P-38 F Lighting in 1/48 by Tamiya

[Geek44]

This is one of Tamiya's newer kits and I must say, its engineered to almost perfection. There are several ways in which engineering has cut out much of the seam work associated with fuselage halves. The kit comes with three ball bearings which function as nose weight and usually two decal options, neither of which really appealed to me but I managed to snag a "Japan Only" release which features the decal set you see.
Beautiful kit, almost foolproof to assemble, only two small criticisms.
One. Seat harnesses are represented by a decal. REALLY? Tamiya? In this day and age?
Two. The resolution of the nose art decals? The dot pattern in the nose art is plainly visible and I reckon they could do a lot better.
As ever, painted with Tamiya acrylics, Humbrol enamels and weathered with artist oils. Built OOB except for the aerial, its connectors and the seat harness I made from Tamiya tape and copper wire.

[Geek44]

[Geek44]

[Geek44]

[Geek44]

Paint chipping is hand painted with a metaliser by Vallejo that doesn't look great when sprayed but works fine for this application.
Since building this, Tamiya have released a
P-38 J version which I think depicts Richard Bong's aircraft from the Pacific theatre. There are a ton of afternarket decal options available for all versions of this most beautiful of aircraft too.

[mikeh]

Excellent work again. The P38 has a soft spot for me as my Dad was a Lightning mechanic during the war in the Panama Canal Zone.

[Geek44]

I remember you saying that. He must have been interesting to talk to. It's probably the most beautiful machine built by man.

[McCoy]

Beautiful build mate that I've missed before. But the decal quality is in short rubbish.