1/24 Scratchbuilt P-38L A retrospective to the present

[KevinCG]

Thanks Mark

 

21 hours ago, MikeMaben said:

Looking very nice Kevin. What type of oil do you use for the canopy bath ??

 

 

Many thanks Mike

I used cooking oil the cheapest I could get and heated in a small Alfoil roasting tray to about 150 C (using a cooking thermometer).  If you get too much higher then the acrylic starts to bubble. Heating in an oven also works but i find the oil method reduces the probability of stretch marks on the canopy from being pushed through the mould.

Cheers

Kevin

[Marcin_Matejko]

A brilliant model, I love looking at such a job

[KevinCG]

G'day Everyone,

Apologies for the rather intermittent nature of my posts but modelling time is so precious I find myself immersed in it once started and then forgetting 1 - to take pictures and then getting so engrossed I forget I should post. I thus apologise for the rather poor collection of WIP shots.

I must express my gratitude or the kind comments from my last post.

After 9 years the end is in sight I hope.

The seat required finishing. A yellow life prserver was made from 2mm card and bent with the aid of steam to conform to the seat contour. texture was carved into plastic and the pins from small pin heads. The bead was from this stretched sprue.

once painted yellow the stencilling of US ARMY AIR CORP was sprayed using a photo etched mask. Seat belts and buckles were from masking paper treated with acryllic paint and photo etch buckles and a hand made clasp/release lever. Seat is shown leaning against a ball point pen 

Once finished the seat could be mounted in the cockpit.

Fitting the supporting brackets behind the seat was a bit tricky, like everything on this aircraft. However once it was all in place it sort of looked the ticket.

Having moulded a canopy in plexiglass and constructed a brass frame for windscreen and reay portion it was necessary to do the radio tray and radio fitment. This proved a little problematic in that this was varied however i decide that as this is a L version and will have 1945 markings the SCR 522A would be the most appropriate fit based on everything I could find from various references.

A metal radio tray was constructed as per the part's manual and the appropriate radio boxes were constructed from plastic card painted and mounted on the tray. The armour plate behind the pilot seat was also fitted and mounted. Wiring and sockets were from thin gauge copper wire and turned from Aluminium tube respectively.

The following pic shows the result before rear canopy was added.

 

Once this was completed the rear canopy could be attached. This was polished inside with Novus polish and then the outside masked off first of all to indicate the areas to be litho-plated and then reversed to prevent damage.

Unfortunately i forgot to take pictures of the upper internal bracing which was quite distinctive but it will be seen once masking is removed.

Masking the outline of the framing took considerable time on the multiple compound surface as it had to be absolutely correct otherwise it will show up like the proverbial. 

 

the next two photos show this and the start of the litho-plate framing. The rear was also riveted using 0.5mm aluminium rivets as per the original.

I have removed some of the masking so this can be seen. These last two pics hopefully illustrate the rechnique.

Detailing of the front frames is yet to be added as is the rear skinning of the canopy

 

 

That's all for now but hopefully the canopy can be finished over the next week or two. I think the worst of that is over.

The next phase is then the wing fillets.

Cheers

Kevin

[dodgem37]

Well done.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[airscale]

that is quite simply superb!

 

I know how hard skinning like that is to do and you are giving a masterclass - it looks brilliant

 

Peter

[Shawn M]

nice to see this back on the bench!

[KevinCG]

G'day Folks,

First of all many thanks Peter, Shawn and Mark for your kind comments and others who posted messages - they're much appreciated.

Well so much for good intentions! I note it's nearly 4 mths since I last posted and to make it worse I've taken B***er all pics of what I've done since , no excuses I just get engrossed and by the time I remember it's too late.

 

The model is now on the last legs of an 8.5 yr journey and being readied for painting so its probably a good time to post what has happened since March.

 

After tidying up the canopy it was time to go to the next challenge - the large wing root fairings. Fortunately these were in upper and lower halves which made the job somewhat easier. To avoid damaging the model I used some of the spare vacformed fuselage to make a pattern onto which the litho plate could be formed

 

The same fairing was built up on the model as below together with a cleaned up fairing final fitting and trimming was done on the model after marking and masking out. A job guaranteed to test anyone's patience.

 

 

The final result came up ok once both pieces were mated and glued in place

 

Having got through this experience it was onto the undercarriage doors which were fabricated out of litho. The hinge fittings were fixed in place so that the Studebaker hinges can be fitted when the model is painted and ready for final attachment of all the pieces waiting to go on. A job I'm not looking forward to as it promises to try my patience to the limit. Th e cartwheel resembling objects are the covers for the main wheels which were fashioned by hand from thin sheet

 

At this point it was time to attach the upper parts of undercarriage and cover the pivot points with Litho plate. The various elements had been built several years ago. It took me a while to figure out what all the various bits were that I had made and how it went together

The good news - the model sat level, the consequent of numerous mockups and measurements at various stages.

The bad news was that it was still tail heavy despite all the lead weight in the nacelles. A hole was drilled in the front of the nacelles large enough to 'post' through round number 1 fishing weights coated in epoxy. A further half kilo of lead was added in this manner. The model is now very heavy (several kgs) and then the next mishap.

Then the really bad news! Despite the stout u/c mount as per the prototype)  I managed to twist the model whilst it was balanced on one leg, which with the weight of the model caused the leg to rotate in the mounting tube. This had all the appearance of a catastrophe so I went for ride on my bike to work off some anger and work out what to do!!! I have learnt through bitter experience that after serious mishaps it is better to walk away and calm down before attempting any rectification.

The fix was to carefully drill two 0.8mm holes diagonally through the entire assembly  into the nacelle on each side nd pin with steel rods.  The contour of the nacelle worked in my favour as it sweeps up into mating with the wing. This worked much to my relief but I am a bit more circumspect about how it is handled now. I did the other leg the same way figuring it was bound to happen there as well at some stage if I didn't.

 

 

Litho plate was then affixed in place to complete the plating of the beast.

 

Next was making the airbrakes that sit underneath the wing

 

The underwing pylons which were shaped out of plastic card and then skinned with lithoplate

 

Finally propellers were cast in resin after making port and stbd patterns - yes they were different as they rotated in different directions

 

At this stage the model could be painted prior to final assembly with u/c etc etc and light is appearing at the end of the tunnel.

 

I had hoped to have this model ready for the Melbourne expo, which clearly it wouldn't have been however with Covid that was rendered irrelevant but it will be good to have it finished

 

Many thanks for looking

Cheers

Kevin

 

 

 

 

 

[vvwse4]

I have been going through this post and the only thing I can come up with is WOW........beautifull

[dodgem37]

Very nice.  Great show.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[RadBaron]

Stunning!!

[Derek B]

Really nice to see this again Kevin - superb scratch building of the highest order, well done!

 

Regards

 

Derek

[brahman104]

Brilliant work Kevin! Very nice work on the clear parts too; they sure can be nerve wracking to get right! Your work with the litho plate looks awesome. What are you using to glue the panels down? Just ordinary contact cement?

 

Keep up the great work!

 

Craig

[KevinCG]

G'day Everyone,

First of all many thanks for the kind comments guys.

 

On 6/25/2020 at 2:34 PM, brahman104 said:

Brilliant work Kevin! Very nice work on the clear parts too; they sure can be nerve wracking to get right! Your work with the litho plate looks awesome. What are you using to glue the panels down? Just ordinary contact cement?

 

Keep up the great work!

 

Craig

Craig to answer your question I use ordinary contact adhesive  - the sort one would use for gluing linoleum etc. In Australia it goes under the name of KwikFix and is marketed by Selleys.

It can be removed with lacquer thinners or toluene and you can also by a specialist solvent. However they all attack plastic so caution is required.

 

Finishing the model

Since my last post the model has now been finished and this involved attaching numerous pre-assembled parts and also painting etc.

The biggest job and one which I had been dreading was the u/c doors. On the P-38 they are attached by Studebaker hinges see below and I had dreaded this part of the build.

 

To re-create these I had several sheets of photo-etch made up in the belief that i could then make the individual hinges and they would work. Unfortunately dealing with the small brass pieces proved almost impossible and in the end they were glued in place. I had to make a small jig to hold the doors in place whilst I affixed them to the actuating cylinders and then methodically set about gluing up the hinges on each door. A fiddly time consuming job that took the best part of two weeks.

Once this was done the wheels could be attached. I had these 3D printed by my nephew who runs an engineering shop and they came up beautifully.

Next was the canopy and although I had built a hinge I decided to glue the top piece in place but not locked down. I figured this was a safer option than having the top section sticking up in the breeze waiting to be knocked off!

Final details for the superchargers, lights radio aerials etc were attached, once painting was completed.

The aircraft was painted prior to all these biyts and to facilitate painting a rough jig was constructed. This made spraying markings etc considerably easier than manhandling a very heavy model with which the slightest slip could result in ruin!

 

Colour scheme.

This was a vexed question.

I had from the beginning decided to finish it in the markings of Jack Purdy from the 433rd FS of the 475th FG in the Pacific. There are a number of schemes floating about in various publications, however nothing is simple. I managed to track down his family and they were very helpful but unfortunately many details had been lost over the years.

Purdy flew several P-38s marked with the name Lizzie and toward the end of 1944/45 he had two; Lizzie IV and Lizzie  V both of which crashed within a short space of time.

In tracking down the serial numbers of these a L1 and L5 respectively it would appear that serial numbers have been mixed up when it comes to applying markings. The markings of the restored example in the Museum of flight would appear to be a combination of both the IV and V Lizzies. The serial number on the nose does not fit for an L-5. After much searching and exchange of information the final scheme was based on that shown in the Osprey book on the 475th FG which I think on balance is probably the most accurate depiction. 

The blue colour was also a subject of much debate and and I must acknowledge the help of a number of LSP members in earlier correspondence on this.

Markings were sprayed using stencils cut from Frisket and in the case of the flags and No-step, photo etched stencils from Custom photo-etch in Melbourne. The airframe stencils are dry transfers made by Allout graphics in West Vancouver and they worked a treat.

 

Anyway to cut a long story short here's the beast in its glory and so after 8+ years of toil the story is concluded.

 

I concede the photos could be better - apologies.

 

 

 

In conclusion this build was a challenge and were I ever stupid enough to do another I would do things differently and follow more closely the original design by building and attaching the outer main planes separately to make handling easier. To permit the model to sit on its u/c there is a large amount of lead in the nacelles and I estimate the completed model weighs well over 5kg.

Its now safely stuck in its cabinet.

 

Apologies for not providing more details of the build - I guess I'm just not that good at this sort of thing.

Many thanks for viewing

 

Cheers

Kevin

[Captain Boogaloo]

A simply awesome and inspirational example of model making. Quite superb. Congratulations.

 

Blue Skies!

Captain Boogaloo

[LSP_Kevin]

Wow! Congrats on getting this one over the line, Kevin. Superb effort for a superb result.

 

Kev