<-- **** DONE: 1/48 P-38J Hill's Angels - Twin Engined Aircraft of WWII

[T Bolt]

Great job John. I really like the way the salt fading turned out. If I hadn't just put the first coat of Future on my A-20 I'd give it a try.

 

[Gnomey]

Looks great so far John!

 

[Wayne Little]

Great finish John. I wouldn't dick with the blotches at all if I were you.

That is sound advice....

 

[JKim]

That is sound advice....

I've been known to ignore sound advice! The frustrating thing about the salt method is that residual amounts of salt keep showing up in the form of white crusty areas, especially in hard to reach joints. With a couple of flat coats over the salt layer, trying to wipe it off doesn't do any good. I've been playing a little with the oil paints and it seems like I can use it to tone down those white crusty areas. So I'm not done yet!

 

[JKim]

The resin wheels have been glued into place.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

Nice !

 

[Crimea_River]

Definitely.

 

[turbo]

Beauties!

 

[JKim]

Thanks guys! In the home stretch now on this bird. Finally. Dirtied up the bottom a little bit using the airbrush.

Here's an example of the some of the salt crust that's been showing up.

I dab little dots of different colored oil paints onto the surface. I smear them into the paint using a stiff paint brush.

The oils have enough moisture to get rid of the white crust. Who knows if the white will come back once the oils dry.

Upper surface has been oiled. Chipping has been done with a silver pencil. Don't like the chipping effects much as big areas of chipping are hard to do with the pencil. I should've done some hairspray chipping and then augmented it with the pencil. The exhaust trail from the turbochargers were redone in a lighter color based on Terry's comment. But it's grey, not pink!

I'm going to wrap this one up in a couple of days. Just have to put on the little bits and pieces... gear doors, nose guns, slip on the props, string the double aerials from the tail fins.

 

[Wayne Little]

Damn nice John.

 

[Airframes]

It certainly is - very nice work John.

 

[Crimea_River]

Agree.

 

[JKim]

Thanks for checking into this one! Just putting the finishing touches on Hill's Angels. The underwing bits including the drop tanks and landing gear doors have finally been secured into place. The landing gear hinges that I fabricated didn't line up at all so I ended up cutting the hinges in half to give them a better footing.

Up top, the Master gun barrels, the top canopy piece posed open and the aerials were glued into place. The props are finally stuck into place.

The darker panels have just been oil filtered. This will even out with the rest of the plane as the oils dry.

Almost time for final pictures. I just have to wait for the oils to dry and I'll probably do some more chipping on the wing leading edge and maybe a little on the bottom. I'm not personally satisfied with this one but at least I can almost put it aside and work on something else. The big thing that's bugging me is the stark difference between the top and the bottom in terms of weathering. I need to work on weathering the bottoms of planes a little better.

 

[Crimea_River]

Looks good to me John.

 

[Robert Porter]

Awesome work! Looks really well done!

 

[turbo]

Looks like a beauty to me John. If you want to crank up the weathering on the bottom get your oils out again for some streaking and staining - I find that's the most effective method for undersides.

 

[Wurger]

Well done John.

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff John.

 

[T Bolt]

Excellent!