Bob Inspired P38

Great project Yabby and I would recognize that profile anywhere.

Just wait until you get those two Surestarts burning together, you will become aware immediately when they sync up. Such a beautiful sound.

When I finished my P-38 and discovered how much fun it was to start and fly, I thought about building a four engine B-24 Liberator. Your eight engined Spruce Goose would be quite a challange, But, it's been done.

Good luck, and I will be watching.

I always wanted to build a Sterling 1/2A built up wing P-38. I've seen two fly, not impressive for performance but it looked cool as could be. I've built 3 of the Sterling .09-.15 size P-38's. I do think a turd would fly better actually. This is a picture of my current Sterling P-38. It's very poorly designed and it actually caused a crash of my last one. The main gear goes through the center of the fuse and turns into the ribs. Well, it bent and I straightened it. On the next take off, the gear wire turned and it jammed into the bellcrank. I was flying over asphalt and it bit the dust. Powered by two Enay .09's, I will say I'm not overly impressed by them. They start easy but they're quite timid for power and they're heavy. I truly love the exhaust blowing into my face when I'm setting the needle. The Sterling kit needs lots of attention due to multiple design issues.

Aaahhh...Twins! I'm smitten.

Yabby...see this paint job. Put your name under the model:

If I did anything right on my P-38, it was the landing gear Ken.  Solid as a rock and sustained many a hard landing.  50+ years old now, and were I able it could take to the air tomorrow. It was not fast, couldn't do a loop, but I love it.





Great Idea Jim.  YABBY would look great under there.  Yippee was the 5000th P-38 built.

Twins Twins !! You are knocking it out in a hurry Yabby

all white. just paint the tips red... and would absolutely look like old Lefty Gardners P-38 -- before his family sold it to RedBull and now it looks like every other RedBull liveried paint job - polished and logos

https://p38assn.org/white-light.htm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XYQln3sQOU

redbull (who, to be fair, saved the plane after a crash, and kept it flying)
https://www.flyingbulls.at/en/fleet/lockheed-p-38-lightning

Thanks for all the feedback! gave me a good laugh with my breakfast this morning. :-) Ken I really like your description of your P38 experience. Maybe they look better than they Fly. I really like the builds yourself and Bob did of your P38s!! They look great. I especially like the enclosed engines on Bobs plane and the finish on both is excellent!!!

Jim you actually made me properly laugh out loud with the idea of putting YABBY across the bottom and the photo you attached.

Hey cstatman i think I will take your advice and add some red to the wing tips cos it looks like a ghost plane or something not right like it is. what I had imagined and the result were very very different. That is one of my build problems. Lol. HaHa. I am genuinely diagnosed as very dyslexic and it shows up not only in my difficulty with letters and numbers but also with what might look good. Plus lets face it my construction isnt exactly refined!!! I had half expected Ken to give me a serve about all the glue piled up everywhere and such as I know he is very fastidious about his builds and as proven by the photos attached. Same with Bob's P38. Awesome looking Planes!!!.

Hey Getback, its taken me a whole week to build it to this point!. Thats a very long build for me! And it doesnt have wheels on it yet, and the controls arent on it either. I have built two surestarts from my new parts spares bins (which my missus hates as she just sees money in the bins, but I see brand new parts and when Im doing a project like this I can carefully assemble brand new engines, and run them in properly together and make them as similar as possible). the engines are nearly run in, so Im going to have to do the wheels soon. Hmmmm the wheels. That part is stressing me. Lol.

I havent decided what to do about the fuel tank(s) yet, I think I know what the general advice would be, but Im a bit of a learn the hard way type :-) and I can always go to two tanks, but Im thinking a single 3/4 ounce tank with a splitter will do the job. A friend I sometimes fly with has been telling me all about the physics of it all, and I do get it, but sometimes I just reckon its over rated. I will find out and can always change if needed.

It was good when I saw the kind comment from David first up, as I was a bit worried about putting up a picture of my build that people might rip into it as its very much a roughie. Lol. Maybe I will learn and improve my build quality. Though not likely after 60 years. HaHaHa

Thanks everyone for all the feedback!!! I dont have a club to fly with and mainly just fly with my Lad, so its nice to post my build and get thoughts, experiences, interaction with people like I would I guess if I was able to fly at a club!

Yabby