The Atom Furnace: Operation Vengeance

Back in Oct. 2020 Brother Bob posted the Operation Vengeance (Part 1).

"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."

If you go back to Oct. 16, 2020 you can review his work on the 1/200 scale AIM resin miniatures.

I followed with O.V. part 2 on Dec. 13, 2020 with my resin miniatures. I emulated Bob's procedure and techniques with the aircraft modifications and painting and the following photos are presented as recall.

Undercoat was the beginning of the conversion into G4M1 N0, 323 - Yamamoto's Betty and Miss Virginia, 147, the P-38 that Rex Barber borrowed for the mission.

Painting the P-38 was straight forward and the decals for Miss Virginia were readily available.

The more difficult conversion was the transformation of a G4M2 to a G4M1. Basically identical air frames the windows and other protuberances had to be modified (added and subtracted) using various bits and pieces on hand.

Glass modified and painted along with the IJN green. Decals did required some modification.

The 323 had to be applied number by number.

Time to add the bubbles using extra bits.

Fast forward to November 2022 and the delivery of my wife's Anna Griffin Create package. The foam packing gave me the idea for the base to the diorama and precipitated my artist concept.

I needed materials for land and sea which I found at the local Hobby Lobby, in the model train section. I knew how to do the water with my experience with ocean dioramas. The base material allows building in two sections which is a plus as you will see.

Materials obtained.

Work begins with painting the base with acrylic greens, then applying a watered white glue and sprinkling on the base "grass" and sand.

Short and tall trees added to the "jungle" and used to hide the aircraft support rods glued into holes drilled in the fuselage(s). The planes and trees are easily positioned and relocated by inserting into the foam base.

The ocean and shore line are created with the white glue and tissue layers, painted with acrylics and topped off with Vallejo Water Effects. Then the sand beach is laid down and merged into the shore line waves.

Here is the Evans Design LED chip attached to the port nacelle and covered with the multi -colored smoke fibers from my Bolt Action stash. The lead is wound on the support wire and into the base with the switch and battery holder - a prime reason for the two piece base. The LED is a flicker which does a respectable job of fire simulation.