Fine Art: P-38 Lightnings & Trains

rtr12 posted:

Stan, that plane and all of your mods are really cool. I bet that sure did take a while and lots of effort too. Very nice!!

And the P-38 is of course only two motors and a modest number of LED lights.  Something like a Flying Fortress is another animal

4 motors with independent speed control synchronized to Wright Cyclone radial engine sounds, all nav lights, landing lights, blue formation lights, IFF lights, cockpit lights etc.  All under remote control (TV remote shown at bottom) with commands sent over the 2-wire "track power" feeding via the wheels up thru the landing gear.  The main electronics with speaker sits under the tarmac. 

You need good eyesight and steady hands not just for the tiny electronics but the model building itself.  It's history for me. 

AMCDave posted:

Revell-Monogram makes a nice 1/48 B-24.....I've built it a few times. My B-17 has small motors from ebay.....most sellers list specs. I used small brass tube to connect the motor to the props. My engines all start at the same time.....but still kinda cool. 

Yes.  For anyone attempting to add DC motors to the Revell B-17, you really want to add tubing of some kind especially since most motors are too large to cram right up against the engine front.  Be prepared to fuss with prop wobble.  Note that the Revell kit has a prop shaft that allows you to manually spin the prop but good luck mating the kit-supplied shaft to a high RPM motor without prop wobble.  Your mileage may vary. 

Another tip, most if not all tiny DC motor have metric shafts like 1.0mm or 2.0mm.  When I got into this years ago, I remember hunting around to find metric drill bits with those 1/8" shanks that can be hand-turned.  IIRC if working with plastic/acrylic rods for prop shaft extension, you want to go down 0.05mm to get a nice press fit to a motor shaft.

EBT Jim posted:

I'm not very cultured, but .... this is my kind of art ....

 

Who painted this? I really like the style!

stan2004 posted:

rtr12 posted:

Stan, that plane and all of your mods are really cool. I bet that sure did take a while and lots of effort too. Very nice!!

And the P-38 is of course only two motors and a modest number of LED lights.  Something like a Flying Fortress is another animal

 

4 motors with independent speed control synchronized to Wright Cyclone radial engine sounds, all nav lights, landing lights, blue formation lights, IFF lights, cockpit lights etc.  All under remote control (TV remote shown at bottom) with commands sent over the 2-wire "track power" feeding via the wheels up thru the landing gear.  The main electronics with speaker sits under the tarmac. 

You need good eyesight and steady hands not just for the tiny electronics but the model building itself.  It's history for me. 

 

Wow, that's even more amazing with a lot more stuff. Those motors are really small! As are the lights. You really have some great ideas and then know how to implement them too!! Amazing stuff. I know what you mean about the eyesight. Cataract surgery a couple years ago really helped me, made a huge difference, was like taking off a blindfold!

Not even close to what you have done here, but last summer my grandson got a Mini Cooper Lego kit and put it together. He brought it over here, then from the ipad showed me a lighting kit he had found for it (Papa is a sucker for stuff like this). I ordered it and we installed it after it came in. He helped install it and enjoyed it and he loved the lit up car after it was finished. It runs on one of those USB external batteries which we had to go get the next day. I hope he remains interested, but I don't know if he will or not. I think I will mark this and show him next time he is over, he likes airplanes too, especially military planes.  

It's "Glacier Girl", recovered at great expense and with great effort from a glacier where it crashlanded in WWII with other aircraft. 

The planes I built are all Revell 1/48 scale.  Like I alluded to, the Mustang kit was fifteen bucks or so.  All the planes are famous warriors from WWII.  Richard Bong and Marge are the number one USA ace in the war.  The B17 is called the Chow Hound and has the dubious distinction of being the last bomber shot down, after the war had supposedly ended.  A lot of the crew were killed.  The B25 is the subject of a famous photograph showing the plane at low altitude trailing a line of bombs with parachutes on them, the cockpit is mostly smashed from flak and the plane crashed moments after the picture was taken.  You can buy the print.  The P51 just looks cool.  Awesome paint job.  I don't remember it's claim to fame.  Miss Marylin.  Of course these days you can research the plane and get a lot of info.  I put together something for each plane and displayed them at the library.  The vets loved it, but I never got asked to do it again.  My ex wife works there, which explains that.  Models just didn't turn her on.

Chow Hound went down with her third crew on August 8,1944, 8 months before the end of the war. Part of her wind was donated by the farmer that found it and kept it until 2011.

http://www.chow-hound.org/OUR-STORY.html

p51 posted:

EBT Jim posted:

I'm not very cultured, but .... this is my kind of art ....

 

Who painted this? I really like the style!

Me, too. So much, I just bought a copy of it. I've never bought "art," before. lol

It was painted by .... Jack Fellows

He named it .... "Lightning Strike...The Edge of the Storm" 

Jim

Great Thread! I don't have any P-38s in 1/48 scale to show you (yet), but I do have an affection for P-51 Mustangs! Here are 5 in 1/48 scale. The first 3 are K-Line or their newer incarnations. The 4th is a Hawk Kit I assembled many years ago. The 5th is a Korean War era (K series?) from Revell, I think. I like it the least. Wrong wheels, wrong blade profile, at rivets that stick out all over the model. 

Lastly, here is a teaser: A P-51B/C with a Malcom hood.

Chris

LVHR

#Oh Boy!! Lightning strike. Something about old skool, agree, I need to add that print to my layout room <salute>

When I first saw this poster in a local hobby shop years ago, I thought it was a photograph. I was lucky enough to get one at the time.

Not trying to rain on anyone's parade but the P38 was really a disappointment. The prototype was the first US Army aircraft in level flight to exceed 400 mph. However  in operational use it developed many problems. The British tried a early version without turbochargers and found it unsuitable - low ceilings among other things. The engine/turbo combination tended to freeze up at high altitudes. Was the first US fighter to suffer from compressibility problem in dives - only fixed in later models with a dive brakes. They were not as maneuverable in a dog fight as a single engine fighter such as a Me109 or Fw190. Plus its distinctive lines made it easy to identify by axis pilots. It faired much better in the Pacific theater where its long range and added safety of 2 engines was welcomed. After the war P38 were soon scrapped. Yes, it did have good lines.

ns1001 posted:

Not trying to rain on anyone's parade but the P38 was really a disappointment. ....

You're not raining on my parade, for sure.

Just find the combination of these aircraft and trains .... both on layouts and in paintings ... to be kinda neat.

Great modeling everyone! And, spinning props .... ever cooler!

I see that some of these prints, such as EBT Jim's above, are now done on large ink jet printers, rather than lithograph. Look very very sharp. I'd like to hang a few, myself.

Matt

#ns1001 .... and your point?

<g> ��

ns1001 posted:

Not trying to rain on anyone's parade but the P38 was really a disappointment. The prototype was the first US Army aircraft in level flight to exceed 400 mph. However  in operational use it developed many problems. The British tried a early version without turbochargers and found it unsuitable - low ceilings among other things. The engine/turbo combination tended to freeze up at high altitudes. Was the first US fighter to suffer from compressibility problem in dives - only fixed in later models with a dive brakes. They were not as maneuverable in a dog fight as a single engine fighter such as a Me109 or Fw190. Plus its distinctive lines made it easy to identify by axis pilots. It faired much better in the Pacific theater where its long range and added safety of 2 engines was welcomed. After the war P38 were soon scrapped. Yes, it did have good lines.

You are correct.....as I stated above my father-in-law was a mechanic in WWII....not limited to P-38's but most of his time was on a P-38 squad. He'd be the first to tell you it was not the #1 fighter.....P-51 wins easy.....but he will tell you once sorted out it did it's part in the war. Outfitted for recon and scouting they were fast and versatile. Not the star aircraft of WWII but played it's own part. 

And they look cool!!!!

Miggy posted:

#ns1001 .... and your point?

<g> ��

Pointing out the FACTS!!!!   The P-38 was sure a beautiful plane, but from what little I know of WWII aircraft, they were VERY difficult to fly, also.

The Lightnings did better in the warmer Pacific. In the hands of Dick Bong and Tommy McGuire, they were hard to beat.Dad and I met the curiator of the US Air Force Museum when I was in school, Royal Fry. He had been a P-38 pilot. He told us that if they had put Merlins on the Lightning, it would have been fantastic, but they were reserved for the Mustang.

How about a Marauder .....

stan2004 posted:

Yup.  Major Bong's  "Marge".   I remember thinking at the time "what a difficult model to build" due to fit issues.  Of course adding working motors with speed control, synchronized sound, LEDs, etc. just added to the "fun"!  Sorry for the poor video quality by today's standards but this was quite a while back.

 

Wow!!!!  How cool is that?

I picked this up at a now gone local shop.  It is a German made Revell B24.  When I saw the nose art I had to have it. Flak Alley!  The directions are in eighteen different languages.   Been sitting for a few years.  Got hung up at the stage of painting the crew.  Could finish in a weekend.  I think that's a good idea.  Thanks for the motivation.  Cheers!,       BK

William 1 posted:

I picked this up at a now gone local shop.  It is a German made Revell B24.  When I saw the nose art I had to have it. Flak Alley!  The directions are in eighteen different languages.   Been sitting for a few years.  Got hung up at the stage of painting the crew.  Could finish in a weekend.  I think that's a good idea.  Thanks for the motivation.  Cheers!,       BK

Just a FYI that kit is the same as those sold under the Monogram and Revell USA labels.  All three companies are held by the same owner so don't pay the higher MSRP of Revell Germany unless you NEED the decals which I am sure are available separate.  I had a very nice build up of this kit, one of my favorite WWII builds I had....when my cat jumped off a shelf right onto the wing......the planes back broke very realistically and was just as realistically trashed.....

The only photo I have.....forgive the 1977 era snap shot....

EBT Jim posted:

I'm not very cultured, but .... this is my kind of art ....

I wish copies of it were cheap. I'd hang it up ..

 

 

Awesome art.  Saw a lot of them going to air shows with my dad while growing up.

#1 and #2 Aces in US history flew the P-38 Lighting.  Shot straight and had power.

I'll take the F4U Corsair and its curves, like Pappy Boyington did.

Corsair and Thunderbolt!

ns1001 posted:

Not trying to rain on anyone's parade but the P38 was really a disappointment.

"Disappointment" is a strong word and one that I think is very unwarranted. "Teething problems" would be a better term. And, many planes of the WWII era suffered from them including the P-51 Mustang and F4U Corsair. From what I have read the "Fork-Tailed Devil" gave a very good account of itself after the "teething problems" were worked out. Especially in the Pacific where they took out Yamamoto and made Dick Bong the highest ranked U.S. fighter ace.

FYI AMCDave - your model doesn't look a bit like the kit I have.  I bought mine for $40 about six years ago.  Sealed in the plastic.  It's German made.  Like I said, the directions are in eighteen different languages.

As an aside, quick story.  I made quite a few WWII planes in grade school.  I had a least twenty hung from the ceiling in one part of the basement.  A zero would be attacking a bomber with a mustang hot on it's tail etc.  One day my little brother had a birthday party and they got a tennis ball downstairs and shot down every plane in the most rudest of manner.  I come to shards of plastic everywhere, all my planes destroyed.  I started to get even with my brother, with violence in mind, and I ended up getting  in trouble.  Stupid brother.  He never got in trouble for anything.  I always thought that was the biggest gyp ever.

William 1 posted:

.

As an aside, quick story.  I made quite a few WWII planes in grade school.  I had a least twenty hung from the ceiling in one part of the basement.  A zero would be attacking a bomber with a mustang hot on it's tail etc.  

That's a very cool idea!  Think I'll do that over my little layout.

One day my little brother had a birthday party and they got a tennis ball downstairs and shot down every plane in the most rudest of manner.  I come to shards of plastic everywhere, all my planes destroyed.  I started to get even with my brother, with violence in mind, and I ended up getting  in trouble.  Stupid brother.  He never got in trouble for anything.  I always thought that was the biggest gyp ever.

Sorry man, but .... you really cracked me up with that story ...   

William 1 posted:

FYI AMCDave - your model doesn't look a bit like the kit I have.  I bought mine for $40 about six years ago.  Sealed in the plastic.  It's German made.  Like I said, the directions are in eighteen different languages.

 

I was just trying to inform. I was a consultant with Revell Monogram for 20 years....but who knows. I will say the Monogram B-24 kit has interchangeable inserts so they can run a number of different version....turret nose, glass nose etc etc. Same kit many different version....it's called amortization of tooling dollars.  I'll double check with their product manager when I have a meeting with them on the 22nd of this  month and confirm. thanks

One way to tell what the armed forces thought of various types of aircraft was how long they stayed in service after the war ended. The P39, p40, p38, and even the p47 were soon melted down for post war use. Same with the B26 and B24. But the Naval version of the B24 with the tall vertical tail were in fleet use into the 60's as a long range ASW aircraft. Aircraft with long usage after WW11 included the B17, B25, and B29. The P/F51 was used as a ground attack aircraft in the Korean police action. The Navy F4U continued in production until 1952 as an attack aircraft. The C47/DC3 was used by the services into the 80's and the FAA into the 90's. The AT6/T6 was used as a trainer into the 60's. North American Co aircraft seemed to have a especially long life. 

and a lot of great planes were phased out in an effort to get down to one type. The Thunderbolt was a great fighter, and killer ground attack, but the Mustang had the longer range.And the air cooled radial was could take more punishment than the air cooled systems. And the B-29 was full of teething problems, some of which never were fixed 100%, but it was the best we had at the time.