1/32 Trumpeter P-38 with Oil Canning

[Theo]

Hi Kelly,

 

Love to see another P-38, and your doing fine. Just wanted to reply to the fact you think zinc chromate is yellowish.

That is not the case. Zinc chromate whas all about corrosion protection ,and each paint manufacturer had there own colour.

The chemical composition whas importend, not the colouring.

I am a P-47 guy and if you see a pic from a wheelwell from a P-47 and it is yellowish you can tell it's made by Republic,

on the other hand if the wheelwell is a darker green, then it tells you it is made by Curtiss.

Here is the full story on zinc chromate

http://www.colorserver.net/history/history-zinc-chromate.htm

 

Happy modelling

Theo

[Bill Cross]

Nice idea. Normally oil canning is on submarines.

[fastzx]

Yes I thought there was an article about this stressed skin technique somewhere before.

Perhaps it was rven on our site.

It looks tedious but hey what isnt when uou try and

Make a scale model appear realistic?

I think the effect will be quite worth the effort and have always

Wanted to try it myself.

 

Jon

[alberto49]

Very interesting article on zinc chromate.

I knew this protective treatment when I was in business, but it was referred only to steel pipe and fittings.

About landing gear bays on the P-38, I did some researches thinking to the model I'm building, and I found pictures showing yellow zinc chromate

 

 

 

and other pictures where no colour is evident, like these:

 

 

 

I will personally go for the yellow zinc chromate, just to create some contrast with an overall n.m.f.

Alberto

[p38johnny]

Hey Alberto:

 

If I may, the spec on the P-38 wheel wells called for silver lacquer up until the G-10, when it changed to "...camouflage color ...", which was Neutral Gray. This was continued into J model production even after the airplanes were delivered in natural aluminium. At some point in late J production, the spec for painting the wheel wells was eliminated, and the wells received no paint at all. But, the inside of the well doors were painted silver lacquer because of the fabric patches used to cover the lightening holes.

 

These pictures you've posted are of restored flying airplanes, and show what the individual owners wanted in the wells. Being involved in the warbird restoration business, I can relate that sometimes what the owners want is not based on any original colors, but on what they think looks good at that particular time.

 

What I would go with is: Silver lacquer through the F and early G models, Neutral Gray in the G-10, but aluminium lacquer in the F-15 and G-13 and G-15. Neutral Gray used in the H and J models through the J-20, then unpainted aluminium in the J-25 and L models. Also, it was not unusual to see Neutral Gray gear legs in unpainted gear wells, as the supplies of gray painted legs were used up after the paint spec was eliminated.

 

Hope this helps.

 

John

[alberto49]

Hi John,

very interesting answer, exactly what I was needing.

I just started building an L-5-L0 model from the Trumpeter kit, see here if you wish,

 

http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=45069&hl=

 

so it will be unpainted aluminium because, even if I would have preferred some colour contrast, I always try to make models as much as possible historically correct.

Many thanks

Alberto

[skiner]

Too late for me, my wheel wells are painted with YZC.....

[Kelly]

Hi there,

 

Here's where I'm at presently. Very tricky this oil canning thing. Perhaps I've bitten off more than I can chew.

I have decided against using foil on this one as this whole bare metal finish thing is causing trouble enough.

 

 

 

 

This last one is very much in progress. I will go in and sand it a fair bit more to soften the "bubble" effect.

 

 

Cheers,

 

Kels.

[Simon P]

I like it!

 

[Hubert Boillot]

Looking very good !

 

Hubert

[Guest]

I think it's awesome. Very good job of it !.............Harv

[Daywalker]

I like what you've done so far, VERY convincing.

[Bill Cross]

It's faaarrrr more work than I'd ever undertake myself, but my hat's off to you for doing it!

[phasephantomphixer]

Looking good, see you are tackling the main wing top. I was going to mention the "sink marks" present on this kit along the top of the wings from the flap well details that can usually be seen on NM builds if not addressed. But figured your "canning" process should eliminate them. A good view of skin stress on real A/C is when you are standing behind the A/C looking over it's surfaces while it is parked in a hangar with the door open during daylight.

[skiner]

Stunning and great job