P-38 Update

Previosly, on Old Farts Wanking in Their Spare Time, I showed you my progress on building Major Richard Bong's P-38 Lightning.

Since then, I've come a long way. Marge is nearly finished now, but it's been a bit of a pain to get here. I've made several really awesome cock-ups, all of which elicited much swearing and all of which I've (hopefully) learned from. Let me just say what a huge cock-up it was to not glue on the nose assembly and props before this point. Though my red wing tips and pre-shading came out nicely.

Chrome silver acrylic paint is a bit difficult to work with. Even after several coats, I'm still finding bits I missed. They look fine on first glance and 24 hours later, after you've applied a gloss coat, you can see spots you missed.

The props took several steps of masking, all of which I forgot to photograph. Except this last part, which look like medieval spinning blades of death.

Now those are proper props.

The instructions called for flat black glare repellant on the nose and sides of the engines, but after studying the pictures of the real, restored Marge at the Richard Bong Historical Center, I noticed it was actually olive drab, so I painted accordingly.

Compared to the Spitfire and BF 109-G, there are surprisingly few decals for the P-38.

The decal of Marge and the flags for each enemy plane shot down came out well. But I like how the decal of the faded numbers on the nose. Right now, she looks too shiny, but once I add a bit of weathering, it's going to look really cool.

This model was a tough build for me, but I learned a lot from it. With each one, I learn more. And with each one, I become more interested in the aircraft, their history, and the men who flew them.