Lockheed P-38 Lightning – Hasegawa

Yes, the newer Tamiya kit is the ultimate p-38 kit now, but the old Hasegawa kit is much cheaper and still build up nicely.

The kits supplied decals didn’t seem very interesting to me and I happen to have a set of decals for the p-38. This was the superscale(48-1018) which includes “St Louis Blues” P38J serving with the 475th FG in the Phillippines during 1944. As always Scalemates has details on this set (Lockheed P-38F/J Sharkmouths, SuperScale International 48-1018 (2005)). This was lucky for me as the kit decals shattered once I put them in water.

The kit was basically built OOB, except for eduard seatbelts. I painted with my usual Vallejo metallic paints, using duraluminium as the base color and then masking different panels for darker and lighter shades. The exhaust rust was done with a base coat of Mig Brown and rust powders will used to given it texture. I did cut one of the side window down to pose it retracted so that you can see the cockpit details better. Don’t forget some heavy duty nose weights (I used fishing weights superglued in the nose) so it’s not a tail seater. Some airbrush work to create the exhaust staining completed the build.

The kit really went together fairly well, no drama as I’ve expected reading about this kit online. As I’ve said earlier, I’m sure the new Tamiya kit builds much more easily, but there’s nothing wrong with this Hasegawa kit and you often see it at less than half or more for what the Tamiya kit is going for.