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I am a little bit surprised this this aircraft hasn't been brought up earlier for another STGB. I mean the first one way back in 2015 and even then I surprised there hadn't been an STGB for it already. She is a bit of a forgotten aircraft and is over shadowed by the Mustang & Thunderbolt, but it was a very important aircraft with over 10,000 being built. It did everything during the war with claims that 90% of all aerial film taken over Europe was from a P-38. But it was in the Pacific that it was most successful in the hands of America's top aces, Bong, McGuire and MacDonald. So why not build one....or 2 or 3 or be like Enzo and build a squadron! Plus with Tamiya's new jewel and possible/probable variants there's now no reason not to. ...and da list: 1, trickyrich - Host 2, TEMPESTMK5 3, Corsairfoxfouruncle 4, dnl42 5, gingerbob 6, JohnT 7, GREG DESTEC 8, stevehnz 9, franky boy 10, peterairfix 11, Arniec 12, Beazer 13, rafalbert 14, jrlx 15, torbjorn 16, grufsnik 17, John Masters 18, JOCKNEY 19, diases 20, almac 21, kir 22, Dansk 23, Andwil 24, Scargsy 25, alt-92 26, Hockeyboy7627, 27, wellzy 28, Ozzy 29, Alan P 30, AdrianMF 31, Wez 32, 33, 34, 35,

A place marker to stake out my place in the GB, if I may . My build will hopefully compliment @trickyrich and @Dunny's builds as the thuird of the RAAF P-38's used in the PR role. They've both done an excellent job of introducing the topic that my own effort would only pale next to theirs. Suffice to say I hope to do the topic justice, I've been looking forward to attempting a Haze scheme for a while. I won't get stated for a little while though - that way I get to see their progress first - as I've one project to finish and one more I'd like to do before starting this one. We'll see about the extra one, that might be ambitious. Cheers.

I know there have been a few of these lately, but here's my interpretation of the P-38G flown by Col. Rex T. Barber during Operation Vengeance, the epic mission to intercept Admiral Yamamoto aboard his punctual Betty. That story has been well told elsewhere, and my (almost complete) build log for this one has a link to a version of it: All the superlatives thrown at Tamiya for their engineering are well justified; build it and marvel at the way the complex layers of the wheel wells build up or the ease with which the wings attach to the booms. My only hesitation at calling it perfect are the decals, which - especially the stencils - feel thick, with too much carrier film that silvers easily. It’s not a cheap kit, and while this oversight doesn’t kill the experience, I was hoping for better. It’s all built as supplied, apart from the Master gun barrels and an Eduard harness. Painting was a long, layered and enjoyable process, although I didn’t accomplish all I hoped, so perhaps in a few kits time I’ll be back for more. Thanks for looking!

Hi Everyone This is the old Hasegawa 1/48 scale P-38F and it’s been sitting half completed on the shelf of doom, collecting dust and unpainted for about 7 years. It’s had a pretty rough upbringing and I can’t recall the number of times it’s been dropped and damaged quite badly at times. I was going to get rid of it about three months ago, but I decided to use it as painting practice for my Tamiya P-38 instead. The painting went better than expected, so I persevered and finally managed to get it over the line. I am quite pleased to be honest with the look of it, hopefully the Tamiya kit won’t fight back as much. Don’t forget to weight the nose if you’re doing one of these. Thanks for looking, kind regards Trace

Lightning fit for a little prince: https://everardcunion.com/plastic-models-2/world-war-2-plastic-models-part-2/lightning-fit-for-a-little-prince/#top This once common scale, 1/72nd scale, really is too small for aircraft of this size, in my opinion. I find that I can hardly hold the smaller parts and, if I drop one on the floor, it is gone for good. (Notice the absence of the underside elevator mass balance.) A couple of related topics on this forum... Antoine De Saint-Exupery: 1re escadrille du GR 2/33, F-5 lightning colors?

Hi all, Returning to modeling with a Eduard Pacific P-38 kit I chanced upon on ebay, having just read "Forked-Tailed Devil" previously, I had to have it. Interesting project so far being the first time I've used either photo etched or resin parts. Safe to say I've lost/crushed a few PE bits & made a few errors along the way but still pleased with it so far. Not feeling ready to do a NMF I'm aiming to build it up to an olive green / grey version flown by Capt Jay T Robbins in 1943 I'm nearing the stage to start painting (1st attempt with an airbrush) but having built the canopy (pig of a job) & now applied the Eduard mask set supplied with the kit (another first) I'm really disappointed with the 2 side windows which have a X brace across them, the mask set is just not even and will look awful if I don't correct it. So can anyone point me in the direction of some tips on how to address this without losing too much hair. I would say my modeling abilities are rusty & limited by fat fingers & unsteady hand but I have high hopes & willing to learn. Thanks in advance, will post some pics when I remember to stop fiddling and take some. Lonners

Hi guys. I am super pleased to bring you the RFI of my Academy P-38 she has taken a month or so to put together between life and work. I decided to build this as the P-38 is one of my all time favorite looking aeroplanes, the twin booms and saucy nose art of these brash beauties was always something very "American" and such a departure from other schemes and markings. The WIP can be found It's been a really fun build with loads of extras thrown in for good measure. I'll list after the pics. I wanted to test out my Photo tent that I picked up a while ago, I was intrigued as I usually cobble something together from paper or go outside for my RFI shots. I have taken such a lot of pics and I can't choose which ones to add so I'm going to share them all. hope you're ready there's a metric flip tonne of em. Phew! I'll post a sign off in a sec. just want to get these up first.

Hi guys. Welcome to my latest WIP of the lovely Academy P-38 Lightning. 1/48 Ive been itching to start this for some time now and was held up only by my Eurofighter's canopy malfunction. which has now been remedied and can be found here in RFI (link to be added) I bought this kit a while ago having a yearning to go all silver something I tested out on my Vampire build last year. I'm planning on doing some new techniques on the weathering and painting of the silver panels so fingers crossed all goes to plan. I had also planned on doing the "droopsnoot" variant but while waiting for the Eurofighter parts I ended up falling out of love with the kit decals and falling in love with the brash American nose art that adorned these planes so I went and bought some rather saucy after market decals and some other bits and bobs while I was at it, what was that about the devil and idle hands? So here's my homage to Bold American Aeroplanes with a penchant for rather inappropriate nose art. I hope you will join me it's going to be fun. (Probably) after all it's nearly Summer. First up some pictures of what I'm starting with. The box art is lovely. And here are the decals I'll be using. I love the olive strips on the nose but I'm still not decided on which scheme to go for. this one with a yummy yellow tail and red nose. Or this one with swirls and stripes. any preference? also while checking over the kits office I noticed the lack of detain on the IP and other areas so I couldn't help myself and bought this. looks rather pretty. I doubt if I can make a start tonight but I thought I'd at least start the ball rolling. Thanks for joining me and as always. Happy Modelling. Johnny boy.

Hi all, I'd like to present the second of in a set of RAAF WWII aircraft I've built, this time a lesser know one. It is quite strange that they RAAF only operated 3 P-38 Lightnings during the war and they were of the Photo Recon variety (operated by 1PRU), they were loaned a few more by the USAAF. There is a bit of conjecture over whether the original 3 were Photo Recon F-4s or started life as P-38E’s which were modified either in the US or here in Australia. They operated from Mid 42 to late 44, with all 3 eventual being written off with one incident unfortunately resulting in the lost of the pilot. I built the last of the 3, A55-3, she started off life as a P-38E with the serial number 41-2144 (there was even for a while some conjecture as to if this serial number was actually correct), she was converted to F-4-1-LO either here in Australia or in the US. She served with 1PRU from 27Feb42 till she crashed due to undercarriage failure on the 10Dec43, the wreckage is now in the Darwin Aviation Museum. This build was part of the P-38 STGB, to which I was host. I was meant to have finished this in time, but as some people know I have a crazy work schedule and am away from home for long periods, so I missed my own deadline. The base for the build is a Academy 1/48th P-38F (which is not a nice kit at all as there are lots of errors), with a Red Roo resin PR conversion kit. Thrown into this mix are a new resin cockpit, wheels, turbo bits, and some PE. The paints are LifeColor acrylics from their RAAF WWII series...just love these paints. Please enjoy, included is a link to the build. http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234980483-raaf-f-4-1-lo-a55-3-1pru-1943-completed/

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 90o 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