P-38H Lightning, Halinski 1:33

[Erik Zwaan]

Dear fellow paper modelers, welcome aboard and I hope to keep you hooked on .

The build continues with the cockpit internals and front wheel well. In order to properly store the front wheel after gear retraction, a "dent" in the wheel well was required, hidden under the pilot's seat. I always like to turn such a 2D part into 3D. To increase the roundness of all the edges it helped to use an embossing pen by which the seams are smoothened out.

Then the left side of the internal cockpit wall with the throttle quadrant as main equipment. I added some details here and there to highlight knobs and switches, either with glue (knobs on the various levers) or plastic spruce. Once you have started adding such details (especially during the Dauntless build) it's hard to not do it again.
As mentioned before, sticking to the parts numbering as guide to the build is highly recommendable but at this point I have already glued the top frame of the cockpit as it's easier to install and outline the side panels.

Cheers,
Erik

[Don Boose]

As always, admirably clean and crisp modeling!

Don

[Petestein]

Amazing. out of this world. Can't wait to follow all the assembly progress

[Siwi]

Already looking great. I hear a lot about using glue to make small beads and such, what type of glue and how does one make it dry to the desired shape?

[Erik Zwaan]

Hi Don, Petestein and Siwi, thank you for your comment .

Siwi, making the beads or knobs on the handles is pretty simple. I use white glue applied on the tip of a skewer and apply it to the flat paper handles. Pending on the required size you can repeat this process one or two times. The cables along the cockpit side walls are made of very thinly cut paper, painted sky grey and after drying, glued to the walls (also with white glue).

The build-up of the cockpit continues. It is very detailed already by itself but here and there I added highlights to handles, knobs and cables, based on actual pictures. It's a crammed cockpit, and not very ergonomically.

The pedals at the central console are very fragile and mostly hidden from sight, a simpler construction would have made installation easier and not at the expense of visible details.
The right cockpit side is less complex and the rest of the equipment and instrument panel is pretty much business as usual. There's a fork shaped handle at the left side of the instrument panel, and I'm still trying to find out its purpose.

The anti-glare panel (part 33) requires a bit of explanation. According to the building instructions only in fact the part directly covering the instrument panel needs to be installed, for which you need to cut the part in two. From what I conclude from actual pictures is that a sort of foldable extension of the anti-glare panel could be optionally installed, apparently to serve in those locations with a lot of direct sunlight, to make it easier for the pilot to read his instruments. See the picture.
I may improvise something later for this, but for now the only partly installed panel leaves much more detail visible in the cockpit.
Another eye-catcher is the control column and steering wheel. I made it from 0.5mm dia plastic rod/spruce and used the template to make the job a bit easier.
That sort of completes the cockpit, with exception of the pilot's seat, which will be installed later.

The pictures show the chronological build-up of the cockpit area - a lot of work.

Next item to build and install is..... the nose gear.

Erik

[Petestein]

Once again the genius of card models i showing his amazing work. Very few modellers have the ability of working so accurate and precise as you. Congratulations.

[Michael Mash]

Outstanding cockpit details . . . fully operational.

[Mike1158]

Another Mr Kipling product, exceedingly good........

[MacSongLi]

The cockpit detailing is amazing. Perfect job, Erik.

Gary

[Isaac]

The cockpit area of the actual plane looks more like the cabin of a locomotive with switches, levers and controls all over the place. Makes for a nice detail. Keep the canopy doors open properly so the interior can be seen.

Enjoy the process.

The early P38 had a more conformal air scoop under the propellor ( which was found to be less than sufficient ). The later ones had a much larger and more pronounced inlet.

Isaac