Wings of Intent: "Green Hornet", P-38Lightning #66 - 3rd on Cleveland 1947 race

(Photo from SDASM photostream)

(The completed model is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/02/green-hornet-racer-1947-converted.html

Few airplanes are as beautiful as the Lightning; even more so in the vibrant colors of its civil schemes. Racing Lightnings are a good example of them, and fortunately there is no shortage of kits or aftermarket decals for the ones among us motivated to create a replica of such smart machines. In this case it will be “Green Hornet”, based on the more than 20 years-old Academy kit and dressed with Draw Decals. Strangely enough, this kit, sought by many, is now out of production and has been for a long time. Not sure why a winner with ample buying base is not re-issued. The old Minicraft/Hasegawa* offer is, compared to it, a poor and outdated rendition, and so are many Lightnings from other manufacturers. This is a well-known kit of a well-known plane, so it doesn’t need introduction or a too detailed building sequence/review. Of course all military equipment should be removed, any resulting holes or locating divots filled, and for this case some parts deleted and/or added (will discuss during assembly). Speaking of the old Minicraft/Hasegawa kit, with raised panel lines, scarce cockpit detail and in general not particularly appealing, it nevertheless allows the modeler to build J/L/F versions, facilitating the reproduction of racers that belonged to those, like N25Y #14, NX5101N “Flying Shamrock” #88, and -with other mods- NX25Y “Sky Ranger”. There are of course many others to choose from. Then there are the old and completely outdated Airfix and Revell kits, and the RS kit, a brand I build (and indeed have built) when I want a little of a Gulag kit-making experience, so I‘ll give that one a pass for this endeavor. The Dragon/DML kit has -as per reviewers and builders- severe fit issues that create many gaps adding to tedious work and the detail is not fantastic. Then there is the Italeri kit, fortunately with the same sprues as the Academy kit, so that’s what you try to get when there is no Academy P-38 on sight.

*I am building the Hasegawa kit here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/01/old-dog-new-tricks-p-38-lightning-racer.html

One very important thing to consider is to add weight to the nose (better than in front of the booms, as in the nose it will be a more effective 1st degree lever, being further from the CG /fulcrum) to avoid a tail-sitter.

Filling the depressions where the carb air intakes went (thanks Michael Derderian!). They were absent, at least in that guise, on the racer:

Opening the wing light, visible on the racer:

Depressions filled up. Photos show a blanking plate with that shape, so don't completely obscure the filling:

I either lost some parts of was cheeky-monkeyed (being this a second hand purchase). Among the missing parts was the nose. I used the nose from the Hasegawa kit which is very close to mold vacuformed parts. These were filled with Milliput. Once in place the home-made nose will be adjusted by sanding the small difference down to shape:

Base colors are airbrushed to multiple parts:

The racer didn't have formation lights or gun chutes, so these are filled up:

The upper wing has three inserts that are glued in place. The coaming is a good fit; the parts that embrace the supercharger will need a little filler:

Thanks again to Michael Derderian who clarified for me several aspects on the P-38 (and usually helps me with notes on my conversions of military planes, given the unfamiliarity of the subjects to me), it was established, based on the absence of the carb intakes on the side of the booms (moved to the front), that the supercharger was removed, thus some mods need to be done:

On this photo, it looks like the exhaust was moved a bit ahead, to where that "disk" (absent) usually is on the supercharger, and it looks bigger in size than the original:

Something like this (in red). The "disk" will need to be removed and the space filled:

Some general airbrushing of base colors:

Green Hornet had the prop blade tips clipped, so this needs to be replicated. The cuts seem to show bare metal exposed:

A rather simple cockpit interior. As mentioned, parts were missing from my kit (cockpit side walls in this case), so I am waiting for the Italeri clone boxing to arrive and be able to reproduce them:

As the wheel had a with rim, first the hubs are painted green, then masked and white airbrushed:

Then the white is in turn masked to apply the tire color:

The booms are glued after installing the wells (empty, no L.G. yet) and the "radiators". The fit was good. The prop blades' tips have been already chopped. Weights were put together with to the parts at hand in order not to forget to add it when closing the fuselage section:

Found the confirmation about the educated guess regarding the new configuration for the deleted part of the supercharger (the "disk/turbine") and in effect as suspected the area is blanked off and the exhaust goes now where the disk was, and not after it as before. This is great as I am planning to build the Le Vier plane, similarly altered:

A quick dry fit shows a good fit and no issues:

Each boom receives the five parts that constitute the intake front, the radiator lips and the radiator flaps. Here the fit is fair, but not very precise. A smudge of putty and some light sanding it's all what will be needed:

Two pieces of styrene sheet are carved to fill the turbine area, with a slot to let the exhaust ducting pass through. The kit parts are going to trimmed back to fit, and a new stack fabricated:

And as not to forget, 10 grams of weight are added to the nose on top of the wheel bay, verifying that the fuselage halves can still close properly and that the position doesn't interfere with the instrument panel location:

The wheels unmasked

Masks arrived together with the Italeri kit, so I could copy the cockpit side parts missing in the Academy kit:

First the general shape is cut from styrene sheet:

Then the details added, perhaps not exactly verbatim, but good enough:

The home-made cockpit sides replicated using the Italeri kit parts as guidance are ready:

They are installed on the cockpit pan, and in turn this is glued to the lower fuselage, the top fuselage is added, then the booms + stab and stab "ears". The fit is so good that it took about 5 minutes to do all this. Compared to the Academy/Italeri kits the old Hasegawa kit is quite lacking in almost every respect. I know it's not comparing apples to apples...but perhaps oranges to mandarins?:

Once the canopy is installed and masked, the model will be ready for priming:

Now for the new exhausts, shown to be bigger than the originals in photos. First a metal tube is slightly crimped into a teardrop shape, then cut to an angle on both ends, reamed, and the end sections cut:

Dry fit:

Canopy on and masked, a coat of interior green on it, and then primer for whole model:

A gloss white base for the green color:

Green airbrushed:

Humbrol has issues regarding consistency on every aspect of their enamel paints: shade, opacity and viscosity. From darker to lighter, from opaque to semi-translucent, from milk caramel to water. Green 3 is one that varies a lot, always surprising the modeler (in the wrong way). Also the same paint number (but a different tintlet) with the same thinner at the same proportion on the same airbrush with the same pressure in similar weather and humidity may take one day to dry (normal) to a week (abnormal).

HUMBROL: get a grip on the consistency of your enamels, is getting frustrating.

Landing gear and spinners on:

Now ready for the decals:

The decals arrived:

Application starts, all is well:

All decals have been applied. The large registrations were in a few places somewhat reluctant to completely adhere to the surface. I had so slit the lifted areas with a new razor blade and apply several times decal solution. Once the decals have finally set I will be doing the photo session and posting the completed model article (weather allowing):