Tamiya P-38 is a P-38F/G !!!
Details on the new kit are below, was hoping for the late versions first up, nonetheless are long overdue new tool kit of a great WW2 aircraft. Looking forward to getting one and building soon!
Tamiya 61120 1/48 Lockheed P-38 F/G Lightning
P-38 Lightning
Tamiya Proudly Presents: The Lockheed® P-38®F/G Lightning® in 1/48 scale! It is without question that the P-38 is a unique fighter from World War II and it's been one of our most requested subjects to be made. Thanks to our extensive research and ever-evolving mold making techniques, Tamiya's designers have gone to great lengths to achieve the best fitting and most accurate P-38 Lightning F/G model assembly kit to date. We are sure this kit will adorn modelers collections and be the topic of discussion in the various model contests across the globe for the foreseeable future!
ABOUT the Lockheed P-38 Lightning!
This WWII fighter was a daring design with twin booms and a piston engine in each, plus a central nacelle which housed the cockpit and armament (machine guns and cannon in the nose). Introduced in June 1941, the aircraft went on to be used extensively in the Pacific through WWII. The F variant was manufactured from April 1942 onward, and featured pylons for 150-gallon drop tanks to make it capable of longer bombing missions. Later P-38Gs had more powerful engines and could carry bigger 300-gallon drop tanks. The P-38 was used for interception, dive bombing, level bombing, ground attack, night fighting, photo reconnaissance, radar and visual pathfinding for bombers and evacuation missions, and extensively as a long-range escort fighter when equipped with drop tanks under its wings.
• 1/48 scale plastic model assembly kit. Fuselage length: 240mm, wingspan: 330mm.
• P-38F and P-38G variants can be built.
• The model creates a parked aircraft when assembled and complete.
• Features accurate depictions of early P-38 features such as slimline engine cowlings, intercoolers in leading edges, plus the curved canopy front.
• Weights are included in the kit to ensure correct balance of the model when displayed.
• The canopy can be assembled open or closed. When closed, it is a 1-part slide-molded piece with dedicated F and G variant parts. The hatch is shown open sideways on the P-38F, and vertically on the P-38G.
• A detailed cockpit features the wheel-type controls, radio, throttle box and more.
• Comes with parts to recreate two each of 150- and 300-gallon drop tanks.
• Includes two marking options: “White 147” P-38G which took part in the interception of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto in April 1943 and “White 33” P-38F.
• Mirror stickers are included to recreate cockpit mirror and engine cowling interior surface sections.
• Comes with canopy masking stickers and a full-color painting guide.
I want one!
If I were still building, it would most definitely be near the top of MY list...! 🙂
Finally, could it actually be happening. An accurate P-38 that's a good fitting well engineered kit. It better be good "Tamiya" !, if so I'll take at least two.
Agreed ! Sign me up for a couple as well...
Cool the early one! Great news...I love the early 38. What is even more remarkable is markings for one of the Lightnings that participated in the Yamamoto shoot down . Velly intedesting!
Well, so much for the argument they wouldn't do an early P-38 out of sensitivity to the assassination of Admiral Yamamoto. (If you think that's the wrong term, it's the term Halsey used)
That's actually John Mitchell's P-38, the leader of the mission, not Rex Barber's airplane, the guy who shot down and killed Yamamoto.
Oh, and an H is doable also. Mostly distinguished from the F and G in that the gear legs and wheel wells and interior of the gear doors were Neutral Grey rather than aluminum lacquer.
If those "hint pix" were right, you'll need to take off the aileron booster inspection panel, since these airplanes didn't have that.
John Mitchel reportedly flew a P-38 named "Squinch" on this mission. He did not fly this plane... He was the flight leader.
Instead, it was Rex Barber that flew this plane "Miss Virginia" (number 147).
It was not his usual aircraft. The plane "Miss Virginia" was regularly flown by yet another pilot named Bob Petit.
Thomas Lanphier flew "Phoebe" plane (number 122).
Here's a link to the discussion at "That other site".
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/hyperscale/the-yamamoto-mission-killer-section-t178513.html
There are also a lot of good photos of several planes involved in "Operation Vengeance" that you can see by following this link. For many years there was a heated argument between Lamphier and Barber over who actually downed the Admiral.
Halsey never was a politically correct guy. The term PC never existed until the later part of last century.
I happen to like Halsey, but he had his share of faults too. Sending a Task Force into a typhoon being one...
There just might be plans later down the road to release a later model 38 that used the aileron boost. This might explain the "extra" access panel. Tamiya may instruct the builder to fill in this panel line, like they did on a fuselage panel line on their new tool 109...
No biggie.
No one is perfect, especially me.
Good. Barber is now officially recognized by the USAF as the single pilot who shot down Yamamoto. Lanphier got back first and was the only pilot who wrote a report. I just included this story in the latest book manuscript "Under The Southern Cross." Anybody arguing for Lanphier is operating on incorrect info.
Yes Barber has been officially credited with downing Yamamoto.
Allegedly there was an investigation on the Betty wreckage that determined the trajectory of the incoming rounds that hit and downed the plane. These rounds came from a rearward angle. The same angle that Barber would have fired from. The plane still exists to this day and remains where it fell. Parts have been scavenged away from it over the years, and a wing section was placed on display at the Yamamoto shrine.
Then when you include the post mortem account of the Admiral's body, there's only one pilot that could have done it, and it was Barber...
The Japanese said the Admiral was hit by two separate .050 rounds. One struck the rear of his shoulder and exited the other side. Another round struck his lower jaw and exited near his eye... That was determined to be the fatal blow. I'm sure it made a mess.
Lamphier was supposedly livid because taking away credit for the kill also took away his "Ace" status. It dropped him from 5 confirmed to 4... He continued to claim that he did shoot down Yamamoto until the day he died.
But the investigators determined that there was no way his rounds impacted the Betty when he fired a test burst to "clear" his guns as he claimed. He was supposedly firing from a near 90 degree deflection...
The forensics just didn't add up.
Such is the "Fog" of War.
What really interests me is how fighter pilots, snipers, and tankers, are celebrated for their kill records, but we don't extend that reverence to the infantry. In the infantry, you don't talk about killing, much less boast about it. Recording your "kills" in the infantry would get you very quickly diagnosed as a psychopath in the army I served in.
Sorry - not trying to make things "heavy". Happy to see a new Tamiya kit of any aircraft in 1/48.
Yamamoto and Rodney Dangerfield...I would now say that the world is flat with the advent of computers and world markets having shift the markets.. Tamiya must now feel that the younger generation and sales out side of Japan out way the interests of the older generation in the home market. Glacier Girl comes to mind as a modeling subject and there where rumors that there was interest in finding some of her brothers and sisters in the ice. With the ice melting from the possibility of warming effects of the earth there maybe some more finds. More modeling possibilities.
That would be fantastic if they removed the other P-38's that were down there under the ice with Glacier Girl. There were two B-17's with them as well... All you need is money and time.
There are definitely a lot of possibilities to model these new tool Lightning's.
Robin Olds and "Scat" also comes to mind if they release a "J" version.
147 is indeed barbers mount!
Put me down for one! It's about time!
Surprise, surprise! Tamiya delivered an unexpected Easter egg P-38.
Guess now I might just build 2 models for the Teeth &Fang GB. Can’t wait to grab one
Great news indeed, it will be on my want list. Have built the Revell/Monogram kit, lots of fit issues, too many rivets, and little cockpit detail, the Minicraft kit, really a terrible kit, and two Academy P-38's, some issues but still decent kits. So I'm looking forward to the seeing the price, considering all the included options, and reading some build reports. Tom Cleaver I'm awaiting your summary.
YIPPEE!
(sorry, could not resist...keeping in the P-38 spirit)
I will wait till the build reports come out before I make the purchase but it definitely is a want for me...and hopefully later models too.
OK, latest WW 2 in 1/48 from Tamiya has been A6M, Spitfire Mk I, Bf 109-G and now P-38. So, we can expect a... Japanese next? Or French, like a Bloch or Morane-Saulnier? Or an unexpected weirdo...
Damn! That will teach me. Just picked up one from the opposition(Hasegawa) for a good price. I just know it will be harder work than the new Tamiya kit that I will have to purchase as well.
I have never been able to figure out what the problem everyone has with the Hasegawa kits. I built several, never a problem. Of course, it helps if you take a little care in the assembly, but that's just Rule 1 for any kit.
I feel the same way about the Academy kits. I'll grant you some bitching about the old Monogram kits, but the Hasegawa and Academy? Neither kit requires anything more than basic skills and some adult-level patience to produce a very nice looking model.
I know that I have been waiting for this one to come out for a long time. They even have the markings included that I want to build. It would really look good sitting next to a Yamamoto Betty.
Sign me up for a few of them.
This is fantastic news ... maybe they’re planning on releasing a “L” or another later model with the added panel lines for access to the aileron booster.
A big surprise from Tamiya and I am surely looking forward to having one. Probably comes with a nice price tag. I would love to see a release of this iconic fighter with the details added for the nose gunbay. Surely that is within Tamiya's ability or are they allowing the aftermarket guys to 'upgrade' what is supposed to be a Tamiya masterpiece.
ETO and Africa. Also Aleutians. Bring on the decals!
Fortunately there are a ton out there already.
Coincidently, I seem to now have three Hasegawa 1/48 Lightnings for sale. /s
Forgive the cross post, but some shots of the sprues here.. getting quite excited, should only be a few months from sale, right?
https://www.themodellingnews.com/2019/07/tamiyas-148th-scale-lockheed-p-38-fg.html?m=1#more
Yesssssssssss. Very excited. Wanna do an Aleutions 38 . Stoked. Thank you tamiya.