Tamiya 1/48 P-38G Beautiful Lass

[themongoose]

Finito!

The Akron Canton IPMS club has a nose-art theme coming up this winter and I was psyched to find something to use! I've had this P-38 in my stash since the Chattanooga Nats and this was the perfect reason to pull it out. I found the Exito decals for Beautiful Lass and it was all the extra graphics they provide that sold me on purchasing them.A little on the aircraft and pilot -

The plane was built by Lockheed in Burbank and shipped overseas disassembled and then reassembled. Lt. John O'Neill piloted Beautiful Lass from March to November 1943 on missions over Rabaul and New Guinea, claiming eight aerial victories during this period. The aircraft was lost on December 28 1943 when pilot Lt. Ormond Powell encountered foul weather and was declared MIA when he failed to return to base. 

5 coats of gloss clear, then rolled some 4000 grit paper on a dowel to sand down the edge of the decal all around to make sure it was perfectly smooth and you couldn't feel the lip from the decal (they are just a tad thick). Then I applied 2 coats of flat clear. By the time it dried the decal edge had totally disappeared. Super happy with this because it was so obvious to start with.

I preshaded in a lightened olive drab (used yellow zinc chromate) and then edged it all in black mist to get the varnish effect from the taped seams to show clearly. 

I modified a brush so it had just a few bristles and did the panel lines in aluminium. Tamiya leaves this center section smooth but the pics show lots of wear so this seemed to create the right affect.

I did the exhaust staining with rendered oils. I used ochra, burnt sienna, and raw umber

added some oil stains down under as well

And a final closing shot. I'm pretty darn happy with this  I still have some work to do on my assembly methods. Fortunately a little chipping goes a long way to hiding that haha

 

Edited October 16, 2021 by themongoose

[Out2gtcha]

Lovely!

[Uncarina]

Great work on this! Nice tip about sanding the edges of the decals.

 

Cheers,  Tom

[themongoose]

Thanks guys, high praise from you!

 

Uncarina glad to hear that was worth throwing in there. When I paint pinstriping on the 1:1 models I spray extra clear coats over the area around the pinstripe, then wet sand it down to  be smooth with the paint on either side of the striping. I thought a similar approach might work here. The decals just showed too much along the edges.

[Juggernut]

Nicely done.  Without being judgemental, can I ask why you chose a combination of what appears to my eyes as red/orange rust colors at the turbocharger exhausts? I've never seen this shading used before.  Normally, I see soot black/light-to-medium grey (the grey is the anti-detonation additive ,tetra-ethyl-lead (TEL) in the fuel) exhaust staining in that area and thought to myself, "well that's a different, I wonder why he chose those colors?"

Edited October 19, 2021 by Juggernut

[themongoose]

Hey juggernaut, absolutely ask away   I don’t have much experience in props so i was trying to use the graphics that came with the Exito decals as my guide. Looking at that 2nd pic from the top view, The very very center line on the booms seems to match it well but I think to your point there’s too much brown showing on the left and right of that. it didn’t seem that way before i put the flat coat on it…and then that rusty copper color really showed up. 
i have a 2nd one to do. My current thought process is to try a different blend of oils for a more tan look (just matching graphics at this point) and not let it get so wide. If that works out I may try and modify this. Your comment on the gray is interesting. Maybe just that would help it. Will give it a try when I’m testing out the mix for #2!

By chance do you have any color pics? The only color ones i have are of the underside.

[JeepsGunsTanks]

Really amazing work on your P-38, love it. Great weathering. 

 

P-38 really was the king in the Pacific. I've read in several places, the Air Force wanted to kill the P-38 as soon as the P-47 was ready, but General George Kenney practically begged William Knudsen to keep it in production. The battle for New Guinea is a really interesting long campaign, with secret airfields being built, decoy airfields to distract from the construction of the real one, and more.  

 

 

[Juggernut]

22 hours ago, themongoose said:

Hey juggernaut, absolutely ask away   I don’t have much experience in props so i was trying to use the graphics that came with the Exito decals as my guide. Looking at that 2nd pic from the top view, The very very center line on the booms seems to match it well but I think to your point there’s too much brown showing on the left and right of that. it didn’t seem that way before i put the flat coat on it…and then that rusty copper color really showed up. 
i have a 2nd one to do. My current thought process is to try a different blend of oils for a more tan look (just matching graphics at this point) and not let it get so wide. If that works out I may try and modify this. Your comment on the gray is interesting. Maybe just that would help it. Will give it a try when I’m testing out the mix for #2!

By chance do you have any color pics? The only color ones i have are of the underside.

 

Here's one of a recce lightning....the grey TEL exhaust streaking is pretty visible on the haze blue camo.  Obviously, the longer the plane was in service the sootier it would become.

 

 

And here is a color photo of YIPPEE, the Lockheed company's demonstration plane (for lack of the correct term). Notice the grey and black soot markings after the turbochargers.

 

 

 

Edited October 20, 2021 by Juggernut

[themongoose]

You know what’s funny is I see tan and brown   my wife and i did that picture test where you look at the dress and see whether it’s pink or blue. We each see the opposite color lol it’s a wonder we agree on any color to paint a room