DAG058 Posted April 2, 2015 Share Posted April 2, 2015 (edited) Welcome to my Group Build Thread! I've gone for the Academy 1/48 P-38E. The kit is in good condition however as you can see a few parts are off the sprues. Some of the cockpit parts are missing though so I have been forced into getting resin replacement. I have also ordered better decals. The after market parts will be photographed when they arrive! This will be my first GB, first 1/48 model and first time using resin! Im a little nervous but very excited, I hope you'll enjoy the journey with me. Edited April 3, 2015 by DAG058 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 welcome aboard and especially for your first GB! No need to be nervous, they're great fun and before you know it you'll be signing yourself up for every GB the comes along, then it's all down hill form there!! He says speaking from experience! 1/48th is a great scale for doing detailing, it's much easier to work with the small parts, and resin, my favorite medium, just love the stuff. Nothing hard about it, just give it a really good clean/soak in bleach, wear a mask to avoid the dust and try not to stick you fingers together with CA glue (5min araldite is good to). So what resiny bits are you getting? Anyway enjoy the build, not long to go now and if you need help with the resiny bits just sing out myself or someone else will happily help. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAG058 Posted April 3, 2015 Author Share Posted April 3, 2015 Thanks for the warm welcome Trickyrich, it means a lot! The cockpit is an Aires set. It has a little PE thrown, I've played with a PE before and found it a nightmare so this could be very fun to watch. I'll get a photo of the resin a decals up as soon as they arrive. I'm looking forward to learning more about the P-38 during this GB, it's an aircraft I know little about. And finally, that box art is great isn't it?! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 3, 2015 Share Posted April 3, 2015 The Aires set is nice, PE is one of my pet hates as well but I always end up throwing heaps of extras into the build! Yes the box art is a bit crap. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAG058 Posted April 5, 2015 Author Share Posted April 5, 2015 The aftermarket has arrived I think I will have to order some gun barrels too, the model ones are ok, not as sharp as a resin/brass set though. Anyone got any recommendations? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Arniec Posted April 5, 2015 Share Posted April 5, 2015 For a early bird there is only the set from quickboost that I now off. The one from master is for the later versions. I hope this helps. Cheers, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAG058 Posted April 6, 2015 Author Share Posted April 6, 2015 Thanks Arniec. So next questions... To prepare the resin parts do you just mix up a bit of bleach in hot water and scrub them with a toothbrush? And can Superglue (locktight) be used instead of CA glue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 6, 2015 Share Posted April 6, 2015 yes and yes you can even soak them in the bleach solution, use warm/hot water, don't use boiling or very hot water as it could soften the resin.You can use it though if you have any warped resin bits as it well return them to there original shape. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellzy Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 Looking forward seeing how the Academy kit goes together Les Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAG058 Posted April 7, 2015 Author Share Posted April 7, 2015 Made a start yesterday. Started by tidying up the resin parts and removing the moulding blocks. This was truely tedious! This has been a slow start, I've been trying to finish my other Lightning (English Electric!) before I get too tied up with this build. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAG058 Posted April 12, 2015 Author Share Posted April 12, 2015 I managed to get a few good hours today to get this thing started. Up until now all I had done was prepare the resin by removing the casting blocks and washing it in warm water with bleach. The a dry fit run of the cockpit a fuselage to ensure it will all go together Today I have fitted the PE to the cockpit parts. All the resin was then primed with Vallejo primer in preparation for painting. I have also removed some of the small models parts (undercarriage etc) which will be fitted at the end of the build. These parts have been cleaned up and are awaiting priming. The undercarriage bays were assembled. These undercarriage bays were fitted into the tail booms and these were glued together. The booms will need a bit of filler and sanding. In all the excitement I haven't taken any photos! I only have this one for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 12, 2015 Share Posted April 12, 2015 good to see you're off the a good start, with all the tedious stuff out of the way. The detail in those resin cockpits are great, which makes it very easy to turn them into something quite impressive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellzy Posted April 14, 2015 Share Posted April 14, 2015 Looking good keep up the good work Les 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAG058 Posted April 18, 2015 Author Share Posted April 18, 2015 So today I have managed to get the pit in. And I've decided to use the kit combing rather than the resin part. The reason behind this was I found the resin part was about 2mm too small and would leave a large gap where it meets the fuselage. Not a problem though as it's not a massively detailed part so the kit part will do me just fine. The only major issue so far is the instrument panel is one of the lost parts that was missing when I go the kit so I will have to scratch build it out of plastic card. This shouldn't be too hard though as it's going to be hidden. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trickyrich Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 the cockpit tub looks great, some nice painting there. Making an instrument panel? What about the one in the aftermarket one you have or have I missed something? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAG058 Posted April 18, 2015 Author Share Posted April 18, 2015 the cockpit tub looks great, some nice painting there. Making an instrument panel? What about the one in the aftermarket one you have or have I missed something? It's attached to the resin combing, well and truly locktighted in! I've now fitted the top half of the wing/fuselage and the instrument panel is barely visible so I'm not too worried at all. The fit of this model isn't great, looks like I'll be doing a lot of sanding tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazdot Posted April 18, 2015 Share Posted April 18, 2015 I Have found this also i'n going to give mine a coat of grey paint then see where we are. the fit erm sucks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAG058 Posted April 19, 2015 Author Share Posted April 19, 2015 (edited) So the fit of this model really is stinking! I've spent the last hour or so sanding down the forward fuselage section. I've been getting myself worked up about this as I always seem to struggle with rescribing lines therefore I don't want to sand away panel lines. There was no way I could leave the model the way it was though. So filler has been applied to all gaps and panels have been sanding level with each other. Here is where I'm at at the moment. A second round of filler and sanding is still needed, then a bit of work on the nose tip. Wish me luck for the afternoon... Edited April 19, 2015 by DAG058 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazdot Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 My suggestion on this would be Get most Of the airframe built then spray it grey It helps you to see defects later 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAG058 Posted April 19, 2015 Author Share Posted April 19, 2015 I have attached the booms and built the tail. There were also some big gaps and misalignments around the boom joins. I have filled these and the previous seems with another layer of filler. The engines and nose are packed full of heavy duty lead solder to stop this being a tail sitter. It's bloody heavy now, im sure I've passed the safe working load of my workbench! I've decided I'm going to have the finished model with no stores, I think it will show off the style and class of the aircraft a lot better! Whilst all this has been setting I spent a while tidying up the canopy parts. I have used to tamiya polishing compound set to get them up to a good standard. I think I will retire here for the weekend. I feel like I've made huge progress today so I'm feeling good about the build. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazdot Posted April 19, 2015 Share Posted April 19, 2015 Nice work that 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davek72 Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Great build. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAG058 Posted April 20, 2015 Author Share Posted April 20, 2015 Tonight has seen another hour of sanding. I've managed to get all the filler off, it's all looking a lot better. The majority of the panels are niw level and there are no gaps which names me happy! Tomorrow I will hopefully be able to use a very fine grain paper and get it to a nice standard. Then it will be time to do the dreaded panel lines! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dazdot Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 Dymo tape is your friend on this it conforms well and provides a really good straight edge to run a scriber down 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DAG058 Posted April 24, 2015 Author Share Posted April 24, 2015 I'm still fumbling my way through this. I've not got a great feeling about it though. The amount of filling and sanding I've had to do thus far is making me think is it really worth it? Especially when I can't seem to get good results! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts