in case.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

Edited by Peterpools
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The pit will be probably be the kit parts with the addition of either Finemolds or RB belts. I guess I could add placards and the Eduard colorized instrument stuff, I struggle with pits so any prefab aftermarket stuff would help me a lot.

 

Don

 

At one time, I had the Waldron placards, and they were excellent, but I'm not sure I'll be able to find them now, so I guess I'll embellish it the best I can with generic stuff. It's my firm intention to have my own Lightning finished for a show here in September, and that should be very doable.

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At one time, I had the Waldron placards, and they were excellent, but I'm not sure I'll be able to find them now, so I guess I'll embellish it the best I can with generic stuff. It's my firm intention to have my own Lightning finished for a show here in September, and that should be very doable.

As long as you don't plan on filling the rivets....

 

Don

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