I am still a bit undecided if I want to move back to this build after the Hudson build since this also involves a lot of work to complete, but on the other hand, it has been setting on my in progress shelf for some time and I would like to say I have it done. So I am probably going to have another go at it.

Some years ago (six perhaps ? ), I got this crazy idea to build a whole series of P-38 kits in 1/48 scale. I completed one, a conversion of the HobbyBoss P-38L into a P-38M night Lightning, requiring quite a bit of work.

Another included a Monogram P-38 converted into the Droop Snoot bomber nose version. This is still partially finished and waiting for me to come back to it. A lot of work here as well since I am rescribing and re-riveting that old kit.

I got my hand on a couple of Academy P-38 kits (including what they called a P-38E) and started on these as well. Shortly after, Tamiya's P-38F became available and I decided my early version P-38 would be that kit. Well, it's still waiting as well. 🙂

I had made some progress on the Academy P-38E kit and decided to convert it into an RAAF F-4 Lighting. That is the subject of this build thread.

To accomplish this conversion, I am using the CMK PR resin nose conversion. It's designed for the Tamiya kit, but fits well enough on the Academy kit that I can make it work.

I've done some research on these RAAF aircraft and it appears they were fairly unreliable because of the primitive conditions under which they were flying. Several of them ended up crash landing. I am going to do one of these in an inflight vignette just as the props are beginning to strike the ground. Looking at photos of my subject, the flaps were dropped (which is expected). This meant that I need to remove these on the kit and make them in the dropped position. Not an easy thing to do because these are Fowler flaps which are track mounted and only connected to the wings by these tracks. I've removed the flaps and started cleaning up the flap wells for this eventuality.

Flight controls will also need to be re-positioned and I've started on that as well.

Of course a pilot is needed and the Academy kit does not come with one. But my recently completed Tamiya P-51B kit does include a pilot which I believe can be modified suitably to look the part of an RAAF pilot. I have cut him up a bit to make him look like he is manipulating the controls.

The cockpit is , if I recall, the Aires kit and a photoetch seat. This is mostly done.

The kit is devoid of surface detail except for panel lines, so I am doing the riveting makeover. This is what has mostly been the hold up on this build and why I am somewhat reluctant to get back into it. I've done the upper wings and center section and a portion of the lower wings.

So that's it at the moment. This is the state of the build as of when I stopped late last year to focus on the Hudson build.

Great that you decided to re-tackle it, my friend @clipper! Challenging for sure, an easy tackling for your skills.
Looking forward to it!

Great job, my friend @clipper!

I've been doing a bunch of surface riveting on the center section as well as improving the appearance of openings on the booms. I also added some radiator detail on the interior.

The booms have been assembled and seams filled. The lower nose pieces didn't fit so well, despite my efforts to minimize the fit issues. So that took some filling and sanding to get smooth. Everywhere else required very minimal filling, in fact none at all for about 85% of the seams. It really pays off taking the time to get things to fit better because I really do not like sanding seams.

During test install of the booms, I could see that the starboard boom's vertical stabilizer was slightly skewed outboard. So when I install these booms permanently, I am going to have to adjust the boom in its cradle to compensate. Not a lot, but it will create a small gap on the underside which I will fill with sheet styrene.

Before I install the booms, I want to install the main gear doors. This will be an inflight display so I am sure these are going to need some work after gluing them in place. I also still have to restore panel lines and surface details on the booms as well as applying riveting.

One final thing before installing the booms will be fitting and installing the nose for the photo recon conversion. So it might be awhile before I have a mostly assembled Lightning. But it's getting there.

Great progress, my friend @clipper!

Sorry for the delay in posting an update. Unfortunately COVID has hit our household and we've all been under the weather for the last week. In those short periods when I am not hurting as much, I am working on the model. I got the booms assembled and installed the main gear doors. This was done using a combination of Tamiya Extra thin for the initial bond and then strengthening the seams with CA glue on the inside since I new I would be doing a bunch of work on this part.

I was going to handle the slight skewing outboard of the starboard boom vertical stabilizer by putting a very slight rotation on the boom and adding a shim at the wing / boom joint. But I didn't really like this idea so I tried seeing if I could coaxe the stabilizer in the vertical position by giving a slight twist to the boom. I felt a glue line give a bit , so I braced the boom with the slight twist and then reapplied Tamiya extra thin on the seams near the tail. This seems to have worked because the stabilizer is vertical now.

I next began to tackle the nose conversion. Recall that this CMK part is made for the Tamiya P-38F and not the Academy P-38E kit I am building, so there was some extra work needed to convince it to conform to my wishes. And I made the unfortunate choice of using CA glue to assemble the parts to the wing center section resulting in a slight misalignment. However, I was able to clean this up. I still need to go back now and restore surface detail and add riveting in this area. That will come the next time I feel up to it.

I had previously (before picking this project back up) added flap well basic structure to the center section. These are for the Fowler type flaps which I still have to do. The booms were given the riveting treatment (times two), so there was a lot of that going on. Getting close now.

Restore the nose area, do the horizontal stabilizers riveting and ailerons, and most importantly, assemble the booms to the center section. I am going to use wipe away putty to avoid having to fix all the riveting that would be removed from sanding the joints. The fit is pretty good anyway, but there will definitely be seams to contend with.

Hope you and your family will get well soon, Carl @clipper
Nice progress on the Lightning and some great corrections done.

Thanks John (@johnb) and Spiros (@fiveten) and capt R (@lis). I am starting to feel better . By tomorrow I should be mostly over this.

When not feeling listless, I've been making good progress on the Lightning assembly. Having some fit issues, some related to me, some related to the poor engineering of the mounting points for the booms. I'm still working on surface detail and riveting, at this point on the horizontal stabilizers.

I plan on doing this plane in flight about to belly in. Should be fun and hopefully tell a story. I'd like to figure out someway to add to the ground cover to liven up the base, but primitive runway strips are pretty featureless places. I do have a few ideas for livening up the scene. We'll see how it works out.