[AX 365]

Having just completed my Sabre for the In Defence of Europe GB, I can now start this project. It's the 3 in 1 boxing (Bong's "Marge", a droop snoot or a nightfighter) of the kit. It'll be a P-38J or L but I'm not sure which markings. I have the kit decals for Marge but I also have AeroMaster's Lightnings in Drab Battle Dress (48-084) and Pacific Lightnings (48-554).

Sheet 084 has markings for the 55th and 365th FGs in Europe as well as the 80th FG in India. All are OD over grey. Sheet 554 has J model, OD over grey, from the 431st FS, 475th FG and an L model from 35th FS, 8th FG which is natural metal.

Decisions...decisions...

This post has been edited by AX 365: 01 June 2012 - 04:10 PM

[Neo]

Nice to have you on board

cant wait to see how this will turn out

[AX 365]

Thanks Neo and thank you to you and blunce for moderating.

I've got the cockpit assembled and installed and I've glued the upper and lower wing and centre fuselage together. The cockpit is somewhat spartan and the fit into the centre pod leaves a bit to be desired. There are a few gaps but no deal breakers as far as I'm concerned. Having said that, the join of the upper and lower halves was surprisingly good. There should only be a minimal amount of sanding required to make the seam presentable. I'm not sure about the booms and their join to the wings. We'll see how that goes.

The canopy is made up of five pieces. I have the EZMasks for the Hasegawa P-38 and hopefully they'll be a comparable fit for this glass. Masking would be a bit of a PITA.

As for decals, I'm leaning towards either the 55th or 356th FG markings from the ETO.

I'm off for the next 11 days and the missus is going to be out of town for the better part of them. There should be some serious plastic time for your truly. I'll post some photos tomorrow of the progress and decal options.

Thanks for looking in.

Mike

[AX 365]

Here are the photos as promised.

Wings and center nacelle


Cockpit


Seam join


Sample of gaps


Other parts ready for assembly


Kit decals


AeroMaster sheet 084


Aeromaster sheet 554


More photos to follow as progress is made. Thanks for looking.

Mike

[Bigasshammm]

Oof that looks like it's going to be a lot of work.

[AX 365]

 Bigasshammm, on 29 March 2012 - 02:37 PM, said:

Oof that looks like it's going to be a lot of work.

It looks worse than it is. A lot of it has been scraped down and sanded out already this afternoon. There is still more work to be done on that particular seam but it should end up looking not too bad.

The bigger problem will be the booms joining the wings. The top joint isn't too bad. There's a 1/16" or so gap between the wing and the boom, inside and outside, on both sides. I'll post some photos to illustrate the cavern later on. Patience, a bit of plasticard. some filler and a bit of elbow grease should do the trick.

Thanks for checking in, BAH!

Mike

[AX 365]

Ballast weight added. Small steel sinkers - one in each boom, forward of the main gear and a smaller one in the nose.



The gaps where the booms attach to the wings. Plasticard + filler + elbow grease (sanding sticks + wet sanding) = acceptable results. Hopefully!







Most of the gaps can be filled with plasticard. Will work on this over the weekend and post more photos when results are obtained.

Thanks for looking.

Mike

[Bigasshammm]

bye bye rivet detail

you going to rescribe it?

[AX 365]

 Bigasshammm, on 30 March 2012 - 08:04 PM, said:

bye bye rivet detail

you going to rescribe it?

Although I haven't completely finished filling the gaps, things haven't turned out too bad. If I play my cards right, I may not have to do any sanding or rescribing at all. I've filled in the large gaps with plasticard stock. The good thing about these gaps is that there was no step in the joint. The tops and bottoms were directly above each other with no offset. The stock has been glued into place and there is virtually no seam to deal with. Any small gaps will be filled with gap filling CA or Testor's Clear Parts Cement. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I should be ok with this. We'll see.

[AX 365]

Here are some photos of the progress made since the last post.

This is the result of some plastic card stock, Tamiya thin cement, a few clamps and some Testors clear parts cement. The boom gaps illustrated in the photos above have virtually disappeared.



The model is moulded to allow the gun bays and ammo storage to be visible. I chose to button things up. To this point, this had been the most frustrating part of the build. The gaps on the door joint to the forward fuselage is atrocious. Gaps and steps galore. Plastic card, glue, putty, sanding (for the most part with a Q-tip soaked with nail polish remover to remove putty but not detail) and more clear parts cement. It's not too bad but I'll see how much more work is needed after the first coat of primer.



The gap where the horizontal stab fits through the booms was massive. I glued the stabilizer to the top of the opening as it would be most visible. The gap underneath was frightening. This gap was willed with clear parts cement alone. The extent of the gaps is visible here.



The five piece canopy is now the bane of my existence. The only pieces that fit half decently are the front and rear parts. The other three centre parts (top and side windows) have required me to keep a bottle of scotch beside the bench. Not a bad thing necessarily but... The canopy is so much work, I've just ordered a couple of Squadron vacuform canopies (as well as a few other 1/32 scale Sabre goodies ) from Gordo at Sprue Brother. So, until I receive my order from Gordon (usually about three weeks), except for a few minor bits of work, this build is pretty well on hold at this stage of completion:



Thanks for checking in. I'll post more photos as things progress.



Mike

[Neo]

Sweet update there Amazing job on those wing root seams!!! Keep at the nose and im sure you will be able to make it amazing

Cheers


Neo

[AX 365]

Thanks for the pick me up, Neo. Mucho appreciado. On a side note, I had to add more weight to the nacelles to counter the added weight of the horizontal stabilizer.

This post has been edited by AX 365: 12 April 2012 - 06:41 PM

[AX 365]

 AX 365, on 11 April 2012 - 06:09 PM, said:

The canopy is so much work, I've just ordered a couple of Squadron vacuform canopies (as well as a few other 1/32 scale Sabre goodies ) from Gordo at Sprue Brother. So, until I receive my order from Gordon (usually about three weeks), except for a few minor bits of work, this build is pretty well on hold at this stage of completion

WOW

The order was filled and in the USPS system within two hours of my sending it and it was at the USPS processing facility in Kansas City within 4 hours. Now let's see how long it takes to go through the entire USPS, Customs and Canada Post services chain.

Two hours. Gordo is the man!

[Bigasshammm]

Yea Sprue is the fastest by far.

[ALF18]

Mike
You've done a fantastic job dealing with the poor fit on this kit - especially the wing to boom joints. I understand the head-banging emoticon, believe me... seems the last few builds I've done have been in the same category. Just finished my commission-build Tutor for a colleague, in kitchen foil - new glue tried, and it was a real bear. And of course, the CF-5 conversion from Belcher Bits was a 10.5 on the difficulty scale for me. I don't think I'd have the patience you're showing to fix all these seams.
Bonne chance, mon ami!
ALF

[AX 365]

Thanks ALF! There were a few expletives thrown around the bench while filling and sanding so it has been refreshing to let it sit while I awaited the arrival of the vacuform canopies. Speaking of which, they arrived in the mail within the past few days and we picked them up from the mailbox on Wednesday night. I've never worked with vacuform before so this will be a challenge. I have plenty of new blades and sanding sticks at the ready. I just hope that I don't bugger everything up. Patience would appear to be the key. It's a full weekend but maybe some free time on Sunday evening. We'll see.

[AX 365]

No photos but I did manage to get one of the canopies separated and sanded up. We'll see how well I do at attaching it later.

[AX 365]

Well the canopy is masked and on. Looks pretty good. For the most part, she's complete. I added a couple of items this morning and the glue is still drying. I hope to spray some paint this afternoon. I brushed on some Tamiya aluminum paint over the joints. They're pretty good. They'll never be perfect and I can live with the results...unless they look so horrible with the final paint then I'll fix things. It's going to be painted OD over Neutral Grey. Which markings? Still undecided at this point.

Will post more photos later. Thanks for looking.

Mike

[AX 365]

Another small update...

I just finished painting the neutral grey. Next step will be masking for the olive drab. I'm leaning towards CL * T, 'Stinger' from the 55th FG. The nose area around the guns is red so it, along with the nose art, will add a bit of colour to the grey / green scheme. Will post photos when the painting is done some time next week hopefully.

[Neo]

NEXT WEEK !!!! I cant wait that long ..... trow me a bone !!