**** DONE: GB-56 1/72 P-38J - Thunderbolts and Lightnings

[Bustedwing]

Work on the fuselage. Adding weight to the front. Instructions call for 10 grams so I shredded up a tire weight and packed it infront of the cockpit and inside the nose cone. Then sealed it in with white glue. It's definitely nose heavy now !!

 

[Wurger]

 

[fubar57]

Very ingenious. Uh.......Graham. Exactly how does one shred a tire weight? Would the wife notice if I used her blender?

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Very ingenious. Uh.......Graham. Exactly how does one shred a tire weight?

Was wondering about this myself, certainly a better way of filling the vacant space, there is so much wasted air space with lead shot.

 

[Bustedwing]

I used a Dremmel with a burr. I also have it wired through a sewing machine pedal so I can control the speed. Works great ! Took a bit of time. I'm not allowed to use anything with electricity in the kitchen except the fridge.

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far!

 

[Bustedwing]

Time for some cosmetic surgery. Filling in the gun ports and adding the camera lenses. Conversion from the 38J to the 38f-5E. I used some sheet styrene and rods and some clear flat bits. My decals are for T9+XB so I'll have to make some stencils for T9+MK which means I'm going to have to try and figure out why my printer is bumhooley ! Hate messing around with crap like that !

 

[Wurger]

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Some nice little additions.

 

[le_steph40]

 

[Gnomey]

Looks good so far!

 

[Crimea_River]

Cool. Nice to see something different.

 

[Bustedwing]

Topside painting. I pretty much only build Luftwaffe plane so the bare aluminum is new territory for me. I primed it with Krylon flat black. Sprayed it into a cup and then used an airbrush. The aluminum I used a few different paints to get the painted vrs bare look. Testors model master enamels. Aluminum non buff , German metalic silver and Aluminum tinted with a couple of drops of black also AK silver. It didn't turn out quite how I wanted it but I'm OK with it. The anti glare was done with Testors MME flat black. It lifted a few spots from the masking tape but it turned out to be what Bob Ross would have called a "happy accident".

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Looks great.

 

[le_steph40]

Looks great.

Agreed !

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

Yep, I like it too.

 

[Airframes]

Me too.

 

[Gnomey]

Nice work so far!

 

[Bustedwing]

Paint, decals and stencils. I was on the fence as to how to paint the underside of the cockpit but what convinced me was a short video of the plane. There is a brief view of the nose as the camera is panned around the front. It clearly shows a line between the upper aluminum and lower paint. Also, as the paint was applied over bare aluminum I doubt it was a very thick coat and oxidixed aluminum and yellow I doubt would give much contrast in a B&W picture. Anyways that's my take on it. I used the decal sheet for the balkenkreuz. The swastikas are aftermarket. The decal sheet swastikas for T9+XB are black where T9+MK have white borders. Underside I made stencils and the tail booms are too tiny for stencils and my eyes so I made decals which I hope work. Don't have a plan B if they don't. Haven't had much luck printing decals ! One thing that is unknown. The stencils that were painted over service panels etc. Would they paint around them hoping some one understood English, Paint over them or paint over them and apply German ? The kit decal sheet has a number of decals to apply to the under sides. To bother with them or no ??