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1/48 P-38F "White Lightnin'"


ghodges

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This is the 1/48 Academy P-38F/G, built OOTB. I built it for my Dad to represent the civil P-38 N25Y White Lightnin'. It has since been bought by Red Bull and fully restored into a beautiful NMF P-38F seen frequently at airshows.

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There are no commercially available decals for this airplane in 1/48. Model Master enamels were used for all of the painting, thinned with lacquer thinner to speed drying time. Future was the sprayed on for the gloss coats. The prop blades were done with Aclad Chrome, applied over a base of MM gloss black enamel (worked like a charm!). The black wingwalks and anti-glare shield were painted. The red/blue flashing, wingtips, and cheat lines are all painted. The red/black 13s are decals. The black outline on the numbers were made by tracing around a red number with a very fine point Sharpie marker. The decals were then sealed with a gloss coat before applying to the model. The civil codes (N25Y) were made by using dry transfer lettering onto clear decal sheet and then applying them to the tail. The red lightning bolts were sparyed onto clear decal sheet after making a sheet plastic template for their design. The stars/bars are from Experts Choice decals.

 

There are several modifications to be made to do this plane properly. The most noticable are the scoops ahead of the supercharger intakes, which I made from a couple of missile nose halves. One modification I didn't find out about until yesterday :smiley7: is that the rear part of the superchargers (the rounded area) should be blanked off and covered over, while the rest of the supercharger forward of that is visible, as on the later P-38J/L. Another detail that can be added is a small antenna on the rear top of the right boom. Also note that this Lightning has the 2 wing leading edge lights instead of the earlier model underwing light. This thing is a real mix of early and late Lightning parts! This is also the first P-38 I've ever built with a closed canopy!

 

There are 2 markings I could not do and missing from the model. The first is a large data "box" that would be just ahead of and by the left wingroot just below the windscreen. I believe it contains names of donors and restorers (etc.), as well as the pilot name and serial info. The other marking is some sort of commercial logo on the outside of each boom that goes over the small cargo hatch door. I couldn't find a good enough picture to tell exactly what it says, nor anything in my spares box that even halfway resembled it.

 

Although my White Lightnin' is less than fully accurate, I believe my Dad will like it. He was simply inspired by seeing it on one of his calendars. I mentioned my oversights simply to help anyone else who wants to do this model and do it in a much more accurate fashion. Overall, the Academy P-38F is a good, but not great kit. I found the gear legs and their details to be fragile, and although I used the vynal tires, I didn't really like them. If you're DETAIL oriented, I'd advise starting with the Hasagawa kit instead. Cheers!

 

GIL :smiley16:

Edited by ghodges
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That is terrific, Gil! Very cool to see a P-38 in civil markings. A sweet job on this one! :smiley20:

 

Later,

 

Lee

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Very Nice Gil. I doubt your Dad will notice the discrepancies, and I stand in awe of anyone who can get a good gloss finish!

 

Mike Moore

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