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Hasegawa 1:48 P-38J Lightning


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For my next build I’ve decided to have a go at Hasegawa’s P-38J Lightning ‘Virginia Marie’.

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Rather than build the ‘main’ subject, ‘Virginia Marie’, I’ve plumped for the olive drab/neutral grey version from the 383rd Fighter Squadron 364 Fighter Group N2-K.

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I’ve got a set of Montex masks, mm48051, which include canopy masks, national insignia and tactical markings also I got some Eduard PE, FE208, I’m not sure how much of the PE I’ll use, probably some of the instrument panel and seat harness.

 

 

First off I’ll be starting the cockpit.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, recommendations or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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6 hours ago, Christer A said:

After what you did to that Eduard Spitfire, expectations are high!

Can't wait to see you paint olive drab 🙂

thanks Christer A

I'll be attempting the 'hair spray' method on this, I've not tried it before so it could get very interesting!

 

best rgds

John(shortCummins)

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I’ve decided not to use all of the photo-etch however I will be adding some additional plumbing using lead and thin electrical wire.

The cockpit floor/radio shelf was bent, the radio shelf wouldn’t have sat level, so I used a fine bladed saw and cut part was through, then glued it in place so that it now sits level.

During my research I found some photos of ducting on the cockpit floor.

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The painted PE will be over-sprayed to match the rest of the cockpit, for the leavers I’ve used some electrical wire and I have also added some pipework to the fuselage sides, here I’ve used ‘artistic licence’ as I wanted to add some interest rather than accuracy.

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The seat PE will also be repainted.

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Whilst I had the wire and CA out I added some pipework to the wheel wells.

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Next I’ll be starting painting the cockpit.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, recommendations or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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Nice start! I really wish those Hasegawa P-38:s were a bit more easy to get hold of...

You said that you'd try for hairspray chipping?

Way back I had a go with salt chipping on a 1/72 P-38, and that experiment was a success, even though I botched some decals on it and never finished it...

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But the kit is still available somewhere, and maybe I should dig out again!

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On 25/01/2019 at 07:04, Christer A said:

Nice start! I really wish those Hasegawa P-38:s were a bit more easy to get hold of...

You said that you'd try for hairspray chipping?

Way back I had a go with salt chipping on a 1/72 P-38, and that experiment was a success, even though I botched some decals on it and never finished it...

P1010675.jpg

 

But the kit is still available somewhere, and maybe I should dig out again!

nice result, you've now got me thinking about trying salt, I've not tried either and I like the 'mottled' effect you've achieved, something for me to think about

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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To ‘unify’ the different materials, plastic, PE and wire everything was given a coat of UMP/Stynylrez black primer.

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Once the primer had fully cured the main colour of Alkan BS:283 aircraft grey/green was applied.

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Next various panels, boxes and leavers were picked out with Tamiya XF-69 NATO black.

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Other levers and handles were painted red, green or yellow and placards of black or red, once again I’m going with ‘artistic licence’ rather than accuracy.

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Tamiya XF-16 flat aluminium was used to dry-brush various elements.

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The headrest was painted Tamiya XF-64.

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The instrument panel cowl was painted Tamiya XF-49 Khaki

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Next I’l be assembling the cockpit.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, recommendations or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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9 minutes ago, Christer A said:

It looks great!

Why did you use British Grey/Green for cockpit and not Interior green?

because its the paint I've got and by the time I've added the panel line wash it'll darken it all down

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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Everything was given a coat or two of aqua gloss and then a wash of Tamiya panel line highlighter dark brown.

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When the panel liner dried it was sealed with a coat of vallejo matt acrylic varnish.

 

The Eduard PE set includes a 2-part instrument panel.

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Then I stuck the kits switches to the PE and attached both to the IP support

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I found some PE placards in the spares draw so I decided to add them

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The PE harness was glued to the seat.

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The various parts of the cockpit were then nailed together.

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I’ve placed the top of the fuselage on top of the bottom half just to see how it looks.

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Next I’ll be working on the wheel wells.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, recommendations or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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For the wheel wells I’ve added some pipework using some electrical wire.

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The various components of the wheel wells were given a coat of UMP/Stynylrez black primer.

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These were then given a coat of Tamiya XF-4 yellow green.

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The pipework was detail painted with vallejo 71.065 steel.

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Everything as given a coat of aqua gloss and then I used Tamiya panel liner dark brown to enhance  the details.

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After some research the big pipe appears to have been a light(ish) colour, in some photos blue(ish) and others grey, Hasegawa would have you paint them silver however I’ve decided to go with the grey colour Hobby Color H53.

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funnily enough the grey colour looks almost exactly the same as the original plastic.

 

I’ve also added a couple of canisters that I made from sprue that I rounded over the ends and then added some flattened lead straps.

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The landing gear was painted with vallejo acrylic metal color 77.701 aluminium and the wheel wells were assembled.

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Next I’ll be assembling the engine nacelles and twin booms.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, recommendations or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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The landing gear/wheel wells need to be fixed in place before the two halves of the nacelle/booms can be joined.

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I started by fixing the engine nacelles.

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…and then joined the booms.

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Additional bits and pieces were then added to the booms.

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When Adding the air scoops(?) I realised that I’d managed to fix the wheel wells to the wrong booms, which means that the wheels will be facing inwards rather than outwards!

As everything is firmly fixed in place I can’t simply swap them so I’m going to have to live with my cock-up!

 

I’m certain that she will be a ‘tail sitter’ so I’ve added some fishing weights as a counter balance.

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I’ve also added some weight to the front of the cockpit.

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Next I’ll be adding these to the wings and fuselage.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, recommendations or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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39962792813_00fdef7ec8_o.jpg

 

I started by cleaning up the nacelle/boom joins.

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These were then attached to the upper wings.

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I think because I glued the wheel wells to the side of the boom(s) that I’ve sightly distorted each boom which becomes noticeable where the nacelle/boom meets the wing towards the back of the wing.

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I’ll clean these joins before I attach the bottom of the fuselage and the outer wings.

 

The underside of the fuselage and front wings were added along with the rear wing.

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The rear wing was held in place with a couple of elastic bands while the glue set.

 

Overall the fit is quite good however, the wing roots have a small gap and step that I’ll fix with some perfect putty.

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a ‘building’ tip I would suggest, if you fancy this kit, apart from paying attention to the wheel wells, is that I would leave the boom air scoop(s) off until the wings are fixed in place to help with blending in the wing to the nacelle/booms.

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There are a few little bits and pieces that need adding and then I’ll give everything a coat of UMP/Stynylrez black primer to see what seams need addressing and which panel line need re-scribing.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, recommendations or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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2 hours ago, shortCummins said:

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I started by cleaning up the nacelle/boom joins.

 

These were then attached to the upper wings.

 

I think because I glued the wheel wells to the side of the boom(s) that I’ve sightly distorted each boom which becomes noticeable where the nacelle/boom meets the wing towards the back of the wing.

 

I’ll clean these joins before I attach the bottom of the fuselage and the outer wings.

 

The underside of the fuselage and front wings were added along with the rear wing.

 

The rear wing was held in place with a couple of elastic bands while the glue set.

 

Overall the fit is quite good however, the wing roots have a small gap and step that I’ll fix with some perfect putty.

 

a ‘building’ tip I would suggest, if you fancy this kit, apart from paying attention to the wheel wells, is that I would leave the boom air scoop(s) off until the wings are fixed in place to help with blending in the wing to the nacelle/booms.

 

There are a few little bits and pieces that need adding and then I’ll give everything a coat of UMP/Stynylrez black primer to see what seams need addressing and which panel line need re-scribing.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, recommendations or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

When i built my Hase. P-38 4 years ago. I had all of the exact same issues as you’ve listed. Im thinking its a design flaw of the kit, not builder caused.

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  • 3 weeks later...

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After nailing various bits’n’pieces to the airframe, nose, exhaust surrounds and rear wings, I added the canopy after the Montex masks were applied.

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Perfect Putty was added to the wing/nacelle joins.

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The canopy was given a coat of grey/green.

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The whole airframe was then given a coat of UMP/Stynylrez black primer.

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Seams were attended to with a drop or two of sprue-goo.

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sanded…

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…and then resprayed with UMP/Stynylrez

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Panel lines were then re-scribed.

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Next I’ll be painting the grey underside and green top colours.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, recommendations or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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I started by making a ‘marble layer’ for the grey underside colour, I used Hobby Color H53 neutral gray thinned 50/50 with Mr Color levelling thinner.

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Once the marble layer had dried it was blended with a 70/40 mix of H53 and levelling thinner.

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Next I’ll be painting the green top colour.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, recommendations or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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I started by masking the grey underside with Tamiya tape and white-tac

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Then I sprayed a ‘marble layer’ for the green topside camo’ colour using a 50/50 mix of Mr Color levelling thinner and Mr Color H52 olive drab(1).

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Once the marble layer had dried a thinner mix 70/30 levelling thinner/H52 was used to unify the upper airframe.

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Next I’ll be painting the yellow engine cowls and highlighting or discolouring some of the panels to break-up the big slabs of green and grey.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, recommendations or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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Only just caught up with this, looking really nice. I note with some disappointment that I don't have a P-38 in my stash - note to self: make it so! :)

 

I shall now continue to watch with interest, now that you've nearly finished it!:popcorn:

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The propellor spinners and front part of the engine cowlings should be painted yellow so to prepare I first masked the nacelles, I also protected the nose from any over-spray with Tamiya tape and then used Alkan white as a base colour.

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The spinners, I wanted a mottled effect to imitate wear so they were given a light coat of the white paint.

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The instructions call for Hobby Color H329 yellow FS13538

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I also decided to paint one of the panels a different colour, depicting a repair or paint job. The panel was masked and sprayed with Tamiya XF-49 khaki.

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I was toying with the idea of spraying other panels different shades or (and?) fading some of the top camo’, I’ll sleep on the idea before making a final decision.

 

Exhausts were given a coat of UMP/Stynylrez black primer.

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“rust” was created by using vallejo 70.814 burnt red.

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Then they were dry-brushed using vallejo metal color 77.723 exhaust manifold.

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Next I’ll be painting the insignia and unit markings.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, recommendations or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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Wow! That's an excellent study in preshading with a marble coat!

I'd say that some light postshading with lighter tones in random places would add even more interest to the finish. By the way, are the  control surfaces metal or fabric clad?

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1 hour ago, Christer A said:

Wow! That's an excellent study in preshading with a marble coat!

I'd say that some light postshading with lighter tones in random places would add even more interest to the finish. By the way, are the  control surfaces metal or fabric clad?

thanks for the encouragement Christer.

 

I've decided to add some lighter post shading, I've a black and white photo of the original aircraft which appears to show differences between the front and rear of the wings so I'll try and emulate that.

As for the control surfaces, I'm reasonably sure that they were metal, the polished metal versions don't show a great difference between the wing and controls as would be the case with fabric? Also there is no 'ribbing' that you get on a Spitfire or me109.

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

  

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32276340617_35f405faa4_o.jpg

 

So having looked at this photo of the actual aircraft…

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…I decided that I wanted to add some variation to the paint on the wings as there looks to be clear fading on the rear of the wing.

To replicate this I masked the areas that I want to keep ‘darker’

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Then sprayed a heavily diluted 80% Mr Color levelling thinner to 20% Tamiya XF-49 khaki.

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The effect is quite subtile, it shows more ‘in real life’ than in these photos and I’m quite pleased with the result.

 

Rather than using the kit decals, I still think of them as “stickers”, for the main insignia and unit markings I opted to use the Montex mask set for this kit, MM48051.

I found it easier to apply the rudder ident’s separately as the mask(s) are larger than the rudder and its easier to use one side, paint the marking, remove that mask and then apply and paint the other side.

The aircraft unit markings are white so I sprayed both these markings and the white base of the stars and bars with Alkan white.

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To try and combat any seepage of white under the masks I first sprayed either olive drab or the mid grey colours, the idea being that if they ‘seeped’ then they would ‘block’ any seepage paths and therefor reduce most, if not all of the white, it worked quite well although I’ll still need to do a little touch-up here and there.

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The blue of the stars and bars is a mix of Tamiya XF-8 blue (95%) and XF-1 black (5%)

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Next I’ll be ‘fixing’ the seepage and maybe adding a bit more variation to some of the panels.

 

until next time

as always, any suggestions, recommendations or comments will be gratefully received.

rgds

John(shortCummins)

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