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453rd Museum build....Lightning strikes twice.


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That has to be the first time I've heard of a model being sprayed with eggplant! No doubt stranger things could be used, especially if Baldrick has a say in it!

Looking very good though it has to be said!

 

Ian

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  • 2 weeks later...

Nothing exciting and slow progress, due to life returning to some sort of 'normal' but I've now managed to finish the cockpit interior. The initial coat of Mr.Surfacer 1500 Black has also been applied, the inner wings will get their coat after the canopy has been fitted into position. Looking at many period photos it soon became clear that most P-38s had their instrument panel coamings cut away to allow better forward vision for the driver, particularly during the landing phase although the forward centre section remained in place. Apparently it was only a framed canvas structure that was easily removed. Accordingly the part was cut away, thinned, decals applied and added to the windshield. This was rather handy in that it allowed more of the interior detail to be visible as seen here on this scanned image of an extremely battered Pacific Lightning.

 

 

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The coaming cut down to size ready for placement.

 

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Attached to the forward section of the windshield ready for fixing into place.

 

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I have a couple of Eduard mask sets handy to used on to mask the centre section although the cockpit on this model will be open.

 

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Ready for the inner wings to be primed. Once dry, the inner wing areas around the cockpit will receive some Xtreme metals Steel and Tamiya XF-4, after which the HGW rivets will be applied. Hopefully, it'll then be ready for the chipping process to begin. More soon(ish). 

 

3-AGD-1208.jpg

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, general melchett said:

This was rather handy in that it allowed more of the interior detail to be visible as seen here on this scanned image of an extremely battered Pacific Lightning.

 

 

1-Lightning4.jpg

 

 

Come off it.  Surely some bloke’s just organised a selfie in an aircraft junk yard :D

 

Mighty neat work as ever Andy.

 

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Apologies for the delay with this one but I'm awaiting a replacement pack of the HGW rivets, the set I have has an issue with the protective paper pulling the clear decal sheet adrift when I opened the packet. Obviously I don't want to risk the rivets going to all points of the compass when water is applied. Hannants will be sending me another set soon,  (of course, they've sold out) as another shipment is due in. Hopefully not too long to wait.

 

Andy

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  • 3 months later...

This really is fabulous build—I don’t know much about the P-38, although I am starting to research for a future build—but clearly the work and finish on the wells and cockpit is amazing.  Out of curiosity, do you thin your Mission Models Paints more than recommended—I am growing to be a big fan, however, all I have seen is how to spray them in the manufacture’s ratio focused on coverage vice letting pre shades etc show through—sorry if I missed it—well done!  Best, Erwin 

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Thanks chaps, appreciated. Firstly there's been a seismic shift in our lives with my elderly (96) and increasingly infirm father moving to live with us, all the way from Welsh Wales which has taken a Herculean operation that knocks the 'Big Push' into the 'good effort' category, (Field marshal Haig would be proud). The Memsahib and I had to sell his property, move everything out, sell unwanted furniture and transport everything left, back to Melchett towers, in just under three weeks, plus, of course, altering things at home to suit him. Understandably this has relegated modelling to the back burner for now but I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things and should be back on this one fairly soon. Fortunately I took photos of progress before the move so I'll be posting those soon.

 

Anyway, enough of all that,

 

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Did you ever get the rivets? If not I have quite a few left over from my Lancaster build. I could send you some over. Just say the word.

 

Firstly, thanks Johnny, yes, I sorted out the rivets and to be absolutely honest with you I thought them a bit of a waste of time. Not the product itself, more down to the fact that the P-38 was mostly flush riveted, making the whole exercise a bit pointless as nearly all of the reference photos I have, show smoothly painted surfaces, (the only exception being the inner wings with all that foot traffic). Natural metal finished aircraft are a different matter and I think they'd look better there. Thanks for the offer though.

 

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Out of curiosity, do you thin your Mission Models Paints more than recommended—I am growing to be a big fan, however, all I have seen is how to spray them in the manufacture’s ratio focused on coverage vice letting pre shades etc show through

 

 Thanks Erwin, yes, I usually add a couple of extra drops of thinner to the Mission Models paints if using them to post shade and add tonal variations otherwise I just use the stock ratios. I must admit to being a huge MRP fan and generally use lacquers for most things I as I prefer the thinness of the layering I can achieve straight from the bottle, however, sometimes MM paints prove very useful for certain things like cockpit detailing, wheels/tyres etc. 

 

Cheers all:cheers:

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Ouch General. too much for you to take on board what with the disappointing rivet issue! I've only ever used Archers rivets, which were less that I would have expected. So what are the HGW ones like?

Your build is progressing  well. What matt black have you used?

 

Colin

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Ouch General. too much for you to take on board what with the disappointing rivet issue! I've only ever used Archers rivets, which were less that I would have expected. So what are the HGW ones like?

Hi Colin, hope your well, yes, it's been a bit hectic but the old British resolve and stiff upper lip and all that will see us through. Must admit that I was underwhelmed with the HGW rivets, especially as this set wasn't particularly cheap. They're very fine being pretty much to scale but that is their downfall as they're practically invisible once paint, clear coats , weathering and all the other gunk has been plastered on. They worked quite well around areas of heavy foot traffic where the chipping fluid allows highlighting but even that has to be done with care as it's all too easy to lose paint around them when removing with a brush or cotton bud. 90% of the airframe didn't need them (P-38 was largely flush riveted) or even show up on the final finish...and I use MRP in super thin layers. I was happier with the Archer rivets I used on the 1/24th Buccaneer, at least they showed up where they should and looked the part. I'm sure the HGW rivets would look a lot more effective on a natural metal finish.

 

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 What matt black have you used?

Funnily enough I never use matt black. I prefer to use MRP Tyre Rubber but if I need something a bit darker I opt for Tamiya XF-69 NATO Black with a few drops of XF-54 DSG added to the bottle instead.

 

 

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I know what you mean, that's not an easy task !!

Best wishes to Merlchett Sr !!

Thanks CC, I know you understand, I'll pass that on to him.

 

 

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2 hours ago, general melchett said:

Hi Colin, hope your well, yes, it's been a bit hectic but the old British resolve and stiff upper lip and all that will see us through. Must admit that I was underwhelmed with the HGW rivets, especially as this set wasn't particularly cheap. They're very fine being pretty much to scale but that is their downfall as they're practically invisible once paint, clear coats , weathering and all the other gunk has been plastered on. They worked quite well around areas of heavy foot traffic where the chipping fluid allows highlighting but even that has to be done with care as it's all too easy to lose paint around them when removing with a brush or cotton bud. 90% of the airframe didn't need them (P-38 was largely flush riveted) or even show up on the final finish...and I use MRP in super thin layers. I was happier with the Archer rivets I used on the 1/24th Buccaneer, at least they showed up where they should and looked the part. I'm sure the HGW rivets would look a lot more effective on a natural metal finish.

 

 

 

 

I'm glad you said this General. I thought it was something I did wrong when I applied my rivets to a recent build,, or I got the wrong scale.

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However having followed along with yours and other museum builds I am really hoping that mine will be in a display completely separate from any other model .

 

Don't be daft Rob, just enjoy what you're doing, (for an excellent cause), and think of the pleasure you're model will give others, I'm sure it'll look great.

 

 

Right, here are images of progress so far. Due to pressing family health matters, things have been very slow of late as I haven't really had any spare time for modelling but things are gradually getting back to whatever passes for 'normal'. This was all done a few months ago but I'm hoping work can resume in the near future.

 

For some odd reason I didn't take any photos of the riveting process (or at least I can find any) but believe me, they are all on there (for what they are worth!). These were added over the black base coat. They went on easily and seemed to stay put. They looked particularly impressive against the black-base background but as paint and weathering products were applied they basically disappeared from sight, oh well...I take heart in the fact that the P-38 was largely flush riveted in any case and the only areas I really needed them to be present were the upper inner-wings, luckily they worked well there. 

 

Firstly the whole model was carefully rubbed down using Micro Mesh pad to remove any small blemishes from the surface in preparation of the silver topcoat that would be used as a base for chipping. Obviously extreme care was needed not to damage the HGW rivets. Tamiya LP11 was used as this lacquer paint provides a resilient and durable base.

 

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Next up, the initial application of drab 'marbling' was added, giving some tonal/textural variation to the topcoat colours (probably sick of hearing this term but it's quite accurate) In this instance a mix of Olive Drab and Khaki Drab was used.  

 

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The next stage was to apply Tamiya NATO Brown and Buff to add 'life' and therefor interest, beneath the topcoat. The 'T' marked bottle lids are to remind me that the paint has been pre-thinned for use, saves a lot of faffing about (the old trick of topping up a brand new bottle with Mr Surface Leveler).

 

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To add better shape to the marbling mottling templates were used, these coming from the Artool FX Mini-Series range. Not strictly necessary but certainly speeds up the otherwise tedious process.

 

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Carefully avoiding the areas where chipping will occur, in this case the inner wings, wing and tail plane leading edges.

 

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Now on to the undersides and here a mixture of MRP Dark Sea Grey, Eggplant Grey, Light and Dark Earth and 6K Russian Brown. These browner tones will add a certain warmth to the underside Neutral Grey which will become important once weathering is applied.

 

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These are the items I generally use for the chipping process, both of these products are useful, both having slightly different properties. The fiberglass pen is a useful tool, especially when it comes to wearing away the decals and getting into awkward corners.

 

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The underside finished, a post mottling of Sky Grey and Neutral Grey was added randomly to various panels, some being lightened others darkened, according to period photographs.

 

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The chipping process was kept to a minimum as the Lightning's used in the UK at this point weren't heavily weathered as they would become, once transferred to the African theatre. That was a different story. Some oil weathering has started around the flap areas which will be worked on a bit later.

 

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The two 165-gallon underwing tanks were given the same treatment as the airframe, more fuel staining and grime will be added later.

 

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These are the beautiful Aires resin turbo-superchargers used on the P-38F/G variants. These featured more refined detail than the kit parts (which themselves are excellent) and were treated to a mixture of rusting/oxidizer weathering products from AK, Vallejo and Lifecolor. These are simply slide-in replacement s for the kit parts and fit perfectly.


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Onto the upper surfaces chipping process. I have a fair bit of reference material here on the P-38 and after studying many photos of the pattern of wear on the upper wing inner-surfaces and using those, tried to replicate what I mostly saw. Unsurprisingly latches and cowling attachment points also appeared to be heavily chipped. The wing and tail plane leading edges also received the same treatment as these were prone to debris damage cause by the big props and ground stance of the aircraft. Tamiya/Gunze paints were used as they respond well to the chipping process whereas my prefered lacquer based paints such as MRP/Tamiya LP were tougher to remove successfully.

 

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Next stage will be a protective gloss coat and decalling before moving on to the weathering process, which should be fun...

 

Hope you approve, more soon as/if, time allows.

 

Cheers everyone :cheers:

 

Melchie

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Some damn fine weathering there, Mein General.  I agree about the HGW rivets being largely invisible, but on my P-38F they come into their own on the port wing root, and I’d say they do on yours - you get those characteristic lines in the erosion.

 

Lovely stuff

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Thanks fellas,

 

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I've got one of those modelling templates in the tool draw - not much good sitting in there.........!

 

Ha, I've got drawers full of stuff I thought I couldn't live without Rog...finally getting around to actually using some of it!

 

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 I agree about the HGW rivets being largely invisible, but on my P-38F they come into their own on the port wing root, and I’d say they do on yours - you get those characteristic lines in the erosion.

 

Thanks Crisp, yes, I think in future, instead of shelling out on expensive full aircraft sets I'll stick to the generic sheets and apply my own where and when I need them...saves a lot of time and fiddling around. They certainly came into their own across the inner wings, as you say, the pattern was quite characteristic on the P-38. Some aircraft were battered beyond belief but these were usually Mediterranean Theatre (MTO) or Pacific Lightnings, the earlier ETO aircraft seemed to suffer a lot less (the mud and rain were the main problems). 

 

 

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Thanks guys, that's very kind of you all. 

 

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I must give those HGW rivets a go sometime, they do seem to be rather neat.

 

Terry, they are rather nifty but I would question getting the complete sets if you're tempted. They are obviously comprehensive (and expensive) but as I mentioned earlier a lot of the detail will be hidden under paint, topcoats, gunk etc, they really only come into their own if highlighted (dry brushed/chipped) or applied to a natural metal finish, but give them a go and see what you think. I've been given several small generic sets to try out and to be honest, I prefer it that way...at least I can choose where they go and apply them to areas that really need it.

 

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Mottle rust and wear of a most luscious nature mon general.

Beautifully put Tony, we have the honour of the regiment at stake here.

 

Thanks Giorgio, I think knowing it's going to a good cause helps put an extra spring in your step. The Tamiya kit is an absolute delight to work on and I'm looking forward to setting about the Phantom in the near future too...

 

Melchie

 

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

After a bit of a hiatus I've managed to get back on to the P-38 which really needs to be wrapped up as soon as possible. The next stage was to add tones and some interest to the somewhat drab upper and lower surfaces applied to these aircraft at the time. The paintwork seemed to come in for a lot of abuse, particularly the nose, upper wings and tailplane. To achieve this I used the well tried and tested dot filter technique which, for those who don't know, involves applying small dots of oil paint to random areas and blending them into the surface finish, using white spirit, a blending brush and cotton bud. Several different colours were chosen here including AMMO MIG Dark Green, Ochre, Yellow, Olive Green and Abtielung 502 Starship Filth, Neutral Grey and Faded White. Using this combination of colours added variation and richness of the final finish complementing the marbled paint finish. 

 

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The underside was treated in the same way, (the fuel tanks are still removable at this time).

 

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Rather than use the white decal stripes for the rear booms, provided with the Xtradecal sheet, I decided to mask and paint these instead. The problem I find, with white decal stripes is that generally they can be fairly translucent, which isn't ideal when applied over darker tones where there is a demarcation line of contrasting colours, like here, with the Olive Drab and Neutral Grey. Also, unless you are able to mate the ends perfectly there can often be a slight overlap, resulting in an obviously lighter line. Using the decals as a template and eyeballing photographs of 'Mackie' I applied masking tape to the booms and applied MRP US Navy White which has a slightly off white tone to it.   

 

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Following weathering, the wings were wet sanded using a worn pad of 10000 grit Infini sanding sponge to highlight the tops of the HGW rivets and this was repeated over appropriate areas of the airframe, concentrating mainly on the upper wings and tailplane. Only then did the HGW rivets really come into their own. A Pro Arte Masterstroke wide rake brush was used to blend the oils and later the AMMO MIG Dark Earth/Dust pigments to unify all the weathering products.

 

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The Quickboost resin gun barrels in place, beautifully detailed and extremely easy to fit. These were painted using MRP Gunmetal and Burnt Metal, highlighted with an AK Brass weathering pencil before being finished off with thinned Abteilung Starship filth oil paint and MIG's Black Smoke pigment powder.

 

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Thanks for looking, hope you approve. Hopefully the next stage will see the model done and dusted, then it's on to a vignette base ...

 

 

 

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