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Sardinia, 1944...P-38, F-4 series...from a Revell F...RS decals...St. Ex...


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Antoine de Saint Exupery...pilot, writer, aircraft pioneer...and I hope the RS box profile is accurate.  If some of you remember I tried to build this RS kit a couple of years ago and gave up when it was obvious that the cockpit and landing gear did not fit inside the fuselage without serious surgery, surgery I was not willing to engage in.  I saved it all, including the decals.

 

Nice looking aircraft with the French roundels...

 

52348285233_791a5a0f87_c_d.jpg

 

52347081497_26551b0551_c_d.jpg

 

and the RS Model decals to go along wth the profiles...

 

52347081502_0d08cd0a11_c_d.jpg

 

A venerable substitute for the RS debacle...Revell...

 

52349036822_e8e4fdbc4a_c_d.jpg

 

 

 

Now, before I begin...again...The kit seems to have the alternative nose with the camera windows, etc...

 

 

--John 

 

 

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welcome along John, great to have you on board for this build.

 

Great and interesting choice for the build....... unfortunately that's the good news!

 

The P-38J is/was a different beast to the F-5A, namely in the design of the nacelles and radiators in the engine booms, the the canopy changed as well. Up to the P-38H the engine scoops were 2 nice round holes, from the P-38J on it was a big open mouth, plus the radiator housing were a different shape. Neither of these are simple to change.

 

The Recon version of the P-38J was the F-5B, with the Recon nose the F-5B had a couple of extra smaller windows on the LHS of the nose.

 

You Frog model is perfect for an F-5B, but unfortunately...

 

Though you could go full Frankenstein and use the booms and small bits from the RS model, plus the nose and canopy, and  the fuselage and wings from the Frog model. There are some other minor differences but these are not really noticeable.

 

Sorry if I have dampened you enthusiasm. 

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As Rich said the J is a completely different beast.  That said, the decals fit the RS model with no problem other than you have to figure out that cockpit/nose wheelwell issue.

 

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Good afternoon John

 Sorry to read  that but I you can find the old Revell kit  https://www.scalemates.com/kits/revell-h-216-lockheed-p-38-f-f-4c-lightning--311341

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/revell-h-216-lockheed-p-38-f-f-4c-lightning--311341

you will not have to do any surgery  ..

Best regards

Patrice

 

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I think you've made a good choice to get the Revell kit, John. I really like the French scheme, not one I'd seen before. I'm going to look forward to seeing you build this one :)

 

James

 

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47 minutes ago, 81-er said:

I think you've made a good choice to get the Revell kit, John. I really like the French scheme, not one I'd seen before. I'm going to look forward to seeing you build this one :)

 

Thanks James.  The images on the auction site looked promising--no large flash and decent detail.

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  • John Masters changed the title to Sardinia, 1944...P-38, F-4 series...from a Revell F...RS decals...St. Ex...
17 hours ago, John Masters said:

Thanks James.  The images on the auction site looked promising--no large flash and decent detail.

I've got most of that kit,  in case anything is unusable, and parts do look good.   There's a picture of the box on my RS build thread.

Given to me by a friend who can't see 1/72 properly, and has moved to 1/48.  Also this Steerman, and Sabre

And I was keen to build the F-4 here, until I discovered the upper wing part (from wingtip to wingtip) to be missing.

That was in Feb  -  I've asked him to check his garage since,  AND bought that RS kit!

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1 hour ago, theplasticsurgeon said:

I've got most of that kit,

The images on the auction site show that the sprue are still sealed in the bag.  That's good sign.  I wonder how easy it would be to kit-bash the RS and Revell kits?  

"Not very easy" is my guess...😄

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  • 2 weeks later...

Dear John

Looking at the F4-C instructions, the parts look like the P-38 Pathfinder with a Bomardiers station in the nose and a clear nose. That is a very different plane than the St Expeury Photo nose in the RS kit.

 

BTW I started the same RS kit as you and parked it half way as most of the parts did not fit very well. Nice decals though

regards Toby.

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54 minutes ago, Planebuilder62 said:

Looking at the F4-C instructions, the parts look like the P-38 Pathfinder with a Bomardiers station in the nose and a clear nose. That is a very different plane than the St Expeury Photo nose in the RS kit.

 

Don't worry about it.  I'm not.  

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