**** DONE: GB-50 1:48 P-38F-15-LO - Zombie Build

Good stuff Andy

Thanks Geo. Not much progress.to show. The radio deck has been painted and the boxes installed and I'll post some pics when I can.

Radio set up done and painted. I decided to use a transitional colour scheme wherein all the cockpit parts are interior green save for the seat and armour plate which continued to see olive drab colours through some of the F subtype production.



The other side, now with Eduard seatbelts left over from my Corsair build many moons ago.



The front glazing had some very noticeable scuffs on it and so these were polished out and the whole thing dipped in Future.



The question now is whether or not I should remove instrument panel coaming. I understand that this was a canvas unit and was often removed to enable the pilot to see the instruments better. This particular aircraft also has the newer large glass reflector sight and so maybe that would not work with the coaming? Anyone know?

I've seen pictures with the shade in place with the armoured glass so it seems to be an option to leave the coaming in place.

Lovely work so far Andy!

looks good Andy

Thanks guys. Little snippets of bench time resulted in the following progress:

The rear canopy was supplied without the clear reinforcing strips. Though I could not find out when these were deleted, my limited search suggested that most F models likely still had these and so I added them using clear stretched sprue. The two strips were first curved with my finger nail then tacked in place at the inner top of the canopy with a small dot of CA. The bottom ends were then also tacked in place the same way and then the remainder of the strips were brushed over with Future. I like how it turned out. What I don't like is the longitudinal seam that is visible in the photo. This is moulded into the plastic but should not be there. If I get in the mood, I may sand it off and re-polish the part but I may also just let it go.



On the underside, I had to add a second landing light as these were apparently introduced on the F model but there was only one on mine. The light was made by first drilling a small hole then making it larger using a drill bit spun between my fingers to make the concave reflector surface. I then painted it with a Molotov chrome pen and filled the small hole with a piece of clear stretched sprue that had its end held to a candle flame. I've not decided how to cover this yet but will likely punch the lenses from acetate. To the left of the below pic you can see that I filled in some recessed details that should not be there.



I decided after all to cut away the coaming under the windscreen as pics of my bird show this canvas cover to have been deleted. That means that I'll now need to build up the support for the gun sight and that's next on the agenda, once I figure out what this should look like.



Once that is done and the clear parts installed, I should be able to get on with painting. I hope to make this a well-worn, sun-baked finish given its Mediterranean sphere. Thanks for looking in.

Amazing detail.

Neat work Andy.
I've been trying to find the pics I had of the gun sight mount and folded canvas shroud, without success. However, I did find this pic, showing "Glacier girl" when she was still in the ice. ( original source unknown, but possibly "Fly Past" magazine ).

Thanks Terry, that does help. It does show the mount for the gun sight but what's missing there is the thick armoured glass that, on my aircraft, hangs from the windscreen frames (see detail below of previously posted pics).



The N-9 gunsight, which appears to be missing in your photo (probably not mounted since this aircraft was being ferried to England), was mounted on an angle in front of the armoured glass. This is consistent with the angled mount seen in your photo. The photo below from Wikipedia shows the complete installation for my rig, I think, and one that I will try to replicate, albeit without the shroud.



Your picture also shows the windscreen defogging tube at right, something that I will also need to add.

Thanks for the help Terry. This is good.

PS. I also noticed during my rummaging that the P-38F control yoke should be circular as in the above pic rather than the flatter style introduced on later models and that Academy has used for the kit. Given it's visibility, I will probably change that as well.

Good stuff Andy

Yep good stuff Andy.

Great work so far Andy!

Update time. My few efforts since last week have centered around getting the cockpit details finished so that I can glue the canopy sections in place and get on with painting.

The reference pics I found most useful for the following steps were Terry's shot above and also the one below, the source of which I have long lost but it was found on the net via Google. I used this pic for what is going on under the windscreen but get a load of the weathering on the wings and cowling! I've read somewhere about the use of tape over many of the seams and I'll need to look into this further. A lot of modelers depict remnants of this tape, much like in this pic but not near as extensively.



Anyway, having now removed the canvas shroud, it appears that I'll need to replicate a small hard shade over the instrument panel which can be seen in both Terry's pic and the one above, with the yellow dot on it. My first attempt entailed shaping a piece of thin styrene card and gluing it to the fuselage like so:



Dry-fitting the windscreen however revealed that this addition was too far down whereas it should almost be flush with the glass. So I took the shade off again and carefully glued it to the front of the windscreen after first painting it Nato Black complete with the yellow dot. I also added the sloped armoured glass and the two hangers. This is hard to see in the below photo but bear with me. The glue that you can see on the upper frame will, I hope, disappear when I paint the frame.



This is the same assembly taken from the top and you can see the armoured glass a bit better. There is a leather crash pad on the top of the glass and this I painted brown.



Now for the tricky part. The N-9 gun sight fits between the windscreen and the armoured glass and so the next step was to first scratch build the sight and its support and fiddle with the fit as seen here.


After satisfying myself that the sight will fit, I then added the elongated reflector glass, painted the sight, and slid it into place. I then added the defogging pipe which is a piece of solder painted khaki.



With that all done, I glued the windscreen in place and you can see all of the added detail fairly well. Unfortunately, I had a bit of the glue for the defog pipe run onto the glass but it's not too bad.



The yellow dot is also not in the right place but that's going to have to stay there now. If someday I get the Tamiya kit, I'll do this properly.

Next will be to mask the canopy and get some paint flying but I'll need to plan the weathering layers first. See you again soon I hope.

Nice Andy...

Lovely work so far Andy!

Fantastic details Andy!