Limited Edition Pacific Lightnings - 1:48 Eduard

[Mike]

Pacific Lightnings (Limited Edition)
1:48 Eduard

The P-38 Lightning is well known, so I won't bore you with the details, although you can find some information at the top of my review of the earlier Limited Edition P-38J Lightnings over Europe kit that Eduard released last year. Comparing the two sets will also show you that the basic Academy plastic is entirely the same, as are the bespoke Eduard resin and Photo-Etch (PE) parts, so the construction process will be too. I won't re-take the photos, but I'll add a sprue that I missed from the previous review, and please accept my apologies for that oversight!

The Kit
Arriving in Eduard's sturdy top-opening box, the kit contains seven sprues of mid greeny-grey styrene, with Academy's familiar shiny finish, a clear sprue, some black rubbery tyres, a large bag of resin containing 35 parts, a sheet of pre-cut masking material, two sheets of PE, a large decal sheet and of course Eduard's excellent instruction booklet and painting guide, printed on hard-wearing glossy paper in colour.

The idea of these limited editions is to provide an augmented kit with some custom decals, and this is one of the many things that Eduard do well. The resin makes up a wonderfully detailed cockpit, with the PE adding extra detail such as seatbelts and a laminated instrument panel, although it seems that you will need to be careful when fitting this inside the fuselage pod, as the tolerances are quite tight. It is possible though, as proven by Chris Jephcott in his review build here. The instrument panel coaming needs to be removed from the kit part, although this shouldn't tax many modellers.

The gear bays receive a new super-detailed skin to their insides, and the gear legs also get upgraded with some PE oleo-scissor links, with PE brake hoses running back into the bay. The bay doors also have new PE hinges, which are bent 90^o to provide a good sized mounting surface to the door. Externally to the engine nacelle/booms, the main intakes have a small PE grille inserted into the intake trunking, and the small auxiliary intakes are replaced with a set of finely cast resin parts with very crisp intake lips. The kit wheels are replaced by resin ones with separate hubs and very much improved tread and hub detail, which should improve their look and remove the necessity of using those love-them-or-loathe-them rubber tyres. One decal option requires a large raised panel on the underside of the wing to be removed, which looks like fun! Approach this only if you're desperate to use markings option E, and are confident that you can return the surface to a good facsimile of smoothness afterward.

On top of the tail booms are the super-chargers, which are replaced entirely by some exquisite resin castings, with PE heat-shrouds on the boom to protect it from the high temperatures that are present in the real thing. On either side of the super-chargers are two moulded in intakes, which are to be removed, which will be best done before the resin parts are added, so you don't slip and ruin them. These are replaced by a quartet of resin parts (two per boom) that compliment the detail on the aforementioned super-chargers.

The kit transparencies are of reasonably good clarity, although the bulged hood at the rear is a little thick, and you'll need to take care when gluing the sides of the canopy to the "roof", to ensure you get them at the correct angles. Inside the windscreen a clear resin gun-sight is included with a PE brace that affixes across the front panel.

Markings
Eduard's special edition markings are always interesting, and this one is no different, having a variety of finishes and some bright markings, with a total of six choices, as follows:

• P-38L-5 44-25863 Flown by Capt. Ken Hart, 431st FS, 475th FG, Lingayen, Philippines June 1945 - all over bare metal with olive drab anti-glare panels on the nose and inner nacelles. The name Peewee is emblazoned on the port-side nose.
• P-38L-5 Flown by Capt. Bob DeHaven, 7th FS, 49th FG, Tacloban, October 1944 - all over bare metal with olive drab anti-glare panels on the nose and inner nacelles. Blue tails and red/white striped rudders.
• P-38L Flown by Lt. M. M. Jarboe, 36th FS, 8th FG, Le Shima, Okinawa, May 1945 - all over bare metal with black anti-glare panels on the nose and inner nacelles. Payoff noseart and black/white diagonal tactical markings on each wing and tail booms.
• P-38J-15 42-103921 Flown by Lt. Richard L. West, 35th FS, 8FG, Owi, July 1944 - all over bare metal with olive drab anti-glare panels on the nose and inner nacelles. Playing cards noseart and large 3 on nose and tail.
• P-38L-10 42-67590 Flown by Capt. Jay T. Robbins, Co, 80th FS, 8th FG, Finschhafen, December 1943 - Olive drab over light grey with a wavy demarcation. Large A on the nose and tails, red/white/blue spinners and Buddha figure on the nose.
• P-38L Flown by the CO of 70th FS, 18th FG, Moret Field, Zamboanga, Philippines, 1945 - all over bare metal with olive drab anti-glare panels on the nose and inner nacelles. Rough & Dirty noseart, red chequers and three red stripes on tail boom intakes, with 100 in red on the tails.

The decals are all supplied on a single large sheet, which is printed by Cartograf, and all of the potentially tricky aspects of the markings are supplied as decals, such as the striped tail, chequers and fancy spinners. A few decals will need care during application due to compound curves, but if you take your time and use plenty of decal softening agent, they should settle down well.

The stencils are all legible, and their application is detailed on the back page of the instruction booklet, to avoid ending up with confused and busy diagrams. The last option on the decal sheet is only shown in profile on the front page of the instruction booklet due to lack of space, but the complete scheme is provided online here in full on the penultimate page, although in truth, there aren't many decals on the top and bottom surfaces.

Conclusion
Another good release from Eduard, using Academy's well respected Lightning kit as a jumping off point, improving on the cockpit, wheel bays, wheels and external engine detail, while providing some rather fetching decals that give a fair spread of squadrons and areas of operation that the Lightning was engaged in.

Highly recommended.

Review sample courtesy of

[Screech]

Excellent review Mike, the only thing you might want to check is the link to Chris Jephcott's build. It seems to broken.

Cheers,

[Mike]

Thanks - looking into it now

[Mike]

Fixed

[Nobby1980]

did i convert the price right ? £34 for all this ??? if it is looks like a bargain.

[Mike]

If you set your site settings to English, you'll get a figure of 47,81€ so I think your numbers might be out?

[Dave A]

Various shops online are doing it for about £28 special offer ATM - Relish being one as I recall... Oops, tell a lie, 32 quid...

Edited March 11, 2013 by Dave A

[Nobby1980]

If you set your site settings to English, you'll get a figure of 47,81€ so I think your numbers might be out?

i just enterd there Kc price to convert to GBP but 47 euro to £41 oh my brains cooking

[Mike]

We may be getting confuzzled by the bunny club price?

[Chris Jephcott]

She'll be a beauty when she's made. I'm still glad that I got mine finished in the original one...

Looks like another great release from Eduard though.

[snapper_city]

Me like, Added to the wish list. hopefully ill be able to pick one up before they are all gone...

[snapper_city]

Mike - Does this have the same pit as the Europe version? If so its such a shame about the fit issues and the thought of laying out for the Aries pit.

[Edgarovich]

Nice, it needs vac-formed canopys for finished kit!