Official FlightLine RC 1600mm P-38 Lightning Thread

[RRHandy]

Let me correct that.....54 planes, I have 33 in the transmitter. Now I know why my wife looks at me and rolls her eyes. :)

[BadBob]

I concur.

In deed!

[SoLongSidekick]

What a sight

[RRHandy]

Nice, I don't think that could be duplicated today, not that many left. :(

[rifleman_btx]

Would be something to behold if it could, that's a very cool pic

[RRHandy]

Yes, yes it would.

[SoLongSidekick]

That's correct, only two full flights could be replicated today. There's 10 flyable P-38's in the world although not all of them fly regularly or publicly; with one P-38 registered in Europe (the Red Bull plane) and nine in the U.S.

For some reason every source I can find lists the Flying Bull's P-38 as a P-38L, but it doesn't have the chin mounted intercoolers so I don't know how that's possible. But anyways, here's the flyable P-38s that are in America:

P-38F
41-7630 Glacier Girl – Lewis Air Legends in San Antonio, Texas.
42-12652 White 33 – Returned to airworthiness Oct. 2016 by WestPac Restorations for Jim Slattery in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
P-38J
44-23314 23 Skidoo – Planes of Fame in Chino, California.
P-38L
44-26981 Honey Bunny – Allied Fighters in Sun Valley, Idaho.
44-27053 Relampago – War Eagles Air Museum in Santa Teresa, New Mexico.
44-27083 Tangerine – Erickson Aircraft Collection in Madras, Oregon.
44-27183 (unnamed) – Yanks Air Museum in Chino, California.
44-27231 Scat III (Formerly Ruff Stuff) – ***en Fighters WWII Museum in Granite Falls, Minnesota.
44-53095 Thoughts of Midnite – Comanche Fighters LCC in Houston, Texas.

[SoLongSidekick]

So here's the paint process I've worked with Arycon to put together:

1 - Polycrylic coating of entire foam surface for protection
2 - Any Behr paint for touch ups (servos, channels, etc.) then livery paint.
3 - Decals
4 - Pastels for weathering
5 - Seal with Krylon Matte
6 - Silver paint weathering
7 - Final seal

The other detail I plan on adding is rivets, and I plan on applying them with a pattern wheel. The results have been shown in this thread, just search within it for "rivets". It basically indents the foam a bit and really does create a nice effect. My question is, should I apply the rivets before anything else? After the polycrylic? After the Krylon sealing? What are your thoughts?

[SoLongSidekick]

Found another interesting piece of P-38 data: did you know that a P-38 was the first plane to successfully kill/down a German reaction-powered plane? On July 29th, 1944 Captain Arthur Jeffrey (part of the 479th Fighter Group) was escorting some B-17s to Merseburg Germany and saw an Me-163 making a lazy pass at the 3 o'clock position of a B-17 with its rocket engine off. He engaged and visually confirmed numerous hits, and saw puffs of black smoke from the pilot trying to restart the Me-163's engine. The Komet climbed and circled to the left, but the P-38's aileron boost easily enabled it to turn tighter and get more hits on with a high deflection shot (which is amazing in itself, the Me-163 was known to be extremely agile in unpowered flight - shows to just what extent the late model P-38s were wonder planes). Jeffrey closed to within 300-400 yards, firing all the way, until the Komet did a split-S and turned into a near 90° dive. Jeffry kept firing and observing strikes all the way down to 3,000 feet when the Komet disappeared into the clouds and Jeffry blacked out pulling up at 1,500 feet.

The Komet was capable of pulling out of a near-vertical dive at low altitude, but we'll never know the exact fate of that plane. The Komet was most likely a member of the brand-new Jagdgeschwader 400, which was still working up to operations. The plane was still top secret and there are no German records of a Komet being lost or even damaged that day, so the German records are unreliable. If the plane did survive and was able to land, it's highly doubtful it ever flew again with the amount of hits that were observed by Jeffry and his wingman.

[RRHandy]

Thanks for sharing. R.

[Beeg]

That's correct, only two full flights could be replicated today. There's 10 flyable P-38's in the world although not all of them fly regularly or publicly; with one P-38 registered in Europe (the Red Bull plane) and nine in the U.S.

For some reason every source I can find lists the Flying Bull's P-38 as a P-38L, but it doesn't have the chin mounted intercoolers so I don't know how that's possible.

The Red Bull P-38 was Lefty Garners Reno race plane. It is a P-38L that Lefty modified with the earlier "H" chin intakes as they are more aerodynamic. Since civilian P-38's, as well as P-47's, don't need their turbo chargers for high altitude they have been removed to save weight and maintenance complexity.

[SoLongSidekick]

And as to why there are so few flyable models left around today, see the attached images. The freaking army got rid of their Lightnings so fast after V-J day it's amazing.

[SoLongSidekick]

The attached photo is park of the National Archives at College Park, Maryland. It's captioned" A damaged Lockheed P-38 on part of an assault barge is brought into port at the Dufferin Docks, Belfast, Northern Ireland". The cargo ships Sourabaya and Kosmos II were loaded with crude oil, had sections of LCT landing craft lashed to their decks, then P-38s lashed to the LCTs. The convoy was repeatedly hit by U-Boats, and both ships were lost. Two different RAF flying boats reported seeing P-38s floating aimlessly through the North Atlantic, and eventually two were found by ships and towed to England. At least one was repaired and sent into service.

[rifleman_btx]

Wouldn't it be great to try and build one. Step one, win lotto. Haha!

[SoLongSidekick]

A bunch were sold in Arizona after WWII and they sold for freaking $1,250. Even with inflation, that's an unbelievable price.

[RRHandy]

To believe there were 12,000 of them made and now only 26 left. :Crying:

[rifleman_btx]

Indeed, sad to see that for sure

[handyman220]

To believe there were 12,000 of them made and now only 26 left. :Crying:

Very sad that many aircraft have come to the same fate. :Crying:

[SoLongSidekick]

Very sad that many aircraft have come to the same fate. :Crying:

The P-38 is uniquely tragic in that circumstances having to do with rumor and misconception sent the plane almost completely into the scrap heap at the end of WWII. Because the army didn't even bother considering the new P-38Ls and instead went for the P-51D across the board the P-38 was removed from the Army arsenal unbelievably fast.

So here's the paint process I've worked with Arycon to put together:

1 - Polycrylic coating of entire foam surface for protection
2 - Any Behr paint for touch ups (servos, channels, etc.) then livery paint.
3 - Decals
4 - Pastels for weathering
5 - Seal with Krylon Matte
6 - Silver paint weathering
7 - Final seal

The other detail I plan on adding is rivets, and I plan on applying them with a pattern wheel. The results have been shown in this thread, just search within it for "rivets". It basically indents the foam a bit and really does create a nice effect. My question is, should I apply the rivets before anything else? After the polycrylic? After the Krylon sealing? What are your thoughts?

I'm just kind of bumping this because it got buried by historical facts I was posting. I also have another subjective question for you guys. I was planning on putting an FPV camera right in the nose, and having a video switch so I could swap back and forth between the head-tracking view in the cockpit and an un-obstructed view in the nose (for things like landing). But then I started thinking about just mounting a camera in a tiny blister on the side of a boom under the wings like the gun cameras were mounted. The nose option is going to be a lot of work, and would probably provide the best view available. Thoughts?

[rifleman_btx]

For me on landings, I like to see the front of the plane so I get an idea of the aoa. The problem with the second camera is the added weight of wiring and the camera itself