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.

UFC

The P-38J Lightning is the Ultimate Fighter Champion of WWII. The historical significance of this stunning-looking plane cannot be understated. It was one of the few planes to see action on both fronts of the war. In the Pacific theater, Major Richard Bong not only scored the best last name ever, but also shot down the most enemy aircraft of any other fighter pilot of the war. He shot down 40 Japanese aircraft in his P-38, which he named "Marge" as a tribute to his wife.

The Revell 1/48 model of the p-38J has proven itself every bit the tough customer as the plane herself. Not only does it come with 3 build options (Bong's fighter bomber, the "night fighter" version, and the "Pathfinder" photo recon version.) I've opted to build Major Bong's fighter bomber. And my problems have been numerous.

But first, the joys.

This is the first cockpit I'm actually kind of proud of. While not spectacular, I think my dry-brushing technique has come a long way. No one would ever mistake it for the real thing, but hopefully, the skilled eye could tell it wasn't painted by an 8-year old.

The wings and fuselage came together with few problems, but I noticed a few gaps that I filled with putty. The real problems began when I decided I wanted to hang her from the ceiling, like she was flying. This model was definitely built to have the landing gear down. While it is a plus to not have to paint the landing gear, closing the landing gear bay doors proved problematic.

I shoved some paper towels up inside for support and hope to be able to pull them out with tweezers after the glue dries. We'll see.

Assembling and masking the canopy was a bit of a hassle as it is 5 pieces which don't seem to fit together all that well. I'll have to shove more paper towels into the cockpit so as not to ruin my awesome paint job. In this picture, you can see the putty I used to fill in the cracks. I still need to file it down.

Stay tuned for painting and decals.