Hobby Boss 1/48 P-38L Bare Metal Foil WIP

I built one of those a few years ago. Man, that was nasty. Plus, it had raised panel lines and millions of raised rivets. The actual plane had flush rivets.

I'll be following this. The P-38 was my favorite as a kid so looking forward to your review of the build. I did the Monogram one right after getting back into this hobby and it almost burst my bubble man it was a grueling build to me and the only pleasure was getting it done so I could move on. If this goes well for you I will definately put one in the hanger.

I thought that I would try something different for the seatbelt. Instead of PE belts, I purchased a set of belts that are real cloth from hgwmodels. PE buckles are included. They didn't have belts for a P-38, so I bought belts for a Spitfire. 

As soon as I opened the package I knew that this was not going to work. The PE parts are really tiny. I mean really, really tiny. The cloth belts are equally small. I tried and tried, but I just could not make this work. So I gave up and placed an order for some Eduards PE belts.

Before I go on, I need to mention that this document is the real bible for anyone building a model of a P-38. It describes the differences between the different versiions of the plane, the correct colors of the cockpit and wheel wells. It talks about the cooling systems, the guns, just about everything. You can find it on-line here: https://www.scribd.com/document/220399447/Walk-Around-P-38-Lightning-No-30

While I was waiting for the seatbelts to arrive, I decided to work on the landing gear. The tires that are included with the kit are not very good, so I purchased some resin diamond pattern tires. First I painted them flat black. The tire cleats were then highlighted with a tan colored wash to represent mud.

I also added brake lines by using some thin wire. I removed the insulatin to indicate solid pipe. I didn't remove the insulation in areas that represent flexable hose. Pipe clamps from one of my car kits was used to clamp the wire to the landing gear. This is not 100% correct, but I think it looks pretty good.

Tojo72

I will have to keep an eye on this one,I would like a P-38 and might have to try this one. Is it theirs or a rebox ?

 

This is their own molding, according to reviews. No one else has engineered their P-38 kits like this in 1/48 before. The design eliminates all the alignment issues that folks usually complain about.

I do not think that it is a rebox since the two part fuselage, boom and wing assemble is unique to HB. It has a few issues: the wing landing lights are molded as solid plastic and some cooling scoops may be missing. That stuff does not bother me.