Tomcat's Tamiya 1/48 P-38F

[Kevthemodeller]

The biggest issue today with all cars say 2010 is onwards more so 2017 on especially diesel. Is ever increasing emission control, which requires evermore monitoring of the closed loop, via more sensors and things like DPFs. Often it's not the turbos that fail it's the vacuum/bypass circuits fitted with sensors that get restricted or blocked, this leads to failure of monitoring sensors like MAF/Temp/boost/back pressure and worse case DPFs.

Normally you'll get the spanner/engine light on, sometimes the car goes into limp mode. Often it's very simple but it can be very expensive, especially if whomever you use is less than honest and just after money.

Audi/BMW/Merc are the most expensive to fix as they have the more advanced and sensitive systems. Others Renault/Peugeot are the worst they use cheaper systems, Nissian/Ford/Vauxhall etc aren't that far behind.

As a rule in any modern diesel avoid short (5 miles or less especially in traffic) journeys if you can't once a week take the car up a dual carriage way/motor way get the engine above 2k and keep it there for 30 odd miles. Turn off stop start systems until the car is thoroughly warm, personally I turn mine off in winter, kills batteries and the ECO system when cold. And avoid cheap supermarket fuel or add in a quality lub/cleaner.

[Stokesy44]

The biggest issue today with all cars say 2010 is onwards more so 2017 on especially diesel. Is ever increasing emission control, which requires evermore monitoring of the closed loop, via more sensors and things like DPFs. Often it's not the turbos that fail it's the vacuum/bypass circuits fitted with sensors that get restricted or blocked, this leads to failure of monitoring sensors like MAF/Temp/boost/back pressure and worse case DPFs.

Normally you'll get the spanner/engine light on, sometimes the car goes into limp mode. Often it's very simple but it can be very expensive, especially if whomever you use is less than honest and just after money.

Audi/BMW/Merc are the most expensive to fix as they have the more advanced and sensitive systems. Others Renault/Peugeot are the worst they use cheaper systems, Nissian/Ford/Vauxhall etc aren't that far behind.

As a rule in any modern diesel avoid short (5 miles or less especially in traffic) journeys if you can't once a week take the car up a dual carriage way/motor way get the engine above 2k and keep it there for 30 odd miles. Turn off stop start systems until the car is thoroughly warm, personally I turn mine off in winter, kills batteries and the ECO system when cold. And avoid cheap supermarket fuel or add in a quality lub/cleaner.

Feels like a lot of manufacturers have discontinued their bigger (more sporty) diesels. Vauxhall used to do a beautiful 1.7 liter DT for their Corsa years ago and more recently a 2.0 for their Astra and Astra GTC. Dont think you can at a diesel now for those cars bigger than 1.4 and 1.7 respectively. I had the diesel Corsa and later the GTC, beautiful to drive. You could always spot the bigger diesel Corsa, it had much wider tires than the other pea shooter variants

[Stokesy44]

In addition, I love how discussions on this forum highlight just how smart some of the guys are (myself excluded).

I've lost count of the number of times I've thought to myself, "Aaah, right. That's how it works."

Just waiting for my time to shine. FFS can someone start a discussion about investment trust accounting?

[digger303]

Interesting info.

[Tomcat64]

Sorry to take the Forced Induction thread off topic but I've managed to break the back of the decalthon for the P-38.

By my calculations there are about 148 decals in total for this thing and I've done about 132 of them so far as a few will be done a bit later... most of them are about the size of a gnat's tackle, man did the USAAF love a stencil even back in WW2

As mentioned earlier in the build, the decals are probably the one part of the kit that lets it down... they're a bit on the thick side & don't response well (or at all) to MicroSet/Sol. I still used microset out of habit, but then let them dry and doused them with Daco Red to get them to sit down.

Oh and whoever layed out the decal sheet was an absolute sadist... with numbering bouncing around between the underside, topside & tail seemingly at random

Here's the underside, the only additional note here was that I cut the larger sharkmouth decals in half to give myself a fighting chance of getting them lined up against the smaller (lower) set that I put down first


Topside


And from the side


I'll give them all another coat of Daco solution and when that's thoroughly dried I'll put down a gloss coat or two as I want to do a panel line wash 'n' wipe before sealing everything under a final matte coat.

Next up will be the Eduard wheels & under danglage assembly... including the repair of a main gear leg that I broke trying to handle the damn thing during decalling!


Thanks as always for looking - I now return you to the Turbo programme

[Twokidsnosleep]

Looking great!
Love dose sharks teefs!!!

[Stokesy44]

Looking good. Average decals still seems to be an Achilles heel for new tool Tamiya aircraft kits. Dont get me started on their 1/32 scale decals for the Spitfire and Mustang.

I love the point in an aircraft build when the decals go on. For me there are 2 real major moments in the build. The first is when the fuselage, including the rudder, comes together and you can hold the kit up to inspect the airframe. The second is the decals!

[Kevthemodeller]

Oh more decal woes seems this is getting more common, that said Tamiya have a track record of it
Regardless looks like you've nailed it

I've had better results with Tamiya decals using their Mark Fit & Mark Fit strong

[Tomcat64]

Looking great!
Love dose sharks teefs!!!

I will admit to being a sucker for a Sharks teefs colour scheme

[Tomcat64]

Looking good. Average decals still seems to be an Achilles heel for new tool Tamiya aircraft kits. Dont get me started on their 1/32 scale decals for the Spitfire and Mustang.

I love the point in an aircraft build when the decals go on. For me there are 2 real major moments in the build. The first is when the fuselage, including the rudder, comes together and you can hold the kit up to inspect the airframe. The second is the decals!

Oh more decal woes seems this is getting more common, that said Tamiya have a track record of it
Regardless looks like you've nailed it

I've had better results with Tamiya decals using their Mark Fit & Mark Fit strong

Thanks chaps

@Kevthemodeller thanks for the recommendation mate, I might have a look at Mark Fit but for the moment Daco Strong seemed to do the trick,

I do have a bottle of Solvaset in the arsenal but am always wary about opening it in case it dissolves the bench!

[Kevthemodeller]

I do have a bottle of Solvaset in the arsenal but am always wary about opening it in case it dissolves the bench!

I've got and used that too, on Tamiya decals as they all vary, I've found Mark Fit worked better.

[Tomcat64]

I know I said I'd do the wheels next, but that turned out to be a fib as I didn't fancy tackling the resin parts in the evenings after work this week.

So... I tackled the propellers instead These are handed so I stuck a label on the bottom so I can tell which is which

Here's a set of parts and the other one assembled


And after twelve more decals and a swipe of ultra-matte


I've also given the underside a coat of gloss but it looks like my Aqua Gloss might be past its useby date as the results are a bit hit n miss.

Anyway - roll on the weekend and hopefully get those wheels done

Thanks for looking

[digger303]

[Tomcat64]

The undercarriage & pilot finally got some attention this weekend, but before we go there I spotted a few more decals that I'd missed as they were buried in the instructions rather than on the main paint/decal guide.

Two for the front under-danglage leg


One on the underside of the rear horizontal stabiliser - I'm guessing it would have been hidden under the counterweight but still a bit baffled as to why this one wasn't indicated on the main plan


And two stripes around the cockpit canopy - again no reason why these shouldn't be on the main guide


Those are now all in place and I'll have another run through the instructions to see if any more were missed.

Onto the wheels - the Eduard sets worked as expected and the wheels were masked & painted; the main gear legs needed to have the axles shortened to take the resin parts and the nose wheel has been left off so I can align it properly once the others are in place


And finally the driver - one thing that did occur to me was that the instructions show him being fitted prior to the windscreen so I'm hoping he'll squeeze in ok with it in place...


Soooo I think we're nearly there... just need to varnish & pin wash the panel lines and then finish it up

Thanks for looking

[Stokesy44]

Nice work. Those weighted wheels look really tasty.

[Tomcat64]

Nice work. Those weighted wheels look really tasty.

Thanks mate

The picture of the pilot is a bit shonky as I zoomed in too far - he looks a bit more healthy in real life

[Tomcat64]

Right - I've just had a couple of days off work and in amongst the domestic type stuff I've moved this one along

After giving it a gloss coat I did a panel line wash using Tamiya dark brown and then once that was dry followed it up with a coat or two of AK ulta matte.

Here's the underside


Next up was installing the undercarriage, the main gear had keyed points to make sure the flat part of the wheel was in the right place, the nose gear wheel isn't fixed at this point


A couple of notes on installing the gear bay details - first the long pipes in the main bays are a bit of a fiddle to get in place as the locating pin holes at the front are partially obscured by the various legs/arms, but you know you've got them right when they just slot into place


Up front it's a bit of fiddle to get the support structure to line up so in this case I had that in place, and then pushed the gear leg about two thirds of the way in before picking up the front end of the support and putting it in place as I pushed the gear leg all the way home


Here's a completed main gear bay


At this point I placed it back up the right way on a flat surface and rotated the nose wheel until it was sitting properly


Then onto the main wheel bay doors, again it was a little fiddly to get the locating tab on the door into the slot as well as lining up the struts at both ends, but with a little wriggling it all slots in properly and you know it's right when it all lines up


All done, landing lights unmasked and the drop tanks added for good measure too


Right, time to flip it over - here's the top


Canopy was unmasked and thankfully the pilot fitted fine. Couple of cock-ups to deal with though, the masking lifted some of the paint down the front (left arrow) and also picked up the decal around the rear window (right arrow) - I have a plan to at least partially fix that one but it was annoying and I should have waiting until this point to apply the decal. The windows could do with a clean up too as the Tamiya masks were extra tacky. And yup there's a crack down the main screen so not sure if I'm going to do anything about that or just live with it - I might try trickling some watered down PVA in there or maybe some gauzy coat.


Finally for now the props were added - making sure I'd got them the right way around.


And that just leaves the open windscreen part... again my masking hasn't worked brilliantly, so some work requied here to tidy this up too


But here's how it looks at the moment - aside from the couple of self-inflicted niggles I'm happy with how it looks this far


Thanks for looking

[Stokesy44]

Its looking good. Frustrating about the little issues with the canopy.

What's the plan for the weathering?

[digger303]

looks very sweet despite the masking and decal issue.
Hope mine will look half as good.

[Tomcat64]

Its looking good. Frustrating about the little issues with the canopy.

What's the plan for the weathering?

Thanks mate - I'm not planning on weathering this one up now, I just want to get the canopy sorted and call it done.

looks very sweet despite the masking and decal issue.
Hope mine will look half as good.

Cheers mate - hope you can avoid my unforced errors

[Stokesy44]

Its looking good. Frustrating about the little issues with the canopy.

What's the plan for the weathering?

Thanks mate - I'm not planning on weathering this one up now, I just want to get the canopy sorted and call it done.

looks very sweet despite the masking and decal issue.
Hope mine will look half as good.

Cheers mate - hope you can avoid my unforced errors

Digger's gonna build a P38? I think my legs have gone!

[aur0ra145]

But here's how it looks at the moment - aside from the couple of self-inflicted niggles I'm happy with how it looks this far


Thanks for looking

Really nice paint job! Sucks about the canopy. Interested to see what you end up doing either way.

[Garion77]

Awesome job. Nice paint job. Not a plane I'm interested in but you're about to make me change my mind !!

Question, I have AK's ultra matte at home, and other varnishes from them, how do you spray them ? I'm having trouble finding the right "adjustments" for them so I tend to use others even if they are supposedly good.

And same question for your Vallejo paints. I noticed you seem to use them in most of your builds. And I tend to have trouble to have a smooth finish with them. Less problems if I use VMS thinner. but not always at hand.

[digger303]

Its looking good. Frustrating about the little issues with the canopy.

What's the plan for the weathering?

Thanks mate - I'm not planning on weathering this one up now, I just want to get the canopy sorted and call it done.

looks very sweet despite the masking and decal issue.
Hope mine will look half as good.

Cheers mate - hope you can avoid my unforced errors

Digger's gonna build a P38? I think my legs have gone!

[Phillip1]

Tomcat64-Your P-38 looks great! The painting work on the small details is very impressive. Well done!

Phillip1

[Kevthemodeller]

Its looking good. Frustrating about the little issues with the canopy.

What's the plan for the weathering?

What he said, it's all coming together very very nicely

[Tomcat64]

But here's how it looks at the moment - aside from the couple of self-inflicted niggles I'm happy with how it looks this far


Thanks for looking

Really nice paint job! Sucks about the canopy. Interested to see what you end up doing either way.

Tomcat64-Your P-38 looks great! The painting work on the small details is very impressive. Well done!

Phillip1

Its looking good. Frustrating about the little issues with the canopy.

What's the plan for the weathering?

What he said, it's all coming together very very nicely

Thanks for checking in guys - much appreciated

[Tomcat64]

Awesome job. Nice paint job. Not a plane I'm interested in but you're about to make me change my mind !!

Question, I have AK's ultra matte at home, and other varnishes from them, how do you spray them ? I'm having trouble finding the right "adjustments" for them so I tend to use others even if they are supposedly good.

And same question for your Vallejo paints. I noticed you seem to use them in most of your builds. And I tend to have trouble to have a smooth finish with them. Less problems if I use VMS thinner. but not always at hand.

Thanks for the comments Francis - I'm generally not an aircraft builder but this one goes together really nicely.

As for the painting I use a Ultimate Apex for just about everything these days, for the AK Ultramatte I set the air pressure fairly low at about 10psi straight from the bottle. This also brushes really well too.

For the Vallejo model air, this stuff can be a bit variable but their latest formula seems to airbrush straight from the bottle at about 25psi. Their older stuff definitely needs to be thinned before spraying at about the same pressure. I'll also use their "primers" over the top of a Ultimate/Stynlrez primer as the colours are good and again will spray straight from the bottle.

I've seen recently that Ultimate has brought out a self-levelling thinner so I might well pick up a bottle of that and give it a go.

[Tomcat64]

This was left festering on the bench for a couple of weeks while I worked out how I wanted to try & tackle the remaining issues...

The black band around the rear cockpit canopy was tackled with a length of .7mm masking tape painted black and then tacked into place with PVA. I've then added the silver dots with a brush and still need to a do a little tidying up. The windscreen was given a coat of medium gauzy agent, it hasn't fixed the crack completely but has made it a lot less noticeable from most angles.


Around the other side, the canopy was cleaned up as best as I could using Isopropyl alcohol (after testing it on some spare clear parts) and then brush-painted - it's a little agricultural but does the job.


I've also added the wing nav lights by putting down silver followed by Tamiya clear red or green all by brush




So aside from any more tinkering with that cockpit band I'm calling this one done


I'll break out the grown up camera for some reveal shots when I get chance.

Thanks as always for dropping in

[Kevthemodeller]

Oh yes top draw finish there Neil

Looking forward to the final reveal pictures

[Stokesy44]

Nice saves around the cockpit

What's up next on the bench?

[digger303]

Nice save and what was festering on the bench has erupted into a very nice model.

[aur0ra145]

That is such and excellent out come. Job well done!