On The Bench: Operation Vengeance

This will be a joint project with Willi  Bigbro. I received my plane order first, so I'll kick off.

For details on the historical Operation Vengeance that resulted in the death of Admiral Yamamoto, I recommend looking here: https://www.warhistoryonline.com/world-war-ii/lightning-strike-admiral-yamamoto.html

We intend to create a vignette featuring the G4M1 "Bettys" of Admirals Yamamoto and Ugaki, the P-38s of Barber and Lanphier, and perhaps a Zero or two.

The aircraft will all be 1/200 scale and will end up in our Wings Of Glory inventory.

I ordered 2 aircraft from Armaments In Miniature, who have a wide selection of aircraft in this scale, a P-38 D/E (a lookalike for the  G models involved) and a G4M2, which will take some modifying to backdate to a G4M1.

The models arrived in good condition. The P-38 was cleanly molded with almost no flash and negligible parting lines. A little cleanup and it should be ready to prime. The G4M2 had a rather distinct mold parting line I'll have to deal with; and details to be removed to backdate it to a -1, namely the intakes on upper and lower cowl; the radial exhaust oulets; the prominent dorsal turret; and the rear fuselage windows. 

I'd also need to fill in the hole in the belly created when I removed the provided mounting tab and screw. This will be replaced with a Wings Of Glory style post at a later point.

First, file off all the offending bumps.

That's a bit more like the sleek profile that earned it the nickname "hamaki", or cigar, by its crews. On closer inspection, I'll also need to give it a "nose job" as this has a full glass nose rather than the proper glazing for a -1:

I won't be able to make an exact match, but it can be gotten closer with some putty. So break out the squadron gray and get to it.

I also filled on the round depression behind the cockpit, which will be covered by the new blisters I have yet to make. Fill, sand, fill, sand.

A shot of gray primer let's me know if we're ready to proceed.

Yes. For blisters, I raided my parts box and picked up a couple of bombs whose widest diameter was about the width of the gun blisters. These were cut, carved, and sanded to shape, then cut in half.

A little ACC cement and voila!

I wasn't entirely happy with the dorsal blister, and sanded it down some more. The Betty also has an array of distinctive antennae, which I drilled and added, along with a nose and tail gun.

I filleted around the blisters with my Testors Window cement. All the panel lines were rescribed to enhance their detail. Time for paint. Modelmaster IJN Dark Green on top.

She's starting to look more like big sister.

Now we wait 24hrs for drying before we IJN Light Gray on the underside. Stand By!

It took longer than 24 hrs to dry to my satisfaction  (?) but I was eventually able to handle it without marring the finish, enough to allow some detail painting.

I also managed to break, replace, and correct the location of the two rear most antennae

I started the underside by hand, but as i have to hold it while doing do, it will have to be done in several sessions....

White squares masked with Tamiya tape. As my white enamel was thin, I used a nearly dry brush to paint the outside edge of the square at the edge of the tape, sealing the edge to prevent bleeding. After that dried, I went back in and filled in the square. Still got a bit of bleed at one corner where tape went over tape, but this was easily remedied. 

Starting to look like big sister. Now for some yellow ID paint on leading edges. 

Now some flat spray to seal it  and give it an even tone.

A coat of Vallejo Matt Varnish, and...

Time to begin working on Phoebe.

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We set Betty aside, and are now spending time with Phoebe, Tom Lanphier's mount. First, some squadron putty to fill in the hole left by removing the screw and oversized peg. Like Betty, she will ultimately have a Wings Of Glory peg, but that will happen much later.

Gray primer. 

Modelmaster acrylic FS 3R087 Olive Drab.

Looks OK as an aircraft color,  but I'll need a darker shade for that PBR project....

A few notes on the historical aircraft.

Tom Lanphier, originally credited with the shootdown, was flying P-38G "Phoebe", nose #122. Later research gives the victory to Rex Barber in Miss Virginia, nose #147 (ironically a borrowed plane that day) both of the 339th Fighter Squadron, 347th Fighter Group, 13th Air Force.

Photos of Barber's plane along with art and decals; far less so for Phoebe. 2 photos are readily available:

Simple roundels on wings and fuselage; 122 on both sides of the nose; "Phoebe" on the outboard side of the starboard nacelle, both forward and well aft. Also, there is an interesting wavy pattern where the upper green meets the lower grey. Also prominent on the port side of the nose are two Japanese flag kill marks. Decals for early P-38s in 1/200 are available from miscmini.com, which include both 122 and 147, and Miss Virginia script, but sadly no Phoebe(s), so I will have to attempt to print my own.

I found a nice graphic of Miss Virginia in an article reviewing the 1/48 Tamiya kit, which will help with painting and decal placement:

Using this as a guide, I hand painted the underside gray, attempting to reproduce the wavy pattern. 

Next, some of the few other non OD or gray details:

Primarily guns, turbo-superchargers, canopy, and some black wash accent lines for the spinners, control surfaces, and air inlets.

Next the miscmini decals.

Now I have to decide, do I invest the time to create some tiny "Phoebe" decals for nose and nacelles? Hmmmm...

In the meantime, Willi has been building Yamamoto and Barber's planes. Read the next chapter at the link.