TheMadModeller
I'm back, with a vengeance as they say, with plenty of display space! Among the first projects I'm tackling is this train wreck. It's a project of sentimentality, in honor of my father, whom built this same kit for me when I was only in my 2nd year of primary/grammar school. Currently I'm trying to figure out if I'm going to be able to fix shape errors in the base kit or if I'm going to have to "bash" it with a second P-38. I'd rather keep most of the original kit for obvious reasons ... & perhaps a mild masochistic streak? XD

Of course I'm going to be adding copious amounts of copper sheeting, wire & card stock to build it's office & wheel wells since there isn't much available for early mark P-38s to adapt to this kit. Furthermore this is the ONLY Lockheed F-4 Lightning in the scale that even takes a stab at laying out what's in the photo reconnaissance nose. It BASICALLY looks like things are where they're meant to be but naturally I'll be reducing it to bare bones & putting it in more crisp details. (Thank goodness I have bifocals now 'cuz at my age I don't think I could still do this in braille scale!)

I will also be sanding the exterior raised panel line details & engraving new panel lines across the board. It's been around a decade since I've had to endure that headache. Originally I was going to try to recreate rivet detail with a hypodermic needle but I've thought better of it. IF I had a riveting tool in this scale I'd probably use that instead but I'll abstain for this project.

At first I was enthusiastic about the fact that the gear wells were boxed in & that there was a canopy tub. Then when I really got into the references I realized something. In some cases if those things are done wrong it only makes things worse when it comes to fixing them. The main gear wells are very shallow, featureless & the landing gear doors fit flush to the edges of the bottom of the wells which ... well just isn't how it works. Ugh... Thankfully I have a fresh saw handy! The nose gear well will be a nightmare of cable & modest bulkheads. I'm seriously wondering if there's going to be enough copper added inside of this bird that it won't be necessary for added weight!

For all my complaints I'm excited to finally get elbows deep into this project!