Kit Hasegawa
1/48 P-38J JT1 : 3600
Additions
Aires 1/48 P-38J Cockpit 4113
True
Details P-38 Wheel Set 48063
Construction
I brought this
kit back in 2003 from my local hobby shop, after seeing an article on ARC
from Moses on his great looking P-38J with the Verlinden update set.
With
that I got in contact with Craig from Aeroworks to order in the Verlinden
update set, however at the time the Verlinden set was out of
production. The next best thing was the Aires Cockpit which had to
do. In 2007 I started the build, I think that another modeller said
in an article that this kit is plagued with fit problems and he wasn't joking.
I
started with the Aries cockpit and the modifications needed to make
the Aires cockpit fit into the kit, pictures 03, 04 and 05 show the removal
of the kit parts. I tend to use a lot of Aires parts for my kits to help
enhance the kit, however I think that Aires could explain in a little more
detail on how to fit their gear and it would help if more information was
added in their instructions on how much of the kit needs to be removed
for a better fit. Anyhow maybe in the future, so with a little trial
and error I managed to get the cockpit to fit all though some putty was
required to fill in some gaps. Now it was time to glue the fuselage halves
together and fill in any gaps that were made from the Aires cockpit.
Next
was the booms and they had some major fit problems as well
in assembling the two halves together with steps and gaps. Because of
the problem fit with the booms this contributed to the gaps between the
wings and the booms, nothing on this kit seem to fit right.
I used my rotary
tool and model saw to remove parts of the kit so that the Aires Cockpit
would fit, its all guess work and dry fitting.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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Photo 03 |
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Photo 04 |
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Photo 05 |
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Photo 06 |
Painting
and Finish
I painted the kit in Model
Master Aluminium and Model Master Titanium with a cote of gloss clear for
the decals. Applying the decals also gave me heart ache with the loss of one
of the nacelle decals, I used the wrong decal solution and the decal for
the left nacelle shrivelled up and could not be saved. But by the time this
had happened, I had already placed some of the main decals on the P-38.
After the problems I was having with the kit I put it
aside for a few weeks while I contemplated what to do? I sent Craig at
Aeroworks an E-mail on the of chance that he might be able to get a hold
of the same decals, none of the decals companies had ever done this decal
scheme. I then thought of getting out the oven cleaner and stripping the
entire kit and starting again with an other decal scheme from the other
choices that Hasegawa had included in the kit, but that would have been a
lot of work...
After a few weeks I
decided to bang up this P-38 with a heavy wear and tear look. As it was most of
the remanding decals didn't go onto to the kit with ease and looked crappy. After
the decals were on the kit and dry I went over the kit with some more
gloss clear to seal in the decals. With the gloss clear dry, I got out some
course wet rub paper and my hobby knife and started to experiment on making the
decals look like chipped paint. Chipping away with the hobby knife at the
decals, I then placed an extra thick layer of the pastel wash over the P-38 to
hopefully make the P-38 look like it had been to hell and back. Once the pastel
had been rubbed off.
Click on
images below to see larger images
It was now time for the Tamiya
pastel chalk for exhaust stains and magazine soot to give the P-38 its finished
touch, with some matt clear over the entire kit to seal in the pastel
chalk. I then finished off the P-38 with ordnance, drop tanks and cockpit
window, not as happy with the finish as I would have like to have been
maybe in a few years I will rebuild it like I'm doing with a few old kits.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Thanks
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To Craig from
Aeroworks for getting hold of the Aires Cockpit and True Detail Wheels. You
can reach Craig at aeroworks@iprimus.com.au for
all your modelling needs.
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To Steve Bamford
for his great job with keeping ARC going.
Alan
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