I could no longer resist the temptation. Alas....the Tamiya P-38! One of my absolute favorite aircraft. I'm jumping in and putting everything else on hold. This has been beckoning me since it arrived on my doorstep. I have been reading up a ton on this kit and have yet to hear a bad word about it. The perfect kit?.....maybe. I promise I will find a way to mess this something up though.....lol.
I grabbed some Master barrels and Eduard resin wheels as well. I'm no P-38 expert, but my research revealed that even though it say F/G variants on the box, the H was identical in external appearance and may be built as well. Perusing my decal stash, I'll choose between one of these:
Thomas McQuire's Pudgy (second leading American ace behind Bong)....
Elliot Summer's Blood n Guts...
Ed Cragg's Porky...
As I contemplate this, I started on the cockpit. Simply fantastic. I'm trying to say something bad but I can't. I bet the resin companies are getting pissed. I mixed my concoction of interior green with XF-58 Olive Green, XF-4 Yellow Green, and some XF-57 Khaki to brown it up a bit. It then gave it the what for with the airbrush. I found a spare Eduard PE fret for the seat belts to jazz it up.
The instrument panel decal was used. It never fails that some of the dial don't settle right. It started off good on the right side then went crazy on me. I may need one of those visors soon...lol. I have the Eduard "Look" panel, but decided to save that for a later build. Fortunately it will be tucked under that coaming and will be very tough to see. I may respray it and add individual Airscale decals. Or maybe I won't.
The radio deck is very nice too....busy!. I may add some wiring in there to spruce it up further. The head armor calls for a darker green, possibly dull dark green. I painted it accordingly. It's a nice contrast to all the green. I considered painting the seat aluminum, but I think that's a P-40 thing. This is just a test fit before glue, very nice!
I have a feeling this airframe will go together very quickly.
