DocRob

Normally we have lots of sun and blue skies as well this time of the year, but the last days were an exception. That's why I'm going for holidays for a week now . I will capture some classic shiny metal, blue sky pics when the P-38 is finished. Btw, I took some pics with my big camera with the same lighting and black background, toying with white balance, exposure and other settings, but didn't show the pics, because they were worse than these taken with the Iphone and ProCam App. Cheers Rob

Thank you Ken, I hope I can get the decals on without accidents. The finish is very fragile. I toyed with the idea of using some oil color panel liner, but it was too risky. Now the P-38 has to wait being finished, as I am traveling for a week. Cheers Rob

I added a lot of bits and pieces, like landing gear, landing bay doors, counterweights, air intakes and the turbo chargers, which were sprayed with Alclad's exhaust manifold beforehand. Now there are only missing guns, props and wheels and foremost decaling of course, but this is for after my vacations. The canopy masks were removed and there is only one slight spot, where the paint fumes stained the clear part from the inside. I decided to close the canopy, because I don't like the looks of the open one, totally disturbing the slender shapes of the P-38 Interestingly, my Iphone was able to capture the shining Lightning better than my camera. Cheers Rob

Thank you Egilman, I tried some outside shots as well, but there was only overcast sky yesterday. I will try to use my phone instead of my camera, sometimes the 'I can do all but kissing' device is better with difficult light situations, than the big camera. Speaking of eye strain, this build is very demanding to the eye, first gloss black with all the reflections, added with, you guessed it, black rivets, followed by matte black anti glare panels and finally high shine polished aluminum, which reflects a lot and looks different under each used lamp. That caused me to miss a very prominent fingerprint, which I left on the base layer and the aluminum color shows it. I tried to rub un some chrome pigments, but I have to respray the area. Aluminum is a strange material, it oxidizes instantly, the oxide being a good protective coat for further oxidation and harder than the base material. Polishing only mellows the surface, but it's still oxidized. Weather influences change the appearance further, as you mentioned. I wanted to keep the surface as new looking as possible, I wanted to test, how far you can go with airbrush and colors. I think as well, the only possibility to achieve a better result, would be foiling or at least leaving away the rivet decals, which so very slightly disturb the perfect smooth surface with their carrier film. I have a metal engineering background and love to replicate materials in general in modeling, in their various states of wear and tear from new to wrecked. When I was younger, I produced 3D-Animations only for fun, in a time, where this was very difficult to do. I hade complete hard disks full of self sampled material surface pictures, metal, wood, cloth stone, whatever was needed to use them as realistic looking surfaces on 3D-objects. This sharpened my sense for materials in various conditions and led to my passion to replicate materials in modeling. Cheers Rob

It's getting serios now, with the gloss black base cured, it was time for the polished Aluminum, but not before I airbrushed the anti glare panels. I went the hard way of double masking, first the outside, to not spoil the gloss surface and after spraying Tamiya LP flat black, again the flat black areas in preparation for the polished aluminum. The mask for the front area was particular delicate and I used the bordering white decal as a master and marked the contour with a pen onto transparent foil. This was transferred onto a sheet of Kabuki and traced with a scalpel blade. Now I had a positive and negative mask for both sides. Masking of the matte black anti glare panels. Finished anti glare panels Everything was masked again (anti glare panels, wing stripes and tailwing stripes) and then sprayed the whole airframe with Alclad's polished aluminum, which I liked a little better than AK's after some testing. Similar to chrome finish, I carefully misted the polished aluminum on with a pressure of about 1 bar. There is a point, where the blackness of the base disappeared and after that the look will get worse. I had minimal amounts of overspray from the anti glare panels, also black, but barely visible (black on black ) , but the Alclad finishes a tiny bit different. I can'd o anything about it, but to remember, to have a absolute equal shiny base layer for future projects. The high shine polished aluminum is hard to capture, I tried it in the booth, on the bench and outside, but none of the pics comes close. I will try to capture better pics soon, but here is where I am. Cheers Rob

Yes Ken, there are anti glare panels on the inside of the engines, usually painted in olive drab, but with mine in matte black. Cheers Rob

Hehe, no Egilman, it will be 'Wicked Woman' like the title said, which had matte black anti glare panels and some stripes in gloss black. Cheers Rob

I hope so, Chris, but before this comes masking, which will be a bit tricky in this case. Then I will evaluate, if I use AK Extreme Metal polished aluminum or Alclad's. Luckily, there are two upper wings in the kit for whatever reason and I prepared the other to test the polished aluminums. Cheers Rob

I prepared the P-38 for polished aluminum with a coat of gloss black over the rivets. Tamiya's LP-1 worked again flawless, highly thinned sprayed with about one bar of pressure. Luckily the Eduard rivet decals seem to withstand the sprayed on chemicals. The plane has some gloss black stripes on tail and wings, which will be masked before spraying polished aluminum. Same goes for the matte black anti glare panels, which will be tedious to mask. Luckily those are in areas without rivet decals under them, so masking will be a bit less of a risk. In any case, polished aluminum should be the last layer, before decaling, I will not risk and harm the shiny surface. Before airbrushing black, the canopy received a coat of interior green and I hope, I will have no fogging issues due to lacquer fumes, always a risk. It's hard to capture the high gloss surface with rivets on photos. Cheers Rob

Thank you Alan, luckily the rivet decals wer printed very accurate for kit, but alignment, was not so easy sometimes with the black rivets onto gloss black base with all the reflections. In all. I'm positively surprised, how good the rivet decals worked. The main issue, is they fold very easy and are not so easy to unfold. Generally the are very forgiving, except of this. Cheers Rob

Thank you OC, lets hope the look materializes under the polished aluminum in the end. The term you used, is what I'd use too, it looks right, maybe the real rivets should be flush, but we as modelers have to get the look right, scale wise. Cheers Rob

I finished the riveting today and have to say, fitting of the rivet decals is near perfect. I ran into a bit of trouble on one of the tail booms, where two decals met on the upper and lower side. They overlapped a tiny bit, which made ugly wrinkles, which I couldn't sort out completely. I will see, what I can do about it after they are thoroughly dried. The good preparation payed off, the decals glided lightly onto the surfaces in general. Tomorrow, before spraying a new black base layer, I check for tiny bubbles, which I take out by stabbing into them with a needle. I added seat, radios and armor plate into the cockpit, before gluing the canopy in place. The Eduard masks fitted like a glove and before mounting the clear parts, there needed to be glued some parts to their inside, like the gunsight and structural bar. Last unobstructed view into the cockpit: Canopy glued in place: Cheers Rob

A nice little kit, you built there OC, I like it. Simplicity sometime sharpens the focus for other demanding projects. Airfix is releasing a new tool 1/48 kit of the Sea King soon and it looks, like my 1/72 will be left unbuild. Cheers Rob

De nada Egilman, when I write about a new technique, it's also a moment for me to reflect about it and find solutions to problems which arose. I know about the use of flat rivets for planes like the P-38. The decals only help to give the optical illusion of visible rivets and visible they are on the real thing, but more due to being not exactly the same metal, like the sheets they are holding in place. I have to see, how the rivets turn out under a coat of polished aluminum and will decide then, if it looks right to my eye. Cheers Rob

Thanks Kevin, there is some truth in what you say about the rivets . I think, it's more about looking right, than being right with the visual effect. My plan is indeed to lay another coat of gloss black onto the rivets, before I spray polished aluminum. I only hope the rivet decals withstand the Tamiya lacquer color with thinner. In any case, I will follow my old rule, first applying a very thin coat of color, dried quickly with the airbrush, to seal the decals, than a bit more to have the high shine black base. Cheers Rob

Rob the riveter has been starting to work . I followed the process, described in Info Eduard' May 2022 issue. You have to cut the decal precisely, as the carrier film is covering the whole sheet. Some parts needed to be cut out, where raised details or similar are onto the plastic part. Then the decal is pressed onto the sponge, soaked with water with some drops of detergent mixed in. A few seconds are sufficient and the decal slides off the backing sheet very easily. Placement on the model is critical, but the decals are generally forgiving, except for wrinkles, which are not so easy to remove. After placement, I used a dry sponge to press onto the decal without movement, followed by checking it and pressing more refined with a damp flat brush and rubber decal applicators. Workplace: Before (right wing underside) After (left wing underside) The photo was taken some minutes after application, recommended drying time is 24 hours. The decals with slightly raised rivets, which you can see and feel with the fingertip. In case of the Eduard rivet decals, there is no later lift off the carrier film, like I think is the case with HGW's rivets. Nearly the whole plane is covered with decal in the end and needs another base layer of very fine finishing primer, in my case again Tamiya LP gloss black. Cheers Rob

For adding the nose to the fuselage, Tamiya gives you different sets of guns (grey) which have to be glued from the inside and are in the way, while riveting and airbrushing the surface. Therefore, I used Master barrels and the Tamiya parts with cut barrels and pre drilled holes for accepting the brass barrels from the outside. Next was the base layer for the riveting. Eduard suggests using Mr. Surfacer with some gloss medium, but I went with my trusted Tamiya LP1 gloss black, thinned with about two thirds of Mr. leveling thinner. The finish is of a very high shine and should be a perfect base. Some black on black pics , I don't think, there is need for polishing. Cheers Rob

Thanks Dave and good to have you on board. Cheers Rob

The plane on the box cover is indeed the P-38 flown by Richard 'Ira' Bong and the nose art depicts his wife Marge. I was thinking about this livery for my build too, but I wanted high quality decals, to lay down perfectly onto high gloss aluminum surfaces, without the need to use any solvents other than water with a drop of detergent in it. Tamiya decals tend to be on the thick side and may have some visible parts of carrier film. The Bombshell decals are printed by Cartograph and they are complete with national markings and stencils. Cheers Rob

In a blink, nearly the whole fuselage, wing and tail boom construction were finished. If you ever asked yourself, why Tamiya brought out the extra thin cement, with this kit it shines, with perfect fitting panels and intersecting parts. The construction of the plane is a bit complicated naturally with the double tail boom construction and the numerous air intakes and large wheel bays, but following the instructions, it's an easy build, not the least due to ingenious engineering. My goal was to achieve the least spoilt surface, to have a good base for a gloss coat before applying the rivets. The wheel wells were sprayed with AK's Extreme Metal matte aluminum, followed by my own thin mix of black oil color, diluted with matte thinner. Cheers Rob

I found some pictures of 'Pudgy' and they show the high shine aluminum look, I want to replicate. It will not be easy, as there is a bit of masking required, always a risk on polished aluminum surfaces. Cheers Rob

Indeed Chris, the development from wood, canvas and string, individually put together to mass production of powerful and reliable full metal planes was very rapid. This kit represents in a way this development in kit quality. Having just finished the ancient Tamiya Renault RE20 kit, you can see a clear progress in every aspect of tooling and engineering. Cheers Rob

Thank you Yves and Mike, I will try my best, to have a shiny representation of Wicked Woman in the end. Cheers Rob

Hola fellow modelistas, on to a new project. As a short holiday is nearing, I was looking for an in between project and Tamiya's P-38 was on my list since a while. I have both, the -J and the -F version, but I want to use Eduards positive rivets on a high shine aluminum finish, so it could only be the -J. Aftermarket will be limited, I will use Quinta cockpit decals for the first time, Master brass barrels, only because I can glue them in after painting and said Eduard rivets and canopy masks. Because of the high shine aluminum finish, I'm after, I wanted good decals and a simple paintjob, to reduce masking, so no invasion stripes. I decided to use Bombshell Decals for 'Wicked Woman', which is only accentuated in gloss and matte black. The build log will be very brief, as everything fits like a glove and until now, I had no difficulties of any kind. If you are in search for the perfect kit, you possible can't come closer. The engineering is even better than with Tamiya' 1/32 Corsairs, hard to believe. If you are an engineering aficionado, you should build one of the three P-38's. I started with the cockpit, scraped detail away, to accept the Quinta decals and airbrushed the base colors, followed by some brush detail painting and a very light oil pin wash. The Quinta decals, which I used for the first time look mostly very good and were applied using water thinned PVA and CA for very small parts. The seat belts look a bit unreal and HGW's offerings are looking better, but are a pain to assemble in 1/48. The dashboard has a slight rasterized look, but only through the macro lens. In all the Quinta set is a huge time saver and easy to work with. Cheers Rob

A definite jaw dropper, what a piece of excellent craftmanship, fantastic. Cheers Rob