1/72 Academy P-38J

by Hiran Horta

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    I painted the interior of interior green and later, I made the details of the lateral panels in black color.  As the kit does not come with seat belts, nor did I have photo etched ones of the correct type, I used a piece of Tamya tape and painted them brown and with buckle details in silver. 

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         The detail of the part behind the seat is large than it should be, thus catching the pilots head cushion.   I then came to the instrument panel.  I remembered one technique using a colored pencil for the highlighting of the instrument panel details.  Then, I grabbed some of my son's 3 pencils, a white, a silver and a red.  In a glass of thinner, I placed the tip of the white pencil.  I waited 20 minutes for the tip to become soft.   While I waited, I painted of black color the instrument panel.  After it was dry, I used the pencil white and I colored the panel, logical that it marked all the instruments. But also some areas that that did not want it marked. I then had to use a dry brush and fix the panel, not to leave marks in places that did not want. I repeated the operation to detail the panel.  I also did the details that go under the panel.  And with the red pencil I painted the "trigger" in the stick. The advantages of this technique to me are: Cheap, and doesn't require much experience or a steady hand.  

The Assembly of the kit, was not so easy, what it was complicated is getting the nose right which required 2 types of Putty, (Tamya and Green).  I had to apply filler 4 times to get satisfactory results.  I alos used putty on the seam between the wings and fuselage.

As is characteristic of this airplane, the Academy kit requires one weight of NN gram weight inside the nose of the airplane, to be able to balance well.  I also placed weights in the engines. Thus I obtained a good relation of weight for the center of gravity of exactly.  The painting of the model was done with car paint, using as comparison base the American F.S.  The kit in itself is good.  I planned to do extra work on it, but I found that I lost much time with cited rabbets.

Hiran

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Photos and text © by Hiran Horta