Official FlightLine RC 1600mm P-38 Lightning Thread

[SoLongSidekick]

I looked through all my P-38 and 475th books and only found two photos of Frank Nichols. They are both of him sitting on the wing against the canopy. One photo shows the "Captain" Nichols, Aug. 1943, with the spade and kill markings and lists the aircraft as 42-66540 which would make it an H-1. The other photo doesn't show any unique details.

As for the Hell's Angels motifs, I can't be definitive but it looks like only some of the late L-5's had this on their nose and radiators. Haven't looked into it in depth so don't take my word for it.

Searching out photos to document a specific aircraft can be difficult if not impossible. I've wasted too many hours of my life doing just that. We all wish someone had that one photograph of a particular airplane to prove the scheme or markings. Outside of that you can only use what was generally used by the unit at the time and dare someone to prove you wrong with photographic evidence. Just ask any Luftwaffe enthusiast!

Just go with the profile you posted. Looks good to me.

Heh... so I'm sure I've mentioned in this thread before that I consider myself an amateur Pacific Campaign historian. Well the fact that I now own a P-38 has made me subconsciously switch my research time into pretty much solely the P-38. I've put together a pretty massive image gallery of interesting or confusing P-38 images. This includes a large section of nose art designs I had never seen before (and found interesting - very basic schemes were not saved). I've also transcribed an outstanding article on Thomas McGuire's last mission that was originally published in Air Force Magazine in the 1970's but has since been lost to the internet. The records people at the Air Force Association are outstanding.

I haven't posted either of those items yet because my constant P-38 factoid posting has kind of drowned out serious model-related discourse. But it's been awhile, so maybe I'll post one of those things. What would you guys rather see? Image gallery of new nose art schemes, image gallery of generally intriguing P-38 images, or the transcribed Tommy McGuire article?

SLSS.........If your going for ballpark scaling with those cockpits of the 1500 P-47 and the 1700 P-51 I think your gonna be disappointed due to the over size appearance in the P-38.
The scale of the FL P-38 is 1/9.9 whereas the scale of the P-47 is 1/8.3 and the 1700 P-51 is 1/6.6.
Those are considerable larger scales in comparison. Just wanted to throw that out there before you spring on the expense.

I appreciate the heads up, it's also good to know the exact scale of this model. I actually have a somewhat unique set of parameters for what looks "good" as I'm running an FPV setup so I'm gunning for what looks "good" through the camera lens. That can be a serious chore, but I like experimenting anyways. I'm really only looking at the side panels as I'm going to be mocking up a new dashboard with the set labeled as "WWII Aircraft USA Instrument Set S105/1" at 1/8th scale shown on this page. If anyone is looking for good cockpit accessories take a look at that store. They also have honeycomb radiator panels. Anyways, with a decent set of side panels, some new instrument dials, and the gunsight the cockpit will be detailed enough without going overboard. The fact that I am now setup to record HD footage from inside the cockpit means I have to pay more attention to details in there. I'm still eventually planning on setting up a controlled yoke/throttle setup in the cockpit, but that will be way down the line and need something in the interim.

[rifleman_btx]

And here's my next P38 I plan to build.

[SoLongSidekick]

DUDE THEY OFFER A NIGHT FIGHTER M VARIANT?!? So freaking cool!

[SoLongSidekick]

Does anyone know off the top of their head how tall the control horn assemblies on the inside flap are when the flaps are fully deployed? Half deployed?

Realizing the major difference between the height of the stock drop tank pylons and the stubby pylons on my droppable bombs. They might not raise the bomb high enough off of the underside of the wing to not interfere with flap deployment. Although I might get lucky and the fins/vein on the bomb might provide enough clearance.

If not my next task to figure out is how to install the dropping mechanics from this housing into the stock foam pylons. Inside the housing there is a servo with the arm attached to a sliding plate that has 2 rearward facing hooks on the outside. The two hooks engage with the bomb and there's an indexing tab on the release plate. When the hooks are forward it puts pressure on the indexing tab, and when backwards it releases that pressure and releases the bomb. I don't see why I couldn't just install the exact same components into the foam pylon. The bombs are close enough to the right scale, but having them mounted to high might look odd.

[OV10]

SLSS........I used the Quanum bomb and release on an FMS Stuka which worked great but it was quite portly for the scale of airframe.
That Stuka is the same scale as the P-38 so the Quanum is going to look extra bloated on the Lightning.
A better option for bombs between the fuse and nacelles might be the Adam Bomb and it's release.
It is slimmer in diameter and has a lot smaller footprint release mechanism.
Check it out.;)

[rifleman_btx]

Here it is 2100 and my plane is still on the truck for delivery. So common with ups out here.

[Hardway]

Here it is 2100 and my plane is still on the truck for delivery. So common with ups out here.

:(:(:(

[rifleman_btx]

Finally showed up at 2130, built and finished at 0230. Love the new connectors and the mounting tape for the blue box is a nice touch too. I also like how they did not mount the intakes under the wing, made for an easier time placing the decals plus it kept them from getting dinged in shipping. Have to get her in the air to see if there were any other improvements. So far I give the updates an A+ rating.

[SoLongSidekick]

Finally showed up at 2130, built and finished at 0230. Love the new connectors and the mounting tape for the blue box is a nice touch too. I also like how they did not mount the intakes under the wing, made for an easier time placing the decals plus it kept them from getting dinged in shipping. Have to get her in the air to see if there were any other improvements. So far I give the updates an A+ rating.

I'm still so freaking bummed that I literally got the very last unit of the old design. Oh but they offered to sell me all the upgraded parts so I'm all good. /s

SLSS........I used the Quanum bomb and release on an FMS Stuka which worked great but it was quite portly for the scale of airframe.
That Stuka is the same scale as the P-38 so the Quanum is going to look extra bloated on the Lightning.
A better option for bombs between the fuse and nacelles might be the Adam Bomb and it's release.
It is slimmer in diameter and has a lot smaller footprint release mechanism.
Check it out.;)

Yeah I've seen the Adam Bomb. But that would only exacerbate my issue. Plus I really don't like the look of their dropping mechanism. If the Adam bomb fit on the Quanum dropper that would be perfect.

Plus, I couldn't disagree more. The main bomb the P-38 rocked in the Pacific Campaign was the 1,000 lb bomb, either two of them or 1 bomb and 1 drop tank depending on range necessities. The quanum bomb is modeled after a 500 lb bomb at 1/6th scale, which means in rough shape it should match a 1,000 lb bomb at 1/10 scale well enough. I know in the ETO and MTO multiple 500 lb mounts were field modified, but they look freaking goofy as you can see in the last photo I've attached.

See the attached images, this bomb size is perfect for this model.

[rifleman_btx]

I would like to see them use the extension cable they used in this plane in the tigercat, that would make the transport that much easier and less taxing on the cables and the board. Just alittle 411 for ya Alpha! If yall do this have the extension cable available in spare parts as well. :)

[SoLongSidekick]

OK so I found more fodder for our victory marking debate. See the attached image; there's a few interesting notes on this one. First, it looks like the pilot decided to list his markings chronologically instead of separated by category. That may help us figure out what the strange markings are.

So on this Lightning there are 50 fighter sweeps listed, and 40 of them have the weird crossbar on them. The first 14 fighter sweeps all have them, and for the most part they seem to come in waves. I am so freaking stumped as to what this modifier could mean. Could it mean there was enemy contact on that fighter sweep? That there were strafing runs on that fighter sweep mission? The symbol for bomber escort was most often a top hat and cane (with the cane at an angle similar to these markings), so maybe the marking means that it was a bomber escort fighter sweep? But that's a stretch I think.

Does anyone have any insight as to what the modifier means?

[Beeg]

They look like bombs crossing the broom. If that’s the case I’d say combined fighter sweep/bombing mission.

[Hardway]

[Hardway]

Maybe this would help???:Cool:

[SoLongSidekick]

Ha Amazon has it for less than $5. On it.

** EDIT ** Order placed and thank god for Prime, I'll have it on Saturday. I'll make sure to let you guys know if it clarifies this particular issue, and any other interesting tidbits I find.

[rifleman_btx]

Hey SLSK, for the front camera, how about doing an M variant? Run the camera in the radar pod. And since your doing a new canopy anyway, you could add the rear seat bubble in there too. Just a thought

[SoLongSidekick]

Hey SLSK, for the front camera, how about doing an M variant? Run the camera in the radar pod. And since your doing a new canopy anyway, you could add the rear seat bubble in there too. Just a thought

That was the primary reason I wanted to run an M model, a very close second is how freaking bad ass they look. I'd be able to easily hide the camera and even a big ass 1.3 GHz antenna as well for super long range. For some reason after finding out that VQ carries a stock-built M model has been making me think about converting more and more.

Plus, the very last kills of the war were accomplished by a P-38M named Shady Lady. The pilot literally scared 2 Japanese pilots to death, as after a short chase at wavetop level they both crashed into the ocean. LOOK HOW FREAKING AWESOME THAT MOTTLED BLACK AND OD PAINT SCHEME IS!!!! I'm putting some serious thought into this now.

BTW, sidekick is one word so it's SLS - not SLSK. I feel so stupid even typing that, but it was my band name back in high school and for some reason seeing it typed as "SLSK" makes my inner 18 year old cry haha.

** EDIT ** I just looked at VQ's P-38M again and noticed something that seriously bugs me. The radar pod they are using is a hideously incorrect shape and attached near the rear of the unit when in reality it attached to the plane closer to the center.

[rifleman_btx]

There ya go!

[SoLongSidekick]

So I've expanded my livery / nose art image gallery to include pretty much all liveries except for the ones that come with this plane. I realized that just because I've seen P-38s like Beautiful Lass or Hawkeye Hattie II a bunch doesn't mean other people haven't. So I realized I need to include McGuire's plane variants as I can't find any freaking coinciding evidence anywhere. I've even seen renders of Pudgy IV with 38 kills and I know Callie's set used to be wrong too (might still be).

As far as I can tell, McGuire got to 7 kills before Pudgy was so damaged it never flew again. I don't think there are any pictures of this aircraft at all.
Then he brought Pudgy II (P-38H5) up to 16 kills before someone wrecked it while he was on leave.
Pudgy III (P-38J-10) was also wrecked by a fellow pilot, Major George Dewey, but before that happened I believe he got it up to 22 kills.
As far as I can tell he didn't get any kills in Pudgy IV, and it's kind of an interesting machine. Aileron boost and dive flaps were included from the factory on all P-38J-25-LOs and later, and this plane did not have them. So my guess is this plane was a P-38J-10 just like the previous one.
In September 1944 he flew a P-38L for the first time and realized what a crucial tool the dive flaps were and after enough complaining received one in the form of Pudgy V. With Pudgy V he ran up his score to his final tally of 38.

My livery / nose art gallery now has 159 photos in it, the vast majority of which are unique. There are a couple that I included two photos of, but very few. The crazy thing is I'm still finding multiple new planes every day! So I think I'll just keep building it up until I can't find any more new ones then post it.

[rifleman_btx]

Yup that is correct.