Tamiya P-38F Bat Out of Hell

[81-er]

The rounds of filling/sanding/priming over, I painted the recesses for the underwing and underbody lights with a Molotow chrome pen:

 

 

 

The lenses were then stuck in place and masked, but not before I’d painted the underbody lenses with the appropriate colours (excuse the dusty fingerprints):

 

 

While I liked the finish I got with Alclad on my Golden Hawks Sabre, it is a little fragile. I’m giving the AK Xtreme Metals range a try with this build, so I sprayed the top surfaces (and as much as I could sensibly to of the underside) using the aluminium Xtreme Metal:

 

 

Overall, sprays nicely. Will need some light sanding before the next coat, but I expected that. It’s gone on at least as well as Alclad, hopefully it’ll prove to be less fragile than that.

 

The drop tanks, gear doors, spinners, and the nosecone also got the same treatment:

 

 

 

I’ve decided that trying to make the Master barrels fit is bit of a nightmare (but I’ll save them for another project), so I’ve ordered the Quickboost resin guns. That’s partly because they’re setup so you can add the barrels after painting, so I can hopefully get the nosecone on soon and not have to worry about getting demarcations to line up.

 

James

[81-er]

Just a small update. The Quickboost guns have arrived, which meant I could attach the nosecone after adding their mounts in. Then I finished painting the airframe in aluminium:

 

 

Next stage is going to be some mottling over areas not being chipped, followed by some hairspray to areas that will be chipped. I’ve decanted about 15ml of hairspray into a bottle so I can have a go at airbrushing it.

 

I’ve also painted the yellow tips on the props:

 

 

James

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Everything is looking great so far. 

[81-er]

Cheers Dennis!

 

 

Pressing on with the paintwork on this one, a marble layer was laid down using Tamiya XF-51 Khaki Drab, XF-58 Olive Green, and XF-62 Olive Drab, leaving the areas where I plan to do chipping bare:

 

 

 

I then sprayed hairspray over the bare patches (nicely decanted into a jar now), then blended everything in using both the XF-62 and the XF-51:

 

 

A couple more shots under better lighting in the spray booth:

 

 

 

Once that dried off, the underside was marbled using a mixture of Tamiya XF-53 Neutral Grey, and Mr Hobby H72 Dark Earth, H70 RLM 02, H332 Light Aircraft Grey, and H333 Extra Dark Sea Grey:

 

 

 

That was then blended with the XF-53 (there’s more variation in reality):

 

 

 

Just for fun, I tried freehanding the camo demarcations, with a pencil line guide. Overall, it came out better than I expected, and not as bad as I feared. There’s some corrections to be done, but I expected that. Things to learn from it are to use a vey soft pencil rather than the fairly hard propelling pencil that I used, and to set the demarcation using my finer 0.2mm nozzle rather than the 0.4mm I use for everything else.

 

Having said that, I’m still pleased with myself for how it came out (as I am hopeless when it comes to drawing) and there’s very little in the way of overspray to be dealt with, even without using any masking:

 

 

 

The next step will be tidying up the demarcation line, then I’ll chip the standard camo. When I’m happy with that I’ll give it a protective clear coat, more hairspray, then I’ll add the yellow on the wings. Hopefully I’ll get a mix of OD and bare metal after I chip the yellow, as I theorise that the yellow would have been field-applied to an airframe with at least some weathering beforehand.

 

James

[Christer A]

Yeah, that's looking fantastic!

I really like your preshade/marble technique.

[shortCummins]

looking good, you've got the black basing idea nailed 👍

 

rgds

John(shortCummins)

[81-er]

Thank you, gents

 

James

[AdrianMF]

Lovely camo!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[81-er]

Thanks Adrian! More progress too:

 

The first task on my list was tidying up the demarcations between the olive drab and neutral grey, so I put the smaller 0.2mm nozzle in my airbrush and then knocked back a brave pill. I gradually worked on each demarcation and I’m far happier with the results now:

 

 

 

Ignore the far darker looking boarders in some of the shots, it’s just down to the camera. They’re not evident in reality.

 

I had a go at chipping the paint, which hasn’t gone as I hoped. I’ve clearly left it too long between spraying the colours and trying to chip it. I did manage to get something passable on the wing leading edges, meaning I could move on to painting the yellow wingtips. I gave up on hairspray for chipping that and applied some Maskol with a sponge. Masking was achieved using post-it notes, and I used Mr Hobby H413 RLM 04 as it was a more subdued yellow than Tamiya XF-3. Not that it looks it, but it is. I didn’t use any white under it as I figured these would have been painted straight over the camo in the field, plus it gave me the ability to vary the density and indicate some fading. Not that that shows up in any of the photos as the yellow just oversaturates the camera:

 

 

 

The turbosuperchargers were painted with Alcald Exhaust Manifold, then I applied some Tamiya rust weathering powder to one of them as a test, which I think is successful:

 

 

An overall of where it currently sits:

 

 

Wingtip, now the Maskol’s been removed:

 

 

And the elephant in the room:

 

 

Because the hairspray wasn’t working to chip the paint, I attacked it with a fibreglass pencil. While it took the paint off, I don’t feel it looks very realistic now. I’m going to try applying some more of the Tamiya XF-51 Khaki Drab and XF-62 Olive Drab with a piece of torn sponge to try and tone it down a little.

 

In other news, despite being as careful as I could, I’ve managed to break all four of the arms that support the front of the gear doors, and one of the braces to the main gear leg. Having to attach these when assembling the gear bays and then protect them during painting is the one flaw in this kit. I’m considering building my other one gear up even though the kit isn’t designed for that, but if I don’t then I’ll be looking to see if there’s a way to sensibly fit these later in the build after paint. This is a minor gripe, however, it is otherwise an absolutely superb kit and a joy to build. I can see there being a few more in my future as well, particularly a J model.

 

James

[PattheCat]

47 minutes ago, 81-er said:

Because the hairspray wasn’t working to chip the paint, I attacked it with a fibreglass pencil. While it took the paint off, I don’t feel it looks very realistic now. I’m going to try applying some more of the Tamiya XF-51 Khaki Drab and XF-62 Olive Drab with a piece of torn sponge to try and tone it down a little.

 

 

Allow me to disagree James.

I like the scratched paint effects. Maybe a bit too much here but looking right to me "in shape".

Excellent paint job overall.

 

Cheers.

 

Pat.

[81-er]

Thanks Pat. I'm going to tread lightly with toning it down, which is what I probably should have done when I created it

 

James

[ModelingEdmontonian]

On 11/30/2022 at 2:21 AM, 81-er said:

 

 

The lenses were then stuck in place and masked, but not before I’d painted the underbody lenses with the appropriate colours (excuse the dusty fingerprints):

 

Your underside lights are stunning!

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

I think it looks very good

[81-er]

Thank you both

 

 

Following Pat’s comment, I kept it simple on the wing wear with just a light misting of both Tamiya XF-51 Khaki Drab and XF-62 Olive Drab. I’m hoping it now looks more like paint wearing thin than just paint scrubbed off:

 

 

The drop tanks have had the same paint treatments as the main airframe. Again, all freehanded with no masking, I’ve learnt that if you angle the tanks as you spray, then the body of the tank acts like a Blu Tack worm:

 

 

As the gloss in the last couple of photos may have hinted at, decals have been started:

 

 

Addressing another elephant here, the serial number. There are photographs out there of two different aircraft called Bat Out of Hell and with the same style of nose art. One has a line art (and slightly more detailed) face, and this one with the mouth painted in colour and red rings around the outer two machine guns for the eyes. Of the two photos of that aircraft, neither show the serial number. One is looking up at the underside of the nose, the other is full length and shows the serial number completely obscured by very heavy exhaust stains. What is for sure is the serial provided by Xtradecal ISN’T correct for this aircraft, as I found that being hotly debated elsewhere. I’ve used the Xtradecal serials, and I’ll be almost totally obscuring them with the exhaust stains later, just leaving a hint visible.

 

Anyway, with that out of the way, I can confirm the Xtradecals work very nicely. I was worried about the face as it came in three major parts, but it wasn’t as bad as I feared. A little nerve wracking, but it held up to the handling to get it lined up and is now having a nice bath in softening solution to get it nicely bedded down:

 

 

James

[stevehnz]

Looking good there James, I can see you're gong to pull this off a treat.

Steve.

[81-er]

Thanks Steve  My only worry now is if I can actually make the deadline or not. If I was just modelling in my spare time, no problem, but I'm also packing the house up ready to move my gear out on Wednesday. I'm not going to rush it though

 

James

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

12 hours ago, 81-er said:

Addressing another elephant here, the serial number. There are photographs out there of two different aircraft called Bat Out of Hell and with the same style of nose art. One has a line art (and slightly more detailed) face, and this one with the mouth painted in colour and red rings around the outer two machine guns for the eyes. Of the two photos of that aircraft, neither show the serial number. One is looking up at the underside of the nose, the other is full length and shows the serial number completely obscured by very heavy exhaust stains. What is for sure is the serial provided by Xtradecal ISN’T correct for this aircraft, as I found that being hotly debated elsewhere. I’ve used the Xtradecal serials, and I’ll be almost totally obscuring them with the exhaust stains later, just leaving a hint visible.

When I did “Bat” my research says the Serials were obliterated or covered completely by exhaust. So I covered mine, sadly it was way overdone and will need a do over someday. 

[AdrianMF]

Good luck with the move, and KUTA GB is your friend if you run out of time here. Don’t rush it, it looks fab!

 

Regards,

Adrian

[81-er]

Thanks guys! Progress is happening, read on...

 

Decalling is now complete. That was a heck of a task as there are a LOT of stencil decals for this one. They’ve all bedded down pretty well, with the odd one or two currently bathing in softner (like the recessed fuel cap decals). Next stage will be a protective clear coat, then a bit of weathering.

 

 

 

James

[81-er]

Well, I'm reluctantly calling it on this one as well. If I'd had the whole weekend to solidly work on it, I could have got it done by the deadline. And I could have done that, if I had another week before the move. But I don't, it all starts on Wednesday, and I've got to work on Monday and the morning of Tuesday. So this one's safely packed up in a box and will be the first thing hitting the bench on the other side. Better that than rush the finish and not be happy with it

 

James

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

10 hours ago, 81-er said:

Well, I'm reluctantly calling it on this one as well. If I'd had the whole weekend to solidly work on it, I could have got it done by the deadline. And I could have done that, if I had another week before the move. But I don't, it all starts on Wednesday, and I've got to work on Monday and the morning of Tuesday. So this one's safely packed up in a box and will be the first thing hitting the bench on the other side. Better that than rush the finish and not be happy with it

 

James

I agree its better to save it over forcing the finish. 

[AdrianMF]

Good luck with the move! I hope everything arrives in your new place in the same number of pieces as it left the old one...

 

Looking forward to seeing that P-38 in the KUTA? I can join in with my second Airfix one if you want a GB inside a GB...

 

Regards,

Adrian

[PattheCat]

Same as Adrian just said.

I wish you a "safe move" (4 moves with my parents in less than 3 years and then there was nothing left of my builds as a kid and teenager 😭)

[81-er]

Thanks gents  I'm hoping everything's packed safely enough, if not, I've only myself to blame! It's actually going to be moves, as while the house sale is ready to go through (and needs to before the buyer's mortgage offer runs out at new year), my flat purchase is delayed due to leasehold issues. Looks like I'll be spending Xmas with my parents, but given they've got a large 5-bed house and it'll just be them and me there, I'm sure I can nab a bit of space for a temporary bench

 

James