1/18 Scale P-38 Lightning

[JRutman]

  Tuning in here never fails to disappoint!  Modeling at its' truest form.

J

[JayW]

Jerry, and the rest of you guys -

 

Thanks for the compliments!  To my horror as I looked at the shimmy damper pictures I realized I had left out the double lock nuts that secure the damper cyclinders to the drag strut fitting.  They are clearly visible in the picture I supplied of the real live shimmy damper.  They were supposed to be slipped over the cylinder details BEFORE I installed them and finished up the hydraulic tubes!  Soooo, I fabbed up the nuts easy enough out of .015 plastic sheet, split them at one of the flats, slid them over the hydraulic tubes, and voila:

 

 

You can also see the early efforts on the twin drag struts - you will ssee more of them next post.

 

While I am at it, I am going to show off my knowledge of the shimmy damper and how it works (I hadn't a clue but some guys whose business it is to restore warbirds educated me).  Here is a picture (an end view) of the shimmy damper on the strut, with the rotating fitting at about a 20 degree angle.  The wheel would also be at this angle: 

 

 

On the left the roller has compressed the damper piston into the cylinder almost all the way.  On the right the roller has disengaged from the piston altogether, just hanging out in the breeze.  At such an angle, the aircraft is not moving fast at all, and probably doesn't need the damping.  Were I to turn the rotating fitting to zero degrees, both of the pistons would be engaged, with hydraulic pressure behind them, providing good damping.  Both pistons are engaged over +/- approx 15 deg (a bit of a guess). 

 

Having a ball with this - but only modelers would understand that.....

[Wolf Buddee]

I'm not sure how I managed to miss this thread! It's nice to have a lazy Sunday and just browse the WIPs and all I can say is "BLOWN AWAY"!!! Machining parts like that is beyond my feeble mind. Wow Jay, just freakin brilliant!

 

Cheers,

Wolf

[JayW]

So last I posted something, we were lacking the torque links.  These are delicate scratch built parts which I have done on the mini-end mill.  They are hard becuase they are small, first of all, and second, depth of cut is tough with my machine becuae it has no dial control.  Like cheap drill presses, you just depress a handle to control depth.  When you want to have machined pockets with thin webs, it makes it a tough job.  I hope I don't bore you all, but I am going to take you through making a small torque link fitting out of .10 thick plastic.

 

First, I scribe out the shape on painted raw stock, and fix it in the end mill vice:

 

 

You can see I have made the first pass with a .093 inch diameter cutter and I have a pilot hole for the lightening hole in the web that you will see later.

 

The next shot shows the part completely cut out.  My vice has a turntable on it that I can orieint at any angle I want.  This is very useful:

 

 

 

I could have dremmeled this, but this gives a nicer edge.

 

Here I have reclamped the piece, and am carefully machining the pockets:

 

 

 

Here is the fully machined part, no sanding or filing, no holes except the lightening hole, and the thickness has not yet been modified:

 

 

The rest is on the bench with conventional tools - filing, pin vise drilling, and sanding.  Here is the finished part prior to paint and weathering:

 

 

That's one; then I get to make the other.  Next time you see torque links will be on the finished NLG.  But first, I made up the top part of the shock strut, where it mounts to the fuselage in the gear bay:

 

 

You saw the strut tube itself on an earlier post with its machined braass fitting.  The side links are merely .063 diamter plastic rod with the ends saw cut and tehn squashed with smoot pliers to create clevis lugs.  The top is .125 inch plastic "plate" end mill machined similar to the torque links (but much easier):

 

 

Here is are the installed torque links with pins and nuts:

 

 

And finally (drum roll....) the pretty much completed nose landing gear:

 

 

Well that was really fun.  Next will be extensive modification of the NLG bay, and dry fitting of the three landing gear to establish the amount of oleo extension I want.  Then I will bond them in place (no more sliding oleos).

 

Later. 

[Guest]

Good god man, is there anything you can't do? Just amazing.........Harv 

[Hubert Boillot]

Beautiful work !

 

    

 

Hubert

Edited October 21, 2014 by MostlyRacers

[JayW]

"Good god man, is there anything you can't do? Just amazing.........Harv" 

 

Harv - the greatest of complements.  Oh yes there is plenty I cannot do, or at least cannot do well.  It's coming up too.  I am not skilled at covering up panel lines and rivet depressions, sanding really well, and then recreating both.  I will need to do plenty of that soon, and some real skilled folks on this site are going to look at it.  Also, I do not own a paint sprayer, therefore don't know how to use one.  I use spray cans, with limited results, and that includes clear coats.  I was always hesitant to put up with all the clean-up work.  I am also not able to create that paint chipped look.  I have limited skills in weathering - I am terrible at dry brushing, and average at best with powders.  In summary I am not a finish expert.  Anyone who has seen the Miss Velma project knows that is the weakest part of that effort.  I would love to receive more expert instruction on those areas.  I will be scanning many of the projects on LSP for good examples that are well described.  I have seen some unbelievable results from you guys.

[JayW]

I have tentatively selected the aircaft that I am going to model - any opinions on it are welcome, plus if any have any other ideas.

 

This is Lucky Lady P-38J-15-LO, 20th Fighter Group, ETO, pilot Lt. Art Heiden.

 

 

If you look closely you will see a photo of a movie star Lorraine Day. I will be putting a similar picture of her on the model:

 

 

I will make a decal out of that picture.

 

Also, I have worked up the score board mostly using some PowerPoint skills:

 

 

Note the names on the assistant crew chiefs. I had no idea who they were and the wartime photos I have of this aircraft are not clear enough. You will probably not see these anyway - they will be pretty small.

 

More to come later. Thanks.

[Loic]

Amazing stuff from A to Z !

Paint sheme sound great to me

[JRutman]

   Still going strong!!  And the nose art....hubba hubba

J

[JayW]

Many months ago, I posted this picture:

 

 

One of my aims was to get the landing gear up to snuff.  This job is now done.  Here is a shot of the updated landing gear positioned as it will be on the finished product (one day):

 

 

 

Today I bonded the oleos of all three gear at the extensions I want them, and the airplane orientation you see is what it's going to be. 

 

This shot shows the 20 degrees or so turn of the NLG:

 

 

Some more shots:

 

 

 

 

 

The next task is the NLG wheel well.  Here is what it looks like pre-modification:

 

 

 

It's narrow in there; gonna be fun.

 

By the way - this model is huge.  I have a big problem or will have when it comes time to display this thing.....

[LSP_Kevin]

Good work Jay. You're improving this model out of sight!

 

Kev

[Guest]

Beautiful !..........Harv 

[JayW]

The nose gear wheel well changes are under way.  The P-38 nose gear well is very narrow at its forward end, yet the landing gear strut needs a wide base for side loads so its mounting beam is wide.  To accomodate this wide beam, there are two auxiliary bays on either side of the main well walls.  In order to incorporate these features into the model the original wheel well has to be partly dremmeled away.  That is what you see here: 

 

 

The additions are here:

 

 

 

Not very hard to make, just hard to design and lay out.  You see the semicircular cutouts and auxiliary webs with holes for the landing gear beam.  The other holes are for the drag strut, and the third part is the canted forward bulkhead.   

 

This shows the new parts installed.  Still to come are the closeout ceiling panels.  Do you see the gear door uplock mechanism?

 

 

 

When these parts are installed, I can then install the landing gear beam and upper strut:

 

 

There is a long way to go.  I want to get in some good representation of the hydraulics in there, which will be a challenge.  Later.

[JayW]

One more shot - the landing gear will look like this.  It's real narrow in there.

 

 

I have it arranged such that I can delay final install of the LG until I finish up the center fuselage.  That's important.  I will not have the same luxury on the main gear.