Tamiya P-38J Wicked Woman

[CANicoll]

Awesome work Rob!!  I have the H kit and have been waffling about the rivets.  Your work is AMAZING however.  Thanks for the details on how you applied them - a huge help to those of us who haven't taken the leap yet.  That cockpit is also a work of art.  Agree on the seatbelts, but also that the HGW ones are a PITA to put together.

Beautiful!!

Chris

[DocRob]

Thank you Chris, I think, the kit can be build without extra rivets beautifully, especially under olive drab and grey. For me it is more of an experiment, how riveting looks under polished aluminum. 
The Quinta seatbelts are not up to HGW, but to be fair, without a macro lens they look ok at least.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

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

[CANicoll]

Rob, still looks freaking amazing under the gloss black!  I may have to give it a go.  Even under Olive Drab.  How much of a problem was air under the rivets when you were laying them down, especially over the panel lines?

Cheers,

Chris

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, CANicoll said:

Rob, still looks freaking amazing under the gloss black!  I may have to give it a go.  Even under Olive Drab.  How much of a problem was air under the rivets when you were laying them down, especially over the panel lines?

Muchas gracias Chris, air or water bubbles wer not really a problem. You have to work 'wet in wet', meaning, let the decal on the soaked carrier film slide carefully into position onto a film of water. The detergent helps, that the water does not pool and cover the entire surface, where the decal has to sit.
A damp flat brush helps to press the small amount of bubbles away, along with a rubber decal applicator. The problem is sometimes, to see the bubbles, with black rivets over gloss black surface, but if you plan other than NMF, you can chose another base color.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

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

[Martinnfb]

Smooth as silk ! 

[DocRob]

15 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

Smooth as silk ! 

Thanks Martin, the look is even better to the real eye, I tried to capture it under different light settings, but got meh. Unfortunately, I found a fingerprint, which was hidden onto the base layer. I tried to rub it away with some chrome pigments, but failed. I will try to overspray the area gently.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

BRAVO! Absolutely spectacular NMF and the anti-glare panels looks fantastic as well. 🏆 Patience of a saint and the results are the 'the proof is in the pudding'. 

I've been using Quinta sets on every build if they are available and I do like the seatbelts quite a lot. I used them on my Tamiya P-38F, they might be a bit on the thick side bit look just fine when the office is all sealed up and done. My decals are scheduled to be delivered today and once here, I'll be on the home stretch.

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, Peterpools said:

BRAVO! Absolutely spectacular NMF and the anti-glare panels looks fantastic as well. 🏆 Patience of a saint and the results are the 'the proof is in the pudding'. 

I've been using Quinta sets on every build if they are available and I do like the seatbelts quite a lot. I used them on my Tamiya P-38F, they might be a bit on the thick side bit look just fine when the office is all sealed up and done. My decals are scheduled to be delivered today and once here, I'll be on the home stretch.

Thank you Peter, the NMF looks spectacular, but there are some tiny flaws as well. I managed to overspray the fingerprint, I found and polished over it, to blend the color. There are tiny imperfections here and there, but in all, I'm satisfied with the outcome.
The Quinta sets are good, better than most of the Eduard IP's ,but I prefer Yahu IP's, at least, when they are correct (not always the case) The belts look a bit like what they are, plastic. To be fair, without a macro lens and through the canopy they look ok.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

I'll need to try the Yahu IP's, as I've yet to do so. Wish HGW would start doing seatbelts and harnesses in 48th scale - I would jump all over them.

 

[DocRob]

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

[Martinnfb]

Ok Doc., now you’re just showing off 😆. Stunning finish. 

[KevinM]

Boy I bet you wear gloves playing with that one canopy looks awesome Rob.

[Peterpools]

Rob

Spectacular NMF and the rivets .. right over the top. Just an awesome build. 🏆

[DocRob]

16 hours ago, Martinnfb said:

Ok Doc., now you’re just showing off 😆. Stunning finish. 

 

12 hours ago, KevinM said:

Boy I bet you wear gloves playing with that one canopy looks awesome Rob.

 

9 hours ago, Peterpools said:

Spectacular NMF and the rivets .. right over the top. Just an awesome build. 🏆

Thank you amigos, imho the best appearance for a P-38J. The shiny aluminum fits the sleek and powerful design best and yes, I wear gloves and sunglasses .

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Good call - wearing gloves and wearing sunglasses is the only way to go😎

 

[belugawhaleman]

Outstanding NMF , Rob!

[CANicoll]

Rob, really stunning finish!  Love the work on the canopy and everything looks so very clean in the pics.  Agree on the need for a absolute shiny and consistent base when doing NMF - you nailed it perfectly!  Fantastic mirror image of the canopy in the wing on one of the pictures.  That is high reflection!

In the end, would you do the rivets again?  The look on the P-38 is simply amazing.  What polishing do you do on the clear pieces?  They also look fantastic.

Super job!!

Chris

[Bomber_County]

Rob, wow and wow, absolutely stunning finish. You have surpassed yourself on this one……….still looking at my attempt at NMF on my 51D and yup nowhere near your standards……….I’ll leave it on the SOD for awhile longer…..congrats…..

[KUROK]

Gorgeous P-38!

The rivets are a game changer.  I was not aware of them being available for purchase ... but I am now...  LOL

 

 

[PanzerWomble]

Thats a beauty Rob. 

[HubertB]

Beautiful, Rob ! And these rivet decals do add a lot to the finished look. 
Well done, Sir !

 

Hunert

[DocRob]

On 9/3/2023 at 3:58 PM, CANicoll said:

Rob, really stunning finish!  Love the work on the canopy and everything looks so very clean in the pics.  Agree on the need for a absolute shiny and consistent base when doing NMF - you nailed it perfectly!  Fantastic mirror image of the canopy in the wing on one of the pictures.  That is high reflection!

In the end, would you do the rivets again?  The look on the P-38 is simply amazing.  What polishing do you do on the clear pieces?  They also look fantastic.

Super job!!

 

On 9/6/2023 at 1:21 PM, Bomber_County said:

Rob, wow and wow, absolutely stunning finish. You have surpassed yourself on this one……….still looking at my attempt at NMF on my 51D and yup nowhere near your standards……….I’ll leave it on the SOD for awhile longer…..congrats…..

 

On 9/6/2023 at 11:12 PM, KUROK said:

Gorgeous P-38!

The rivets are a game changer.  I was not aware of them being available for purchase ... but I am now...  LOL

 

On 9/9/2023 at 9:10 PM, PanzerWomble said:

Thats a beauty Rob. 

 

On 9/9/2023 at 10:43 PM, HubertB said:

Beautiful, Rob ! And these rivet decals do add a lot to the finished look. 
Well done, Sir !

Muchas gracias señhores, I used the experiences gained with my recently finished 1/12 Renault RE20 for the polished aluminum. The main goal was no more masking after the aluminum application. Therefore, anti glare panels nose area and wing and tail strips were airbrushed on before using aluminum. Masking was a bit more work, specially around the curved nose area.
I chose a scheme without invasion stripes and selected the hopefully best quality decals from Bombshell, printed by Cartograph, because I want to work with lukewarm soap water only.

The purpose of the build was to get the maximum possible shiny NMF as a challenge and secondly adding the rivets, of course Which went better than expected. The idea of having complete area covering decals instead of single rivets, which you have in the end with HGW's products for example, seems to work out, being less delicate to handle.

@CANicoll I would do the riveting again, without doubt, Chris. The process is time consuming, but with good surface preparation, there are less difficulties than thought. I think my -G/H model of the P-38 will be without riveting, as I'm not sure, how they look under a dull OD coat, but maybe...

Most of the clear parts were not polished and I used no Future bath this time, as clarity was very good. The aft clear canopy had a scratch , hey it's Tamiya, but it was there and it disturbed me. I used the Tamiya polish system with it's three different grains to get rid of that.

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

After my vacations, finally an update. I tried to finish the P-38 and mainly did over the last days. The prop hubs with black and white parts gave me grieve and now I airbrushed them for the third time, very annoying. That's why they are not on the pics.

I carefully applied the decals, which behaved very well and on the aluminum, you can barely see carrier film. The white pinstripes around the black nose panels, where a bit difficult to master, but thankfully the thin strips were robust enough not to tear. The stencils are not complete, but I don't know, if I apply the rest. There were quite a lot of differences, between the Tamiya decal plan for the stencils and the ones I used from Bombshell. I used only warm water with some drops of detergent, because I didn't want to spoil my surfaces with aggressive solvents.

I painted the navigation and formation lights with clear colors, picked up some other details and then added the non weathered wheels only sprayed in one black shade, untypical for me.
I used the kit wheels, flattened with a sanding stick, because my Ultracast wheels didn't look too good and the Eduard masks wouldn't have fitted. 

The barrels are made of brass by Master and got a treatment with a patinating liquid, which give a matte brown black look, which I find very convincing.

Cheers Rob