**** DONE: 1/48 P-38J Lightning 44-23675 "Les Vin, Les Femmes, et Les Chansons"

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Certainly are Vic..Had a couple of weeks off, but there is nothing really much to see at the mo. Everything is together, but I'm spending lots of time on the joins and seams. This isn't the fun part for me. The Hasegawa P-38 is overall okay, but there are lots of fit issues, particularly if you go NMF like I am and want to make a good job. Patience is definitely called for otherwise this piece of plastic will take it's final flight straight through my workshop window!

Okay, a small update

Pic 1 There is a slight twist in the vertical stabilizers. A common fit issue with the Hasegawa, and probably linked to the alignment of the booms on the wing and dihedral set by the centre section. I should be able to make a small adjustment by dipping in hot water and bending. The horizontal stabilizer has not been glued yet. I've modified the wing to include a cutout for the landing light. These appeared on the J model dash 25 and up. The Hasegawa can be built as a J or L and has the clear plastic part to cover this.

Pic 2 The fit around the boom behind the wing is, well, "ordinary". Lots of work to be done here to get it right.

Pic 3 The chin scoops are separate mouldings, but don't meet up with the rest of the cowl at a panel join. The fit is ordinary and therefore lots of work required to make good. Still some more work required as a quick brush of silver reveals the join. More surfacer!

More soon, I'm sure. 8)

Cheers

Peter
 

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Thanks chaps.

I can report that the hot water trick works!

Here's an update.

Pic 1 After a 30sec dip in some hot water, and a bit of pressure applied in the right spot, the tail came good - phew! I did both sides, and they now look spot on from directly ahead and from the rear.

Pic 2 My next issue to fix was this strake on the boom next to the turbocharger. You can see the end just does not align with the rest of the strake, and can't be tweaked - it's too far out. I did notice that this feature does not appear on drawings I have of the P-38L, and so started to look for pics that showed this. Sure enough it seems that the later J's and L's do not have this, but earlier J's and models prior do. I think the solution here is to bring in Mr Dremel and remove it completely , but before I do, does anybody know for sure?

Pic 3 For some really strange reason Hasegawa have provided four prop blades per engine. Anyway I sprayed them all.

Aside from the above, I have almost completed the seams and have re-scribed the major panel lines in the nose and cowls that have been affected. Glad that's over. 8)

Cheers

Peter
 

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just looked in famous airplanes of the world No 106 P-38 Lightning and it says 44-23675 was one of the last batch of 210 P-38 J-25-Lo's built.
so if late J's did not have the strake you might get away with removing it, cant find a conclusive pic though
 
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found these as well
source:Osprey - Aircraft of the Aces Series #019. John Stanaway. P-38 Lightning Aces of the ETO--MTO
 

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Wow - thanks Karl. Yes I've been looking through all my references too. I did find a pic of "Yippee" 44-23296 which is also is J and there is no strake either, so they are about to disappear!

Thanks also for the Osprey pic. It does have a good view of the nose and markings. The other thing I was looking at in particular was if this a/c had the optional wing installed fuel tanks. Usually a black cross was placed just near the data block to signify this, but Les Vins doesn't have the cross, so I'll say no.

cheers

Peter
 

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