RCU Forums - View Single Post - LOCKHEED P-38J “LIGHTNING”. A giant 1/4 scale scratch built model
Old 09-27-2018, 08:41 AM
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fbielsa
 
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Cowls, fairings, canopy and other items

The P-38 Lightning is a multi-cowl aircraft, with many air-scoops, grilles and trap doors that complicate the task. If we add to that the aggravation of the scale, we will see that the work is arduous and endless.

All have been manufactured in fiberglass and epoxy resin with recoverable mold, even at the cost of more work. Nothing to add to the technique used, which is the usual in these arts, with bivalve molds in most cases. In most cases, Styrofoam® (Blue board) has been used as the plug to be carved; in others, soft wood.

We must bear in mind that, except for the nose of the gondola, everything is double, so with a mold we can make the two symmetrical pieces in the fuselages; however, the bulky fairings of both engines are different, since, when turning in the same direction, the frontal incidence of the right is different from the left.

I do not know about the meters of fiberglass and resin that it carries, although I have tried to make all the pieces as light as possible.
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The plug of the engine cowl, ready to be primed


Before laying fiber and epoxy


Cowling almost finished