Old Dog, New Tricks: P-38 Lightning racer - Minicraft-Hasegawa 1/72nd conversion + Arctic Decals

 (Photo from the SDASM photostream)

Old Dog, New Tricks

(The completed model is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/02/p-38-lightning-racer-1948-national-air.html

Why build a P-38 Lightning racer if you can build three? I had acquired on the cheap an old Hasegawa P-38 to get the external fuel tanks in order to build the Kingcobra racer “Flying Red Horse”, and now in the middle of the build of the Academy P-38 “Green Hornet” racer (posted here in this blog):

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/01/green-hornet-p-38lightning-66-3rd-on.html

 I had a look at the Hasegawa kit to see if I could convert it into yet another civil plane. To my surprise, and in spite of the Hasegawa imprimatur, what I saw in the box was pretty... how shall I call it...primitive. I know this is an old kit, from circa 1980, but I was pretty disappointed anyway. Raised panel lines were a given, but absence of control wheel, instrument panel and main wheel bays? Also an unrealistic and too shallow front LG gear bay. Really, Hasegawa? I felt pretty tempted to trash the whole thing, also considering that two of the tail booms halves were a short poor, something that quality control should have caught. The (two) canopies offer no posing options, being a one-piece affair. Summarizing: a kit below standards, also comparing it to the best of its time. If this would have been a lesser brand, then ok, but Hasegawa? I have only built two other Hasegawa kits before, quite old too, and they were pretty basic. Perhaps Hasegawa eventually refined their products in the last decades, I wouldn’t know as I am not attracted to their subjects so I don’t buy their kits.

The only silver-lining was that the kit allows you to build different versions -if you can stomach the general kit quality, that is. I started by engraving some of the panel lines using the pre-existing raised ones as a guide and then worked to correct the short pour on the fin/rudders. Later added some resemblance of a wheel bay for the booms, and started to delete any obvious military detail. If you have one of these, just get the Academy or Italeri kits, I am only doing this because a Shaolin Modeling Monk doesn’t shy from a kit challenge and because I do not like to throw kits in the bin, even when they may deserve it. The fixing work keeps my fingers nimble, and the associated frustration helps to strengthen my build-meditation powers (see "The Zen Art of Building Poor Kits", Evil Editors, Volkania, Year of the Marzipan). In the process I opted to build an alternative variant for which Hasegawa provides the parts, and conform the model to represent N25Y #14 racer. This necessitating changing the carb air intakes position, chopping off the wing tips and stab external extensions, fairing-over the deleted turbocharger and some other minor changes. You may ask: is it worth it, working on an old dog like this surprisingly poor Hasegawa relic? A resounding NO, but what a heck, and brother, ain't it fun. And I build for fun, makes me happy. 

Holes in the wings are plugged with stretched sprue:

Short pours, shame on you Hasegawa:

The external tanks positions are plugged with slices of the tank mounts:

The normal position of the carb air intakes is plugged. The fixing of the short pours on the tail started:

The short pour mending work proceeds. Fun isn't it? I love fixing manufacturers mistakes and poor quality control!

A resemblance of wheel bays, better than Hasegawa's alternative:

Adding the missing control wheel and instrument panel, an unforgivable oversight by Hasegawa:

Still working on correcting the short pours:

Hasegawa presents the possibility, by deeply scoring the area, of removing those sections and build an alternative variant:

Parts removed, relatively easily:

On the bottom right the discards, to the left the alternate parts in the kit:

After removal of the sections, the booms become of course somewhat flimsy, so beware. The two-part alternate sections are glued together:

Test fitting showed trouble ahead. Strip flanges are internally glued on the booms to help aligning and supporting the plugs

Spread bars are installed on the new parts to obtain a matching external surface. As you may imagine, the fit is far from perfect, no matter how careful you are, so more work ahead guaranteed:

Changes needed to build the racer:
 

Stab external sections removed and faired, restored short pour areas on the tail:

Wingtips chopped and faired:

Added bulkheads to avoid a see-trough problem. Hasegawa in a sort of half-apology provides the landing gear doors closed (you can easily separate them) as if to saying "We were a bit lazy working on the interior of this kit, but you can close everything and nobody will know". Cheeky, I say.

The bulkheads will provided some help closing those wheel bays:

 Some basic colors are airbrushed. Hasegawa molded a panel inside the radiators to avoid a see-through effect, this area is painted iron:

The booms are glued embracing the landing gear legs (which are keyed), then the inserts for this variant are added. The fit of course is not good, and some seams were shimmed. Better buy some stock from the putty and sanding industries, as you will be contributing to their sells:

Hasegawa has molded two lights, one of each wing, but the modeler has to open them up. Here only one is needed:

The wheels were capped on the outsides. I didn't have to right size of punchers, and the circles were too small for my cutting divider, so I sharpened metal tubes and punched the discs from thin styrene sheet:

In place:

A bit of added detail and the cockpit will look ok with the closed canopy the kit provides:

After adding about 10 grams of nose weight* the cockpit pan is glued and then the fuselage closed. In the background the second round of puttying is ongoing:

* (That would be for you, proud medieval and retrograde folks, about a third of what you call "an ounce")

And now a question for you all about the color of this racer. Below is the only color photo I found of it. It looks either reddish (brick/orangy) or a reddish metallic copper tone. Compare with the red Kendall logo on the fuselage side (arrow pointing at it). 

1) Does anyone know for sure the color of this racer? 

2) The "lightning" nose trim could be cream or perhaps gold? 

3) Also, the little winged logo, any ideas?.

Thanks for your help.

 Two more small bulkheads are added to the bays to avoid see-through. The nose gun locations are plugged with lengths of styrene rod, later to be trimmed back and sanded smooth:

Tim Kalina found the logo (J. D. Reed Co) Thanks, Tim!

Meanwhile, and opposite to the Academy kit (left), Hasegawa's had to be sent to the torture chamber to be tamed (no component really fits well):

Clamps off and some more topical putty. The other side looks like a putty battlefield:

The Pitot on this plane is mounted on the nose via a cupped tip:

A piece of sprue is first drilled  in the middle, then carved pointy, then the tip cut off:

A toothpick is inserted:

And very carefully it's carved at the base to fit the radius of the curvature of the plane's nose with a round drill bit:

This plane as explained had the turbochargers removed and faired over. Styrene sheet was cut to shape, curved and glued. Later on a bead of thick superglue will be run from inside to add strength, and the added part sanded smooth. Once this is done and the canopy is installed and masked, the model will be primed:

The turbocharger area covers are now flush with the booms. They still need a little cut out to clear the end of the exhaust. Notice the difference with the other Lightning in progress on a different post (Green Hornet): this one had the covers following the volume of the boom, while the other had just a sheet covering and following the "excavated" space of the removed turbocharger. This here is an aerodynamically cleaner solution, the other is more straightforward and to a degree simpler and more practical, but being drag one of the banes of racing, this solution was perhaps better overall:

The air scoops as discussed were moved from the boom sides to the top ahead of the remaining trunk left from the supercharger. Re-using the kit's parts requires removing the locating stubs and making new "teardrop" ones cut from strut material matching photos of the original plane:

Now they are ready to be added:

And already glued in the new position:

Now for the new exhausts, shown to be bigger than the original 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 coat of primer:

Thanks to "Rabbit Vibes" for posting the link -in the comments section- to the color photo corroborating the metallic copper paint; in the nick of time as I was proceeding to paint tomorrow! 

 So the color will be in the general region of this American Gyro Crusader model I built time ago, first as a scratch in 2008, and of course, years later in 2018 the kit appeared, as all scratchbuilders know:

Kit (2018):

Scratch (2008):

For those interested: a 1948 National Air Races reel where some famous racers can be seen:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=BlzABS5ORQQ

and a 1939 one also with renowned racers:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCkNIL8d9-Y

And also related:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHJfWkhzHhU

The Pitot and its mount are being readied:

And glued in place. Now waiting for the canopy masks to start painting. This Hasegawa spawn is so old, that the masks have the Eduard designator CX001. It's long OOP, and I couldn't find one even in the most inaccessible crags of the Interweb. So I ordered a couple of mask sets for other kits to combine them and hopefully make up for any differences. Oh the joys of modeling! 

The gloss black base for the Alclad copper is airbrushed, without forgetting the ancillaries. A funny thing: I spent some time looking for the spinner back plates, thinking I have lost them. Then looking at the instructions I realized Hasegawa provides none. You just stick the spinner against the boom (there is some dubious provision for the prop to spin, but I don't see how that can work): 

Some of the paints in the Alclad range are notorious for experiencing changes through time, generally getting darker and eventually in some cases congealing into a grainier, or gloopier state. Copper is one of them, and since last time I used it, the shine got slightly darker:

So I had to airbrush a coat of red as a new base for the copper Alclad in order to keep using the same bottle that was almost full:

Finally I had to get a new bottle of Alclad copper, in spite the one I had was almost unused, but from a few years ago. I don't think that's and excuse. I have other brands, opened and re-sealed, more than a decade ago, and are still going. Summarizing: I will not be buying some paints of Alclad's "darker" range as the bottles are expensive and with a disappointingly short shelf life. I also have unopened shades of Alclad (like "exhaust manifold" that have gone south after a few years (darker and gunky). Not my idea of a reliable product. Old one to the left:

Model with the new paint. Don't you love it when an unsatisfactory product makes you work quadruple the time until a good result is achieved?:

A clear coat to facilitate decaling:

Other parts added:

Now just waiting for the Arctic Decals se which is already in the mail:

Decaling started:

Perfect modeling weather:

 

(The completed model is here:

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/02/p-38-lightning-racer-1948-national-air.html