Revell 1/32 P-38M Night Lightning Shady Lady
By Suresh Nathan
I’ve been working myself up to this model for the longest time. I had gotten all the pieces but was hindered by the lack of decals. At some point (it was late I remember, and a 6-pack of Bud had something to do with it but after that everything was a blur) I decided to bite the bullet and go for it.
I decided to go with Revell for the base kit with the J Rutman P-38M conversion and P-38 upgrade. Also, Waldron provided the instrument panel. Yes, yes, I know, the Trumpeter kit is the de facto P-38 standard but truth is I am a little nostalgic about these things and I do like the general shape of the Revell offering. The Trumpeter kit (which I do have) is a little, well, wimpy (IMHO).
Anyway, I started by sanding down the entire kit and rescribing panel lines according to drawings in Squadron’s P-38 Lightning In Action. Riveting was kept to a minimum. Anyone attempting this should realize that the Revell panel lines are (totally) off.
Next I made a plaster male cast of the kit canopy and vacuum-formed a couple of canopies (this served as both the cockpit mask during painting as well as the final canopy (which was dipped in Future floor wax).
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I trimmed off all air brakes and scoops and vacuum formed new ones over the cut-off bits.
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All bits were dry- fitted repeatedly.
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Choosing the instrument panel was a challenge. As can be seen, the Waldron set was the clear winner. I didn’t use the rest of the Waldron set because the Rutman set was available. Truth is, the Waldron set is extremely accurate but just too fiddly (you’d expect a Liluputian pilot to get in an fly the thing off when your done!)
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I painted the cockpit details and glued everything in place. Alas, by the time I was done, the instrument panel couldn’t be seen. (Sigh!) At least, as they say, I know it’s there.
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With the mock canopy in place, I sprayed the whole plane Tamiya satin black (from the can). This was then panel shaded using blue grey.
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The plane was covered in gloss varnish and decaled – the roundels and fuel port rings came from an old Superscale set. Stenciling was done by hand. The nose art was hand-painted. Interestingly, in my earlier research I thought that the plane I was depicting was “Sassy Lady”.
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I learned only much later that it was “Shady Lady” who was far less skimpily dressed. I made the changes and the craft was none the worse for wear. Interestingly, these two shots also show the nose undercarriage which I had to change few times to get the look I wanted. The light for the nose-wheel came from the spare part box. Note the crew ladder at the back of the middle sponson.
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The whole model was coated in gloss varnish. Burnt sienna oil wash was generously applied and wiped off in a front to back direction. Chipping was done lightly with a scribing tool which allowed grey primer or silver kit plastic to show through (very convenient). Next soot, gunpowder streaks, oil-streaks, etc were added with an airbrush.
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The undercarriage from J Rutman needed a little work to get it to fit right (lots of epoxy and gap-filling superglue). The all-metal struts were needed, as the kit requires a lot of weight to keep the nose down. I tend to think that the kit offering is actually more accurate but in the end strength won out to style. Styrene bits and wiring finished the job.
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The left wing light was done by cutting a section of wing off, putting a lens into the defect and vacuum forming the glass cover over it.
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I like figures in my displays. These are hard to come by in this scale. If I can’t find them, I make them. The figures I used for this build came from PJ Productions and Andrea Miniatures.
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The venerable Andrea figure, IMHO, sets the standard for US fighter pilot figures. The figure has been copied at least twice and is in a word beautiful.
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The PJ offering is by comparison not beautiful. With a lot of work and sculpting to add on volume to the limbs and a parachute with straps it’s pretty decent. Oh and don’t forget to hollow out the goggles.
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The figures in place you get a real feel for the size of this lady.
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© Suresh Nathan 2005
This article was published on Wednesday, July 20 2011; Last modified on Saturday, May 14 2016