**** DONE: Revell P-61A 1/48 scale, Nocturnal Nemesis, Night Fighter GB.

[imalko]

Me too! Pretty amazing work with all the details there Bill.

 

[T Bolt]

Great work Bill! It's going to be beautiful when it's done!

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

Thanks guys. It has been a busy day. I spent most of it cleaning and shoveling snow. I has not been till evening that I got a chance to sit down and work on my plane. I finished putting in the horizontal rivet lines along with the addition of two access hatches on the radome. It took me just over four hours to put all those rivets in but I like the results.

 

[Airframes]

Well worth the effort Bill, it looks great.

 

[Wurger]

I agree with Terry. Looking very nice.

 

[Crimea_River]

Well done Bill.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Well worth the 4 hour Bill.

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

Well I got a bit more done today. Decided to give the fuselage a rest while I work on the wings. Started out by adding scratch built open vents under the wings. Then I went after the signal lights under the starboard wing. I made these with clear stretched sprue. After fitting this in each hole and trimming it, I painted the three in their respective colors... Red, Green, and Yellow. I like the results. Finally, while showing another view of a scratch built vent, I gave a brief glimpse of the resin tires I'll be using.

 

[Wayne Little]

Doing a good job there Bill!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Looks good Bill but I'm confused about the Christmas tree lights on the wing............was it for formation flying and wouldn't it not confuse port with stbd.

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

Those lights could be confusing if they were on by themselves but as I understand it these signal lights were not so much for formations as they were for letting the incoming airfield know that they were friendly. Consider this, wing tip lights are made to be seen above and below. They mark the extent of the wingspan of an aircraft and they inform other planes in the air their direction of travel... the red and green colors for port and starboard respectively. These signal lights are on the underside only so are therefore only for the benefit of someone on the ground looking up. Now most well trained military have something called a running password. A means of identifying yourself as friendly while continuously moving into a controlled area. For a plane coming in at night, the preflight briefing would inform the pilots to turn on certain combinations of colored signal lights so that the landing field's air defense artillery would know it was a friendly and not shoot it down. The color combinations would change from night to night so that the enemy could not try to sneak in and do damage. Consider also that in a heightened state, gunners are likely to shoot at anything that flies.... ADA motto, "If it flies it dies."
Consider this senario. An allied plane is trying to land during limited visibility conditions but at the same time the field knows that the enemy has planes in the area. The allied plane, being low on fuel and possibly has damage to it must make a first approach landing. It may not even have a working radio. It can not go around. Those signal lights would tell the gunners not to shoot at this plane and since the only way to see the plane clearly is by the lights, they know that any plane not having these lights on are enemy. At least this is my understanding of these lights. I'm sure others know much more about these lights than I do.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

WOW! Excellent and tedious work Bill!!!! Very well done and thank you for the school on the lights. Very interesting.

 

[Airframes]

Nice work Bill.

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

Thanks guys. I've spent a good portion of today working on the wings. The next to last picture in the last set show the photo etch parts for the air intakes. I think its part of the oil cooling system among other things. Anyway, I now have them installed along with the flaps. Photos to follow soon.

 

[Crimea_River]

Great idea on those lights Bill. I'll have to remember that. The only problem is I like to Dullcoat my aircraft after painting and I'd have to mask these. No big deal I guess.

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

When I was in the Army, there was a time I had to take trucks over to be repainted. A trick they used to keep paint off of the lights was to put a spot of grease on the item they didn't want paint on and wipe it off after the paint dried. It kept the lights clear of any paint. I may put a spot of Vasoline on those lights before I paint and clean it up afterward. Stay tuned to see how it turns out.

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

The wings are almost done. I have the basic assembly completed but I need to clean up the edges and mold lines. I also need to put the wingtip lights in place. Still you can see the PE intakes make a difference. All the flaps are now attached. Oh, and another thought on those signal lights. Dull coat is still just a paint and may clean off with a Q-tip. I don't know, but I'll experiment to see.

 

[Aaron Brooks Wolters]

Wings looking excellent. But I would be careful about the vasoline for if you get it elsewhere you will have fish problems. Just a heads up.

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

Thanks for the warning. I think it would be no more than what would fit on the head of a pin then again probably just some very small dots to cover the lights would work fine. Don't need to make this more complicated than it is.

 

[Wayne Little]

Lookin' good Bill!

Hope those booms go on nice and clean...