**** DONE: GB-49 1/48 P-38M Lightning - WW2 Night Fighter

[N4521U]

Interesting!

 

[MIflyer]

Here is what I have on the wall in my bedroom.

 

[Davecww1]

Very cool. I wish I could find a set of decals with markings like that or even some colored photos of any personal markings used on these night fighters. I know there was an old Aeromaster sheet but i can't find it anywhere.

 

[Davecww1]

Been a couple of weeks since my last post, but I have been chugging along with the engine booms. I sanded both sides to make sure they were smooth and glued the booms together. I made weights in the front of each boom by wrapping lead pellets with sculpey clay and fitting them inside the front. Then I glued the front of each nacelle onto each boom. This is the worst fitting part of the kit. The front of the nacelle is about 1/16" wider than the booms are, and these seams do not fall on a panel line so it took a lot of sanding and putty to blend them in. Here are some shots of the work needed. Unfortunately much of the molded on dzus fasteners and screws got eliminated doing this.

 

[Davecww1]

Also at this time I attached the radiator intakes on the booms, 2 of them fit OK, the other 2 needed a lot of filler.

 

[Davecww1]

Last part of the booms was to attach the Koster wheel wells. They are vacuformed white plastic and I cut them out oversized, and trimmed the front end down enough to be able to wedge them into the boom. They add a lot of the missing detail to this area.

 

[fubar57]

This was the second kit I built when I returned to modelling....I cried a lot

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

I hate mudwork. Looks good though.

 

[Davecww1]

The main problem with these old Monogram kits other than the poor fit is that the filler and sanding destroy all of the nicely molded surface detail, it is covered with fine rivets and dzus fasteners on the cowl panels. I can rescribe the panel lines but not sure if there is any way to restore the surface details.

 

[N4521U]

Just had a thought on raised rivets!
How about tiny drops of thick paint??????

A trick I learned about taping onna curve.
Cut a thin, 2-3mm strip of tape, streeeeech it over the line you want to tape then back up with a wider piece.

You're given her hell tho!!!!!!

 

[Airframes]

Looks like you're getting there. The kit moulds are evidently showing their age these days, with that poor fit.
I built this kit probably 40 years ago, and, from distant memory, fit then was reasonable, although I seem to remember the nose panels were a bit of a problem.

 

[Wayne Little]

doing ok, keep at it....

 

[T Bolt]

Lots and lots of putty, looks like George building a Hobbycraft kit

In the past I've made rivets with small dabs of thick superglue applied with a toothpick, but to replicate the dud fasteners here I think you might be better off using a fine drill in a pin vice to replace them and then go and drill out all the others to match.

 

[rochie]

Good progress

 

[fubar57]

I still have three Hobbycraft in the stash but only a half tube of Bondo left

 

[Gnomey]

Nicely done so far!

 

[le_steph40]

Nicely done so far!

Agreed !

 

[Davecww1]

I have my plan for the booms, used a scriber and scored the panel lines for the engine covers. I will be sanding off all of the dzus fasteners and replacing them with these items from Archer transfers.

 

[Wurger]