Somewhere in..... Japan

[kitchentable]

Hi

I had the idea to start a new thread on a build of a Dragon P-38 I have just completed.   This is my second post in 10 years on Britmodeller.   I have been building over that time, just keeping things private.   I find that every model I build teaches me something and, thankfully, I am getting just a bit better every time. 

 

My challenge for the 1/72 P-38M was to approach some of the finish I have seen on 1/32 and 1/48 kits.  I am actually pleased with the end result, but I am fully aware of where it could be better.   Firstly, the model as bought.   It is two extremes.  The guy who captured the lines of the P-38 did a marvellous job and the model is a beautiful dainty representation of a plane that does have a special fragile look to it.   The other guy in Dragon who designed the sprues should be shot.   The runners are thick, and tend to distort the pieces even to the extent some parts were broken already.   The canopy has a runner that joins the glazing, not just the frame!  Utterly appalling.  It is as though this chap has never made a model himself.   The end result is a really poor fit of parts around the fuselage pod and engine nacelles.   Still, a month of fabricating, filling, sanding sorted that out, and that dainty beauty emerged.

Lots of work when joining the major parts

 

Making a P-38M variant has its own problems.   I cannot find any after-market items for the M (apart from gun-barrels), so I had to use the Dragon unique radar operator’s canopy (hmmm) and the red ill-registered stencil decals.   The decal creator should be shot too: how hard is to look at the 1945 photos and create lettering of the right size?   Everything is about 25% oversize.

 

I chose to make the model as close to the photos as possible, except I went for gentle wear and tear on panel lines.   The source photos show the plane factory fresh.

 

After-market items I did use are:

1/ P-38J Photo-etch details (cockpit mainly) for the Academy kit.   Eduard SS255.

2/ Extra USAAF seat-belts.   Eduard 73035.

3/ Stars/bars.  Fantasy Printshop FP713.

4/ P-38 general stencils, but only could use prop and fuel filler ones.    Foxbat FD72-030

5/ P-38 Weighted wheels.  Kora D-7279.  But really disappointed that they were hardly weighted at all, and the detail on the Dragon originals was as good.

6/ P-38J vac-form pilot canopy for Academy kit.  Falcon USAAF Set 46.   This fitted remarkably well to the Dragon kit.

7/ P-38M brass gun-barrels.  Air Master 72-096.

8/ P-38 pilots canopy mask (for Academy kit) CX087.   This matched the Falcon vac-form very well, luckily.

 

My build “special features/issues” were

1/ The Dragon cockpit bathtub has impossibly thick side-walls and the photo-etch for the Academy kit was a million miles from being right for this.   I did a lot of work on the cockpit and incorporated most of the photo-etch in the end.

 

 

Cockpit bath-tub after jemmying in the Eduard Academy photo-etch

 

2/ Fitted one wind-down window mostly down, into a realistic slot in the fuselage skin.

 

 

Glazing finished, with port window wound part down (inside gap between fuselage inner and outer skins)

 

3/ Cut u/c legs and replaced plastic rams with metal.   Used metal rods in nose u/c stay, and in all u/c bay door stays.

4/ Cut-out the pilots coaming entirely and built up the fuselage around the windscreen with plastic card (it comes as integral with the Dragon canopy).   This allows the instrument panel to be seen, and a lot of the cockpit detail.   Many P-38s were fitted with a canvas bag that could be pulled forward as a make-shift coaming to reduce instrument glint.   My model does not have that bag now.

 

 

Kit coaming cut away; fuselage curve under windscreen made from plastic card (but some damage still to fix)

 

5/ Scratch built gun-sight, sight-stay onto windscreen frame and windscreen armour plate

6/ Removable panel fasteners drilled into skin (but no attempts to do rivets)

6/ Marmite!  I love it!   My paint sequence was: Tamiya Fine Surface Primer (L), Humbrol 85 Satin Black, selected Humbrol 191 “bright metal” areas, Marmite, Humbrol 85 Satin Black again, Humbrol Clear Gloss Varnish (the large bottle type).   Obviously I was airbrushing for most of these stages.   Then, a first for me: I polished the entire model with 8000 grit, then 12000 grit and finally buffing rag until it gleamed.   It was not so much the shine, but the fact the sanding removed every surface imperfection and the result was a very good representation of aluminium painted black, and light panel line wear and tear.   For me this was the major lesson learnt on this model and was very rewarding.   I would estimate an hour a day for two weeks of polishing.   Elsewhere I used various Alclad metal lacquers.

 

 

 

Purple gun-barrels did not last long (Alclad Gunmetal)

 

7/ Getting the model to sit level and with a good tilt back was really hard.  There are basically no locating devices in the wheel wheels, so having both main legs locate the same involved a lot of fixing/re-fixing.   Again, it feels like the person who designed the parts and the fit has never made a model.

8/ Dragon did well to point out the counter rotating engines, and they show how the left/right blades need to be set at incidence.   The good news ends there because the entire sprue for each engine is identical, hence you can readily build two identical propellors!  If you are not too fussy about what constitutes a leading/trailing edge then spinners can be fettled to hold a blade “backwards”.   The blade shapes are pretty diabolical whatever changes are made.

 

Whilst I ended up with light wear and tear on most of the model, I could have done a bit more to accentuate some of the regularly removed panels.   Conversely, I probably overdid the wear and tear on the canopy frames.

 

Other regrets.   I could have risked the Quickboost engines/nacelles for the Academy kit, but that might have been a disaster.   I should have tried the Quickboost props to overcome the mess Dragon create.   Whilst the AN/APS-6 radar will add to the nose weight, that would be small compared to the full ammo load.  I should have extended the nose oleo (when I inserted the metal ram) to get that special nose high look for a de-ammo’d P-38.

 

Making the Dragon P-38M model presents some interesting challenges.   This variant barely entered service and even that was post VJ day, so it presents a damp squib in terms of significance.   All-weather fighters headed off in a very different direction after WWII.   Finding some interesting photos to model isn’t really an option and finding appropriate colour (and size) red letters and red stencils is impossible.  I think the builder has to make some specific choices as to what to accept as inaccuracies, but despite that, if you try hard to get the wing/fuselage/engine fit correct, it has a really neat look to it.  Maybe view it as practice for a second P-38, but don’t go to Dragon for that.

 

I’m actually making models from my son’s stash, using a complicated random selection scheme.   When the P-38M’s turn came up I was itching to do a heavy mod and build an RAF example.   It would have been rather daft to convert the most different variant possible to the early variant bought but rejected by the RAF.  My son put a stop to my madness by buying me the P-38 Late Variant book by David Doyle, and saying he would be very disappointed if I didn’t take the hint. 

 

I took the atmospheric shots with a Canon EOS using a 38mm lens.  Generally I use very long exposure, such as 8 seconds.   The build shots were by iPhone XR, which takes annoyingly good photos whatever you try to do.

[Pete in Lincs]

You really should post more builds. That's a nice P-38.

[fishplanebeer]

A lovely build and finish of one of my favourite American fighters but perhaps it could be posted in the RFI section?

 

Regards

Colin.

[dogsbody]

If I had known you were building this and having issues with the decals, I would have sent you the decals from my older Revell 1/72 P-38L/M kit. I'never planned to build the nightfighter version anyway. I think I might still have the decals left over for when I first built that kit, back in the late 70's. I built the L version then, too.

 

Your's looks quite good, though. Well done.

 

 

 

 

Chris

[Wulfman]

An epic build, full marks for modelling workmanship !

 

Wulfman

[Ed Russell]

Very nice - ask the mods to put it in RFI.

[Julien]

Yes RFI is where it belongs

[Bertie McBoatface]

It would been an interesting WIP if you had posted the story as it happened. It was quite a battle to get it built. Looks like you emerged as the victor though. Well done!