Jump to content

Trumpeter P-38 early conversion - update March 18!!


BiggTim

Recommended Posts

Ok, so does anyone have any "Japanese Sandman II" or "Flying Dutchman" decals in one of the smaller girly scales that I could either have, buy, borrow, or get a high res scan of, to explore the possibility of making either of them in 1/32? Unless there are 1/32 decals somewhere that I am not aware of...

 

Also any photos of either plane that anyone can find would be appreciated. I obviously have some, but I may have missed something out there.

 

Tim

Link to comment
Share on other sites

58 minutes ago, Dennis7423 said:

If you can find them, the Kagero Topcolors P-38 books (P-38 Lightning At War Pt. I, P-38 Lightning At War Pt. II, and Pacific Lightnings) all have some early P-38 options in 1/32.

 

- Dennis S.

  Thornton, CO USA

 

 

Like this one? They are kinda unique, though a little boring. Are there others?

 

24 minutes ago, D.B. Andrus said:

Tim

 

I've got this set. "Hot Box Annie" looks good.

 

https://www.largescaleplanes.com/reviews/review.php?rid=646

 

Cheers,

D.B.

Yep, I saw that one, too. I just don't like planes with dirty nose art, and "Hot Box Annie" is pushing it a bit for me. I know, I know, that's half the fun, but I gotta be able to show my kids and my wife without being embarrassed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

not a high resolution picture , but helpful to determine the nose art size  .. if you have these kind of tool like the "Silhouette" or plotter ( if not a charitable guy could help you :rolleyes:) , I think it could be " doable " ... even free hand 

Alain

topcol35.jpg

 

topcol10.jpg

Edited by alain11
Link to comment
Share on other sites

A bit of progress made this past weekend. I hunted around online and ordered some inexpensive DC motors that were a good fit and relatively low RPM, and had long shafts, plus a 2 cell AA battery pack - https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077T2W8RC/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1. With two AA batteries, they should be turning around 3500rpm. Still a bit too fast, but close enough.

20190311_205439.jpg

20190311_205432.jpg

Test fitted into the nacelle:

20190311_205742.jpg

Made a jig to get the shaft as perpendicular to the nacelle front as possible:

20190316_193321.jpg

20190316_193345.jpg

20190316_201012.jpg

Modified a kit prop to test it out:

20190317_092341.jpg

So far, so good, but here's where it gets tricky.

 

The kit prop is pretty well balanced, and turned smoothly. But since the kit prop is the most poorly shaped prop EVER, I won't use it as it comes. I have some props built up for my L model build, using the GMF prop blades and hub with kit spinner. To be honest, the GMF blades are too narrow at the base, but are WAYYY better than the kit prop, so using that as a guide, I modified a kit prop to improve the blade shape. Much better, but the kit prop blades are too narrow at the base as well, and can't be correctly shaped without adding material to them.

Left - modified kit prop, middle - unmodified kit prop, right - GMF blades.

20190315-194143.jpg

Left - modified, right - unmodified.

20190315-194209.jpg

Comparison of my modified blades to GMF blades. You can see that the modified ones are even more narrow, and the GMF are already too narrow, so not happy with, despite the vast improvement over the kit prop.

20190315_194230.jpg

 

The other issue is that modifications to the prop in any way, throw off the center of gravity and make it wobble a bit, so I'm going to have to do a lot of trial and error to get them right. On top of that, the early conversion nacelles in the Cutting Edge set make the round part of the nacelle slightly larger than the kit spinner, so I will need to adjust that as well. 

 

Oh, and I experimented with reversing the polarity on the motor, and it works, so I can make the props counter-rotate as expected. Pretty cool!

 

Tim

 

PS: does anyone know where I could find a set of Contact Resine props and spinners? I would like to try a set of those.

 

Edited by BiggTim
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This is my humble opinion

If you're going to have the props rotating it really doesn't matter what the shape of the blades look like as they will be rotating and hard to see.  Or are you going to have it as a static model most of the time and running occasionally

 

Cheers

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 1/26/2019 at 5:16 AM, BiggTim said:

... decals in one of the smaller girly scales...

 

“Girly” had me LOL

 

Following with great interest as i have an E conversion too.

 

i also have a silhouette so I might be able to help you. PM me. I am traveling for the next week-ish but after that I should be able to help

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...