1/72 Hasegawa P-38 Lightning “Yippee”

Lockheed painted their 5000th P-38 Lightning "Vermillion" red in 1944 and used it as a demonstrator for a short period. Perhaps this one of the first "Commemorative" paint schemes that are so prevalent these days with military aircraft? I enjoy painting glossy special paint schemes on aircraft...sort of like combing auto and aircraft modelling.

This is a very old kit but it was state of the art back in the day. I assembled it with no modifications. Only a little filler was required. I barely added enough lead buckshot to the nose as it just sits on it's flimsy front nose wheel.

I mixed red and yellow Humbrol enamels to come up with my version of Vermillion. I sprayed the paint thinned with lacquer thinner through my trusty Paasche H airbrush at about 30 lbs air pressure. Yippee was quite glossy according to the photos I found online so I went for a shiny finish. I needed to rub down the paint as I had a little bit of orange peel. I used 2000- 3200 grit sandpaper as well as automotive rubbing and polishing compounds. It is challenging to get a smooth enough glossy finish that the model photographs well. Any "orange peel" will show up in the photos, especially in 1/72 scale. Matt finishes, which are common on military aircraft, can hide a lot of rough paint problems.

Decals were from an ancient Microscale sheet that was badly out of register. I cut out each letter individually to eliminate the extra white that appeared on the outside of the black surrounding lines. I had to fill in missing white on some of the letters with white paint.

4 additional images. Click to enlarge.