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Lockheed P-38L Lightning


Alan P

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Blitz...Lightning...geddit? 

2020-05-16_07-16-59

1/48 kit from Hobby Boss, will be completed in the lower natural metal scheme. 

 

Going for the 24-hour option, will be kicking off at 0900 BST on Saturday. 

 

Good luck everybody! 👍

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3 hours ago, Ted said:

A 1/48th WW2 airplane in one 24 hr period.😬

Yeah but...it says 'Easy Assembly' on the box so it'll be fine 😁

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Okay, Blitzbuilders! This began at 0900 sharp this morning...

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Here's the build - I just realised we also have a resin cockpit and wheels. This might be a tall order...

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Here's the first timestamp - ready to go!

 

The genius construction of this kit is the reason I think i may have a fighting chance - it's basically in two pieces!

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Wheelwells are also incorporated in the parts - no alignment required and the fit of the two halves is pretty good so fingers crossed, might not need any putty...

 

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Got the resin cockpit parts detached and cleaned up.

 

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The part on the left is from the kit cockpit floor, which is also the nose gear wheel bay. Various bits have been chopped and sanded to accommodate the resin cockpit as well - the part on the right is the discarded radio compartment which had to be cut out of the kit fuselage. A bit of fiddling about later, and I'm happy everything is going to fit.

 

One last hurdle - the resin cockpit isn't even designed for this kit, it's supposed to be for the Minicraft P-38H, so that required a bit of fettling as well.

 

So...first hour down:

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Cockpit parts have been primed (black parts primed in black so they're basically done), time for the first coffee break and build log update.

 

Cheers,

Alan

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Lunch break - 3h 45 into the build and the cockpit's finished!

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This is the True Details cockpit, very nice piece, shame I don't really have time to savour it!

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And here's the finished cockpit fitted to the aircraft - the shiny bits are the wash (still drying!)

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While that was going on I painted the prop blades yellow and masked and painted the canopy (no pics) but it means we're very much on target to finish this today.

 

Alan 

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Wow! Very impressive detailing in the cockpit for a Blitzbuild!! I'd be happy with that on a normal build! Very nicely done!

Kind regards,

Stix 

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Thanks guys, it would have been pretty simple but I found the resin set in the box (didn't know it was in there) so had to do a proper job, really :lol:

 

Continuing after lunch and a TV break...build resumed at 1425.

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Putting the fuselage together but luckily remembered the nose weight!

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Also added ball bearing weights in both engine nacelles:

 

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I'm not adding any stores so had to fill the pylon holes in the wings...

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I'm determined not to use any filler on this, so I used blu tac to fill the holes!

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The blu tac works really well as long as you don't put fingerprints in it.

 

So, the whole thing just fell together, as expected there was no filler required, just scraping and sanding down the seams.

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Looking at the leading edges, engine nacelles and booms, there are practically no seams. This is one of the best kits I've ever used, and my first ever Hobby Boss. Colour me impressed! Although the parts breakdown is quite similar to the Trumpeter 1/32 version which I'm also building at the moment.

 

1600 hrs - 7 hours into the build time, 5 hours actual work, and we're ready for the first coat of primer!

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But wait! also lurking in the box were these!

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I bought this quite cheap off ebay and the seller hadn't mentioned the good variety of aftermarket items included (did I mention the Eduard masking set?)

 

So - one blast of Mr Surfacer 1500 Black and we're here...

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Hoping to get the Alclad on now, and spend a quiet evening doing decals. I'm surprised how quick this has taken - why do i even have a stash? :hmmm:

 

Cheers,

Alan

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By 2100 (12 hours - halfway!) we have some paint on:

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Alclad Airframe Aluminium - gives a nice sheen without screaming "WHITE METAL"

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As the time reaches 2230, I'm calling it a night - shouldn't be too long to finish tomorrow morning, just one side of decals left.

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This has been a good day's modelling, and had some great musical interludes as well! Finished the day on this:

[NB. This video's mislabelled - it's actually Martian by SBMs from the 'Totally Religious' album]

 

See you at the finish line at 0900 tomorrow!

 

Alan

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Thanks very much you guys!

 

Well, I restarted at 0630 to finish the decals:

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Unfortunately it took a long time due to the tiny kill markings - this being a Chinese product, the Japanese war ensign markings were on the decal sheet in FOUR parts each! Luckily there were only two to do but it took bleedin' ages. Also there's a devil head emblem on the aircraft which is supposed to go right on the end of the nose, which is surprisingly pointy. That needed a lot of cutting and slathering in setting solution before it finally behaved.

 

Just as a side note - the Hobby Boss decals were excellent and responded very well to MicroSet and Sol. The only slight problem with them was once applied the red turned slightly pink-ish which kind of ruins the carefully matched paint on the propeller spinners!

 

Anyway, all the decals were done by 0820:

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That left me forty minutes for the final assembly. No problem, I thought...

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Wheel struts are on, and it sits on its tricycle legs! Not only that, it's a 'positive' nose-sitter - if you tip it on its tail, it'll plop forward onto its nose leg again. 

 

The gear doors were an absolute pain to fit as well - due to the door actuator struts splaying out, they have to be glued in under tension. This led to plenty of swearing and constant time-checking but they were done by 0858!

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So then I went to put the wheels on, thinking the im[possible had been achieved and then...cr@pola. I'd forgotten to paint the tyres :bangin:

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So that was that. I busted the 24-hour mark 😭

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That's as far as I'd got, so near and yet so far!!!

 

Anyway, I went ahead and finished painting the wheels, did the nav lights, guns and mirrors on the inboard nacelles. Then off came the masks and...

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Ta-da! Only 36 minutes late but really annoyed I didn't make the 24 hours, I was sure it was going to happen. The total actual build time was just under 12 hours, so it's still pretty fast!

 

So that's it. Tried to be ambitious with the Superhero option but as @Ted said right at the beginning, it was going to be a tall order even with the nice kit and 'Easy Assembly'. All in all, it's my first experience of Hobby Boss and I'm really impressed. I don't build much in 1/48 but will definitely consider HB for future projects.

 

Thanks for looking in at the build, time to catch up with everyone else's now! Thanks also to @Enzo Matrix for moderating the GB so valiantly as usual!

 

Cheers, Alan

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