It’s finished
Here's the Tamiya P-38 as Jack Ilfrey's "Texas Terror/The Mad Dash". It is definitely their best yet. Very "modeler friendly." Designed so you would really have to work at it to assemble it wrong. Any modeler from a Newbie on up will end up with "the best model in my collection!" As they say in my other job, "Every penny is up on the screen." I saw a video yesterday where a guy dry-fitted it and assembled it (other than cockpit detail) to where it was sitting on its gear, it's that well-designed.
Full review at Modeling Madness this coming Thursday October 31 (I bumped it over the He-111).
Was the guy you watched Andy's Hobby Headquarters?
Yeah, I think so. I was up at the LHS and Dave just put it on and I didn't see who was who.
Looking forward to that review! Thanks for posting, very nice build Tom.
Looks great! Kit markings?
Kits World decals. The kit decals are very nice.
That looks really nice Tom. I did Texas Terror using the 1/48 Academy kit for the Kasserine BG, using Kit's World decals. Curious as to who's decals did you use. I found them to quite good and would use them again for other projects. I mentioned to another modeler that you rarely saw P-38's on the table at model shows. By belief is the existing kits are not exactly shake and bake nor is the P-38 an easy model to paint. I think that's about to change with the release of Tamiya's new offering. Judging just got a little harder in the 1/48 multi-engine prop category.
I too used Kits World. They're great, so long as you don't use their star-and-bar insignias, which are incorrectly proportioned on every sheet I have seen.
Nice build. I'm looking forward to the full build review.
Just got mine Friday. It won't be accurate but I may do mine in a highly polished finish with the red white and blue tail stripes just because Red Bull's ex-Lefty Gardner bird looks stunning like that! (Mine will be bereft of sponsorship logos though. MAYBE it'll have some pre-may '42 insignias on the wings.) Can't wait to tear into it!
As Al Superczynski used to say at rec.models.scale, the old 1990s Usenet forum that led to iModeler and all the rest, "It's a HOBBY. Make YOUR model the way YOU want to make it, and anyone who doesn't like it, that's THEIR problem."
I promise to grit my teeth and like your model. 🙂
Great paintwork on that Tom. Freehand?
yes - just like the Lockheed paint shop. 🙂
Looks good Tom. I like your choice of decals. Tom Bebout made one like that for our Kasserine Pass GB a while back and his looked very nice too. I’m going to be building mine up using the kit supplied decals for “Miss Virginia”. It will be part of the Operation Vengeance build I just started with a Tamiya G4M1 Betty along with a Zero.
I have the ICM Heinkel on the work bench. It’s a real beautiful kit too. Mine got shoved into the corner when I made a mistake with the alignment of the bomb bays. This threw everything else out of whack when I installed it into the wing center section. Naturally this event cascaded down the hill which is the direction that feces runs after it hits the fan.
Late last night I sanded down the “self induced” filler work and then added a wee bit more. Had I not scooted the pooch with the bomb bay I might have been able to pull it off without the use of fillers anywhere. It’s that good if a model.
You know what I mean, as you have built it up too.
Looking forward to seeing your He-111 as well . It’s an under represented plane as is the 38. This is about to change I think.
Fortunately, I did the H-6, which has external loads, allowing me to avoid those bomb doors (though from the unused plastic in this kit, there's a doors-closed version here, that would have avoided that). Did mine as the torpedo bomber. You're right about it being a nice kit.
Mine is the earlier H-3... just like you mentioned. Good call on your part with the doors.
Great looking build !
most attractive
I'm right behind you Tom as I was building wooden models by "Strombecker" and the other company by the name of "Consolidated" in the late 1930's and up until 1954. I was also building "flying-stick models." I got back into modeling in 1977 as our 10 year old son and I walked by a modern-day hobby shop. We went in and he wanted a motorcycle. I said SON, all you get is a wooden block and you have to widdle it our. He said, Dad, you have a pin knife at home, so we can use it. The salesman at the shop opened up a kit and I was surprised as the kit was injected mold plastic. We came home with that cycle and a Corsair airplane. The rest is history. Your "38" looks real nice. I have a bare metal P-38. Rodney J. Williams.
My first model I got to build myself was the Strombecker "P-80", at age 6.
Thanks so much for your compliment. I've admired your work for years.