Trumpeter 1/32 Lightning P-38L-5-LO
- Thread starter BarryW
- Start date
- Joined
- Sep 4, 2019
- Messages
- 9,496
- Points
- 113
- First Name
- Andrew
Had also thought about that.
Personally I just used to use araldite, but CA should be fine. Mind you, it’s not going to be taken out again, so you could even use blue tack.
It’s been fun and games getting the nose weight in.
I used plastic card to close off the rear of the gun bay, a previous picture showed it when half done. Then I filled almost the whole front cavity.
As you can see that’s not nearly enough. I filled the cavity in sections, dry fitting the nose each time to check. Only dry fitting the nose, with its cavity filled, when I got to the above did it work!
I have now cemented the guns into place, as you can see below. Once dry I will have to cut those right down to get the nose actually fitted. I won’t do that just yet as I want the guns fully dry and firmly in place.
I really don’t know how anyone can avoid a tail sitter and have the gun bay open as there is just not enough room for ballast, so any scratched building to correct the poor fit would have been wasted! No wonder every photo I have seen of this kit does not display the gun bay.
Believe it or not though, I am quite enjoying this build so if you want a large scale P38 don’t be put off by these minor issues.
I used plastic card to close off the rear of the gun bay, a previous picture showed it when half done. Then I filled almost the whole front cavity.
As you can see that’s not nearly enough. I filled the cavity in sections, dry fitting the nose each time to check. Only dry fitting the nose, with its cavity filled, when I got to the above did it work!
I have now cemented the guns into place, as you can see below. Once dry I will have to cut those right down to get the nose actually fitted. I won’t do that just yet as I want the guns fully dry and firmly in place.
I really don’t know how anyone can avoid a tail sitter and have the gun bay open as there is just not enough room for ballast, so any scratched building to correct the poor fit would have been wasted! No wonder every photo I have seen of this kit does not display the gun bay.
Believe it or not though, I am quite enjoying this build so if you want a large scale P38 don’t be put off by these minor issues.
I would imagine loading the engine nacelles forward of the landing gear would do the trick as well.
It might indeed have helped if they were not already closed up. If I ever build another I might give that a go. I suspect that, overall, a lot more ballast would be needed, though spread across more places. I am not really worried though about the gun bay being open and displayed.
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2018
- Messages
- 10,796
- Points
- 113
- First Name
- Jakko
What material are those pellets you’re putting in, anyway? I can’t find it anywhere, except that it says it’s non-toxic, so that pretty much rules out that it’s lead. The manufacturer’s site also says that a 50 ml bottle weighs almost 250 g, which implies a specific gravity of only about 5.
All this leads me to think that you could get the nose wheel on the ground if you packed the nose with fine lead shot (sg around 11), as that would weigh over twice what the Liquid Gravity product appears to do. Even fine steel shot (sg a little under 8) would be heavier, it seems.
All this leads me to think that you could get the nose wheel on the ground if you packed the nose with fine lead shot (sg around 11), as that would weigh over twice what the Liquid Gravity product appears to do. Even fine steel shot (sg a little under 8) would be heavier, it seems.
A few years ago somebody on here mentioned that steel shot is used by crafters to weight teddy bears. Here's something similar: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/27585305...Ah8M1fmYSsxBS45z70022H3w==|tkp:Bk9SR_b6uqitYg
or: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/11377382...3excZXQb9GSV3vitNQPZPe0SHD|tkp:Bk9SR9Sh1KitYg
Pete
or: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/11377382...3excZXQb9GSV3vitNQPZPe0SHD|tkp:Bk9SR9Sh1KitYg
Pete
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2018
- Messages
- 10,796
- Points
- 113
- First Name
- Jakko
Thanks, that confirms what I thought: sg between 3 and 5, it says. The exact composition isn’t included, but the heaviest thing I see in the list is nickel, and I doubt that makes up the majority of it. Basic steel shot should be heavier, never mind lead shot, though that may be hard to find these days?
I’ve got a tin of roofing lead offcuts from when my last house‘ roof was renewed thirty years ago….still using it up….very easy to cut and to hammer it into shape. You can get tungsten putty for fly tying, but it tends to be a bit expensive. There was a guy working in N gauge model railways years ago that used depleted uranium…..
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2018
- Messages
- 10,796
- Points
- 113
- First Name
- Jakko
That’s also why I stuck 100 g of roofing lead in the back of my Churchill AVRE: because I had some of it handy, and it was easy to get it to shape and size to fit in the hull. But depleted uranium … sure, you’re not going to find anything more dense, but don’t you need a permit to even own it in many places? Tungsten should be easier to get and only slightly lighter, but I bet it’s not great for moulding into shape for the nose of an aircraft 
stona
SMF Supporter
- Joined
- Jul 22, 2008
- Messages
- 11,472
- Points
- 113
- First Name
- Steve
I have something similar, hopefully not nicked off a church roof. I've also got some very old lead shot which I'm pretty certain is lead (or mostly lead). I still ended up having to wire the front wheel of at least one aircraft to its base in order to hold it down.
I've used all sorts of things, but never uranium.
Can you buy it here? It's fairly safe, U-238 has a half life of several billion years* so its not exactly highly radio active. You could leave it next to your pet Iguana and he won't grow 300 feet tall and attack Tokyo!
*Schoolboy joke alert: "I purchased this U-238 4.47 billion years ago and when I opened it today, it was half empty."
DU must be pretty safe, it’s used to line containers that transport radioactive substances and make them radiation proof…..it’s a bit rarefied for modelling though…..and not easily available, even though it’s a nuclear industry waste product. Uranium used to be used extensively for glass colouration (Art deco luminous green glass) and ceramics work.
I suppose you could mine it out of your garden
Apparently a one metre deep garden of ten metres by twenty metres holds about a kilogram….As to permits, I think there are weight limits above which you need them, so for the quantities we use you would be OK, even if the model glowed in the dark LOL……
The canopy engineering and fit is terrible. I have been really struggling with this and it shows in the condition of the parts.
I managed to get one side panel into place but the other simply does not fit, either it’s out of line at the front or it’s out at the back and in half hour of fiddling I have not managed to find an even half decent way to fit it.
I dry fitted the top and that does not fit at all, it will need sanding at the front so much the frame will be halves in size.
Then we get a gap that won’t disappear even if I got the front slotted in.
I really don’t want to bin this kit, it was a present from my son, but unless I can find a replacement canopy that actually fits I won’t have any choice.
Does anyone know of a replacement canopy for this?
I managed to get one side panel into place but the other simply does not fit, either it’s out of line at the front or it’s out at the back and in half hour of fiddling I have not managed to find an even half decent way to fit it.
I dry fitted the top and that does not fit at all, it will need sanding at the front so much the frame will be halves in size.
Then we get a gap that won’t disappear even if I got the front slotted in.
I really don’t want to bin this kit, it was a present from my son, but unless I can find a replacement canopy that actually fits I won’t have any choice.
Does anyone know of a replacement canopy for this?
Jim R
SMF Supporter
That canopy fit is truly terrible Barry. Are you sure it's for this kit 
LOL. I do wonder.That canopy fit is truly terrible Barry. Are you sure it's for this kit
I actually do, more often than not, pose fighter canopies open. I might try that but I am concerned that under the masking I will find the transparencies damaged after all the messing around. If I cannot find a replacement that fits it is either that or I bin the model. I will certainly check the transparencies before binning it.