Airfix 1/72 P-38 Lightning at RAF Warmwell

[null_null981707818191]

The milliput has hardened successfully, and after sanding and polishing, it looks to me to be at least adequate for my purposes!

Time to start undercoating.

A question for Randall: would the drop tanks have been left as BMF/aluminium finish, or would they be painted to match the underside of the aircraft (in this case USAAF Light Grey)?

[Ratch]

That's worked well.

IIRC drop tanks were not painted. Some of them were made of card - a sort of papier mache.

[SD45elect2000]

It’s a great question, I’ll need to do some more research. So far it’s looking like I might remove a bunch of tanks from my Lightnings…..

Randall

[SD45elect2000]

It appears the tanks were painted grey at the factory. So the paint on the aircraft might not match the tanks.

Randall

[null_null981707818191]

Thanks for that Randall. i think I'll paint them a different shade of grey to the rest of the underside. Good info as always!

[null_null981707818191]

What started life as the Airfix 1/72 P38F, has, by the addition of the correct air intakes, hopefully come out the other end as a P-38J flown by 1^st Lt Roland E Levey as part of the 474^th FG, 429^th FS, 9^th Air Force based at RAF Warmwell between March and August 1944. The aircraft was known as ‘Yellow no. 799’, and according to the information and pictures that I’ve found, the nose code number was stencilled in yellow, as was the serial number on the tail. The white triangle was the 429thFS recognition symbol, and the white ’P’ inboard on the tailplanes was also documented. So hopefully it’s as accurate a representation as it was possible to get with the starting point of the rather old kit. One more aircraft ticked off my RAF Warmwell list!

[SD45elect2000]

Nice clean build!

now I can copy it…

Randall

[Hurricane Boy]

Very nice job!

The old kit was not bad at all and your skills and conversion have made a top notch model.

Cheers,

Tim

[null_null981707818191]

Many thanks for your kind words Randall and Tim. I have to admit that at times I wondered whether to ditch the P-38 project, but on balance, I'm glad I persevered. Ironically, the additional cost of the air-intake conversion parts, and the yellow stencil decals (two sets required due to multiple 7s being needed) cost almost exactly three times what the original models had cost. Such is the price of pursuing a project!

The next RAF Warmwell aircraft will, I think. be the ASR Spitfire VB flown by 275 Squadron during D-Day. Problem with that is the Airfix 1/72 kit has raised panel lines, so might involve some sanding and engraving...