**** DONE: GB-56 1/48 P-38J-25 - Thunderbolts and Lightnings

[Crimea_River]

I'm not sure there is any colour on the spinners at all. IMHO the lighter finish on the spinner cap could be due to the process for manufacturing these. Looking at a segment of the photo posted by Steph, one can see the stbd spinner appears to be NMF just like on Butch II so it's looking like I'll go that route unless something pops up proving otherwise.

 

[fubar57]

Works for me

 

[fubar57]

Are you sitting down Andy....I hope you're sitting down. Sending a PM

 

[Wurger]

Superb .... Geo.

 

[Crimea_River]

Extra side of bacon to Jungle Geo.

 

[Airframes]

Ah, teasers !
Pray tell ........................

 

[Crimea_River]

Well Geo shared a photo with me, not for posting due to copyright, that does show a black port spinner and a black ring on the rear of the stbd. spinner. The stbd spinner cap is a light colour, probably NMF, but certainly not yellow. The B code that Eduard have shown is still not proven.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Andy. I look forward to your eventual interpretation of the colour set-up.

 

[fubar57]

Ah, teasers !
Pray tell ........................

There ya go Terry

 

[Gnomey]

Looks good so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Cockpit finish painted and assembled. I tried to cut the individual instruments from the full decal but the first one completely disappeared with the setting solution so I nixed that idea and applied the full decal. It fits well but there's a bit of a bubble to remove. The cockpit parts have been clear coated with a semi-matte finish but I think I may apply the matted as it seems a bit too glossy.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Crimea_River]

A little more to show. After painting the nose gear well parts using Alclad II Aluminum with an XF-49 Khaki cover, I glued the sidewalls to the roof.

The nose gear well is attached to a moulded spar that sets the dihedral so I made sure this was glued securely and clamped.

Flipping this all over, one can see the incredibly precise fit for this kit. The walls meet with the fuselage exactly and only the fact that the latter was not painted reveals where the seam is.

I hesitated before this step and thought about adding some piping in the wells but decided not to. I have enough fiddley stuff to keep me busy on the B-25 so will stick with what Tamiya has given me on this one, which is plenty. Thanks or looking.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Amazing cockpit Andy and excellent progress with the rest.

 

[Airframes]

Nice work Andy, and it's certainly a superbly engineered kit.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Nice work so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. More Tamiya wonderfulness follows. The next step is to trap the nose ball weight and glue the upper fuselage/wing to the lower fuselage. Here's the ball in its new home:

In the above pic, the flat interior green nose wheel housing was rubbed down with my thumb to give it a more semi-matte finish. Next, the upper fuselage/wing was glued to the lower half:

Spot the seam. The marvelous fit is once again displayed with the barely visible glue seam running through the wing root and toward the gun bay. A little bit of light sanding will blend this in nicely.

It sure is nice working with a kit like this as much of my least favourite filling and sanding activities are eliminated. Hope this continues.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Beautiful fit and I love that weight.