HilldaFlyer
Well-known member
Over the top awesome.
Scale Build Off - Scratchbuilt 96" P-38 Lightning
- Thread starter joker24458
- Start date
joker24458
Active member
Thanks to all you guys for the kind words! I expected to have it finished before 2017 rolled around (which by the way, hope everyone had a great New Year!), but....ran out of paint a couple days ago...this thing absolutely EATS through paint. Bought my local Hobby Lobby out of stock of their silver createx paint twice (granted, they don't stock up on them much). Anyways, I've gotten most of the painting done, should be able to get it done in a good day of work tomorrow. Might not finish the cockpit/canopy tomorrow though, but I'm determined to get it all wrapped up before I go back to school on Thursday. Also, the landing gear covers don't take airbrush paint well, I'll have to figure something out for that. Might try using a paintbrush with other kinds of paint, or sand and do a few base coats of white before hitting it with silver...not sure at the moment. If anyone has any better suggestions, please let me know. I'll post some pictures of my progress soon. 
joker24458
Active member
Yes, those are drinking straws for guns haha. Hopefully they will pass as somewhat realistic after painting and from a distance.
All of the pictures are taken from inside but I'm doing the painting in the garage....better ventilation out there and when I'm airbrushing in my room, the paint always goes up my nose haha.
Masking is a real PITA. I will be glad when the painting portion is over.
One more thing, if you look at the picture of the Pudgy V model in the first post of this thread, you may notice a strange symbol on the outside of the "bump" on the booms and on the nose of the aircraft. I've been researching but can't seem to find anything about this strange marking, or any clear picture/drawing of it that I can use to paint onto the plane. I'd really appreciate if anyone knew anything about this marking and could possibly direct me to more information, or simply a clear picture of it. Thanks.
All of the pictures are taken from inside but I'm doing the painting in the garage....better ventilation out there and when I'm airbrushing in my room, the paint always goes up my nose haha.
Masking is a real PITA. I will be glad when the painting portion is over.
One more thing, if you look at the picture of the Pudgy V model in the first post of this thread, you may notice a strange symbol on the outside of the "bump" on the booms and on the nose of the aircraft. I've been researching but can't seem to find anything about this strange marking, or any clear picture/drawing of it that I can use to paint onto the plane. I'd really appreciate if anyone knew anything about this marking and could possibly direct me to more information, or simply a clear picture of it. Thanks.
joker24458
Active member
Update- just found what I was looking for. The marking is the 475th Fighter Group "Satan's Angels", which I suppose were painted on every Lightning in the squadron. Finally found some better pictures of it too with these new keywords in my searches.
Update- just found what I was looking for. The marking is the 475th Fighter Group "Satan's Angels", which I suppose were painted on every Lightning in the squadron. Finally found some better pictures of it too with these new keywords in my searches.
lol... was just going to chime in when I saw your update.
Looking really great!
joker24458
Active member
Got almost all the painting done today....still needs nose art, paint in the cockpit, and of course the landing gear covers which I still have to figure out how to do. Early end to the day today, going out to eat, but I figured I would share today's progress wth you all.
Another issue I wouldn't mind getting some input on... if you look at the Pudgy V you'll notice a circular emblem of the 431st FS Satan's Angels marking right on the tip of the nose. I'm not sure how I'm going to do that. With the two other Satan's Angels markings, I printed them out on white tissue wrapping paper and used spray adhesive to attach them to the plane. This won't work for the nose because it is so heavily contoured, and masking it off to paint on the same curved surface would be quite difficult....any ideas are welcome.
Another issue I wouldn't mind getting some input on...
if you look at the Pudgy V you'll notice a circular emblem of the 431st FS Satan's Angels marking right on the tip of the nose. I'm not sure how I'm going to do that. With the two other Satan's Angels markings, I printed them out on white tissue wrapping paper and used spray adhesive to attach them to the plane. This won't work for the nose because it is so heavily contoured, and masking it off to paint on the same curved surface would be quite difficult....any ideas are welcome. 
Darn nice work!
joker24458
Active member
Great question. I'd consider it just as strong as when I built it; I have not noticed any sort of deterioration of the structure. However, it has rarely seen sunlight so there's really no external factors like UV radiation or anything that could possibly make the hot glue yellow or otherwise mess up the foam. Of course I still handle it with care, as this model was built purely for indoor flying so it is as light as I could reasonably build it, meaning it not as resistant to harsh handling as "normal" builds (I have bumped it a few times before, light hangar rash is fine)....but you would be surprised (I was, at least) how much strength the outside sheet of foam adds to the structure. It's similar to monokoting a balsa wing, where it adds a lot of rigidity and torsional strength. So I'm not the least bit worried about the plane's structural integrity while it is in the air, but crashing I would imagine to be a whole other story.
Thanks man, and right back at you! I've seen some of your projects and you do some amazing work on them. I like your forum name too.
Your nose decal is a problem. Normally I would recommend a vinyl decal with a heat gun to adhere to the compound curve but is really not an option on your foam skin. You may have to settle with making tiny cuts to feather it in.
You could also do some experimentation... Print on the tissue but use a spray on fixative. Then use WBPU and see how well the tissue will conform to the surface. You may have some bubbles created but you can try lightly smoothing them out as it dries.
Really very impressive work. Glad to see it make it this far.
You could also do some experimentation... Print on the tissue but use a spray on fixative. Then use WBPU and see how well the tissue will conform to the surface. You may have some bubbles created but you can try lightly smoothing them out as it dries.
Really very impressive work. Glad to see it make it this far.
Have you considered 3d printing the gear covers? You would have to design them light and remove the infill, but I think it's a viable option. Thin wall PLA printing doesn't weight much and should be fairly resilient.
So for the nose image I have a thought, but it might be a bit overkill. I know a lot of prop and card model guys use an application called Pepakura (http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/) to design full models. I haven't used it in a while and never dug TOO far into it, but it could be used to create a model of the surface (nose of the aircraft in this case), put the image on it, and then flatten in out so it could be printed and folded/glued together. I suspect it could get you close enough to a smooth graphic if you took your time with it.
Like I said... Overkill for a nose graphic, but to be honest I suspect a modeler like yourself could find other uses for the software too
Like I said... Overkill for a nose graphic, but to be honest I suspect a modeler like yourself could find other uses for the software too
joker24458
Active member
Yeah, looking at the pictures the decal wouldn't even be that big. Wonder if it's possible to just stretch it across without it breaking, and smooth out the wrinkles later....
I thought about it before, but I already got Robart covers and have already installed them. Painted them today, did a base coat of white and a coat of silver. The silver coat may have been too light, so I'll go back with a second coat tomorrow. Airbrushing it seems to have worked decently though, which is great. I really want to get into 3D printing but I'm the type of person who would want a half decent printer, not something too cheap....all or nothing. Plus software like Simplify 3D and a bunch of filament (again, I'm that type of person lol) it would end up costing quite a bit more than I can spend on a printer right now. Yes, I could just go to 3D hubs or something, but again, I'm that kind of person who just needs to tinker with the printer myself.
So for the nose image I have a thought, but it might be a bit overkill. I know a lot of prop and card model guys use an application called Pepakura (http://www.tamasoft.co.jp/pepakura-en/) to design full models. I haven't used it in a while and never dug TOO far into it, but it could be used to create a model of the surface (nose of the aircraft in this case), put the image on it, and then flatten in out so it could be printed and folded/glued together. I suspect it could get you close enough to a smooth graphic if you took your time with it.
Like I said... Overkill for a nose graphic, but to be honest I suspect a modeler like yourself could find other uses for the software too
That seems like a very interesting option. I have put together some paper models from Fiddlers Green before, never was great at them....I prefer foam haha. This Pepakura thing seems like it could be a great solution for my problem,
it seems that the software is free so I'll give it a try. Hopefully won't be too difficult to learn, because I want to finish the build tomorrow....I go back to school on Thursday. We'll see.
I did some more painting and put together the cockpit/canopy....will post pics later.
joker24458
Active member
I'm happy to say....the Lightning is DONE! She has been a good 14 or so months in the making with quite a few breaks here and there, but she's finally done. She is painted in the colors of the last plane, "Pudgy V", of Major Thomas B. McGuire, America's second highest scoring ace with 38 kills who served with the 475th Fighter Group, and was awarded the Medal of Honor after his rather mysterious death in combat.
It was cloudy and windy outside today, so I wasn't able to take pictures outdoors. Here are some for the time being, but I will be posting more once the weather gives me a chance to.
I'm not sure if you can tell from the pictures but it is quite difficult to get the whole thing in one shot haha.
It was cloudy and windy outside today, so I wasn't able to take pictures outdoors. Here are some for the time being, but I will be posting more once the weather gives me a chance to.
I'm not sure if you can tell from the pictures but it is quite difficult to get the whole thing in one shot haha.
TexMechsRobot
Posted a thousand or more times
Meh.
I kid! Amazing job and I can't wait to see it fly!
I kid! Amazing job and I can't wait to see it fly!
joker24458
Active member
Thanks to everyone for the kind words and for the support during the build. I will likely be starting another big(ish) project very soon. Most likely a Fokker D.VII but that is subject to change. It will be built for indoors flying, so the power system doesn't become more expensive than it probably already is going to be and since I really have nowhere outdoors to fly a plane of this size....say a 1/3 scale model. That means a biplane with a wingspan a bit larger than 116".....!! If I cannot find a reasonably priced power system for that size of plane (or if other difficulties arise), I will possibly change the size to 1/4 scale. Despite the fact that it will be a biplane and a fair bit larger than the Lightning, it should still be much easier of a build simply due to the lack of complex curves that the P-38 has. Transportation will be a different story....not sure how it will fit inside the car just yet but I'll figure it out.
HilldaFlyer
Well-known member
I'm stunned at the complete build and detail. A very wholehearted congratulations and the very best wishes when it takes to the sky. Will be like flying a piece of art. Thanks for the instruction and great build ideas all the way through.
William_Conway
New member
Wow! Simply amazed at all the progress and how you've managed to stay dedicated for most of this build. You are a better man than I!
To respond to your most recent post, with an inexpensive power system to save money on, you might be able to afford to buy yourself a box truck. Looks like with a 2.94m wingspan build you may need it!
Good luck on the new build (if you choose to accept it) and hope that the P-38 flights end in one piece.
To respond to your most recent post, with an inexpensive power system to save money on, you might be able to afford to buy yourself a box truck.
Looks like with a 2.94m wingspan build you may need it!Good luck on the new build (if you choose to accept it) and hope that the P-38 flights end in one piece.
