Revell 1/32 P-38J Lightning

[STM]

I am going to wait and put the Trumpeter Intruder aside for a little while. It may be a LONG WHILE. It took almost a year to completely rebuild that 1/32 Revell P-47D

 

Here we go again! I have had this kit in the closet for a number of years. It is the circa 1970’s kit. By today’s standards it is a very primitive kit but I love a challenge. Par for the course for Revell kits of that era, the cockpits were sparse in detail and to a great extent, fictional. I plan on tossing the entire cockpit and scratch building the whole thing. I will use the Waldron Cockpit Placards set (if I can find one) and just scratchbuild the rest.

The model is covered with raised panel lines and rivets. I will re-scribe the panel lines but not remove the rivets entirely. The paint was pretty much worn off both sides of the wing roots so it will make it a lot easier to drybrush them to bring them out if the rivets are still there. If you look at several of the detail photos, there were raised rivets in several places on the aircraft, especially around the tail.

Overall the outline is good but I may have to do some work on the canopy and vacuform a new one. The wheel wells are totally void of detail so they will have to be rebuilt. Not sure if I am going to scratch built the gear struts out of brass rod. This is a big model so if I keep the kit struts I will have to drill a hole all the way through and insert a piece of steel rod to strengthen them. The gun compartment is nonexistent as well so if I choose to open it, it too will be completely scratch built. There is an engine included with the kit but it too is pretty void of detail. I will probably detail everything from the firewall forward as well. Not sure if I will drop the flaps at this point.

 

It is time to break out the razor saw and let the games begin!  

Edited June 13, 2021 by STM

[rafju]

I like all posts through this forum but in particular like that cool one's, I'm calling "neo-retro" ;-)

(certainly because some like are staying in the stash...)

Let' go and happy modelling!

 

[dennismcc]

I started one of those in the 1980's but gave up on it, I still have it somewhere but don't think that it will get finished. It will be interesting to see what you can make of it.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[MikeMaben]

I have acoupla those oldies, be interested to watch 

[Ayovan]

I built one of these last year. It's the plane my grandsons like messing with all the time. I don't know how many times I have fixed gear doors, props, canopy, and or anything else that can get broken off, on that thing . Some of the joints like the booms to the wings (underside) needed some work, and some blending at the joint around the super chargers to the booms. It's a 1970's kit...it is what it is.  It did take a fair amount of weight to get it to sit on the nose gear. I enjoyed the build, and it does make a decent looking P-38 OOB, so with someone with some real modeling skills building it, It should come out really nice.

Andy

P.S. I enjoyed it enough, I recently bought another one. 

[bobster]

Looking forward to this one, as I as well have a passion for the old Revell kits. I enjoy the scratch building, as you seem to. Will be resuming my P-38 odyssey (Trumpy backdated to G) soon. I found there is a lot of tail behind the main wheels, and the gun bay was best place for weights to prevent tail dragging, so it was closed. I hope you can find a way to open the gun bay, as this would look awesome. Do you have a scheme in mind? Best of luck, and enjoy the ride.