1/48 Hasegawa P-38J Lightning

Gallery Article by Peter Wilkinson on Sept 13 2010

 

This is the Hasegawa 1/48th scale P-38J Lightning, a kit that I've wanted to build for a while but only took the plunge this year.  I say took the plunge because, from what I'd read, it wasn't going to be the easiest kit to build.  I added the Aires P-38J Cockpit set and decals from Tally-Ho and Microscale. The finished model was done in the markings of Jack Ilfrey's 'Happy Jack's Go Buggy' simple but stunning, in my humble opinion.

Construction started with the Aires cockpit which was the usual mass of sanding great big chunks of resin and plastic away in order to make it fit, lots of dry fitting and head scratching and then more sanding. The effort is worth it though as it really does enhance this area of the kit, even though most of the details disappear once the fuselage is glued together.

The Hasegawa kit is noted for being a poor fitting model.  I have to agree that it's not one of their best but a good looking P-38 can be built with a little patience.  The worst areas are around the boom to wing joint and the nose to fuselage joint.  The booms seem to fit great when dry fitting but it appears that, once the undercarriage bays are fitted, there is some interference that prevents them going so well after.  The only answer is some difficult sanding and filling to correct the fit.  Nothing impossible but definitely awkward to achieve without removing large amounts of detail.  Care does need to be taken when gluing the booms on as getting them to line up with each other is not easy.  There seems to be a twist in the top wing part which needs setting and holding while the glue dries.  The rest of the assembly goes without too many hitches.

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Once assembled and cleaned / masked up the model was undercoated with Alclad grey primer and then sanded with 2000 grit paper to give a nice smooth finish for the top coat.  Alclad Aluminium was used for the base colour and then a few panels picked out with various other shades.  The colours were added using Humbrol and White Ensign Models enamels (these really do give a smooth finish, the paint pigment is so fine).  The whole lot was then glossed with Future / Klear before decalling.  I used the Tally-Ho decals for 'Happy Jack' and Microscale stencils.  All went on great using Super Set / Sol.  I would add that the Tally-Ho decals really did need positioning close to their finished spot because they were very difficult to move once on the model, even Microsol didn't give them any slippage.  A very thin Tamiya Smoke was then sprayed along the panels lines before a wash of Pro-Modellers dark dirt.  A couple of coats of Xtracrylix Matt sealed it all in.

The finished P-38J looks the part for me and I can't wait to get the urge to dig in the pile and pull out the next one to build.  Might just give the resin and plastic dust a chance to settle first though.

Thanks as always to Steve for giving me a place to both, show my models and admire others.

Regards 

Peter Wilkinson

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Photos and text © by Peter Wilkinson