Jealous, jealous, jealous... 🙂 I loved that plane since I was a kid and always wanted to build one. Seeing what Chris Wauchop did with it made me definitely want to give it a go! Now with your post I can hardly wait for it to arrive at a local shop. It was a real effort to restrain myself from getting Academy's Glacier Girl but the guy from the shop told me it's worth the wait.

Will be following this one.

Enjoy the build!

Best,
Nikola

Hey Chuck ! @uscusn
I wanted to let you know that the Tamiya P-38 you sent me arrived safe and sound... Here it is sitting next to my original kit.

I must also send you a great big "Thank you" out your way. Stand by as I have an early Christmas present for you too...

I'll give you a little hint about it. It's made of plastic, has Japanese markings on it and it's also in a box. Inside the big cardboard shipping box will be 3 smaller boxes of similar type subjects... You will like what's headed your way. You have mentioned something about this very thing in the past.

I also appreciate the comments you made about the choices I made on my P-38 build. I'm going to try and use the latest information available to get the plane painted in original correct colors as I can. Granted it's a gamble, and most likely after I finish mine, someone will find out that the rudder pedals were not black ... Mine will be.

I don't know about others, but part of the fun in this hobby of ours is doing the research that goes along with it. The history behind the planes, the stories about the people who flew them, and the colors that were used are all a priority to me. I hope that I don't lead someone down the wrong path, that's why I always encourage others to see what I have to say about it, examine what I have as evidence and then make their own informed decision as to how they want to build theirs. I also encourage others to do their own research in hopes that they might discover something that I missed... If they do, I would greatly appreciate it if they posted what they found here... That way we can all be more informed and our builds will be even more accurate.

I like to go to various places and see what others have written about the subject... and not take one person's advice. To do so would be foolish. Pictures are an excellent resource also. One thing I found very interesting, is that by the time Lockheed was building the P-38 G versions, the Lockheed Hudson's had been built several years earlier for the RAF. So this leads me to think that I'm right on target with Lockheed not using RAF colors as it's been stated here in another article. Why would they ? By this time in the War obtaining paint was not a problem. Dana Bell also stated that no Olive Drab color was ever rejected for not matching the color sample cards. I don't buy into the RAF color thing one bit. This new found information (for me at least) makes me even more certain about this.

Andrew, @pb_legend

It sounds like I hit a nerve with the Korean War Group Build idea. You're not the first person to express interest with me. I'll get with the administrators to see what their thoughts are on this. If we get their blessing, I will probably start the Korean War Group Build, and the Wings of the Emperor GB too. The Wings of the Emperor build will not last anywhere as long as the Korean War GB does.

I'm going to wait for the other group builds to wind down that are currently on here before I start another one up. It wouldn't be fair to the others and I fear it would take away from them, which isn't cool.

We had a lot of fun with The Year of the Cat, and the Midway group builds that I hosted earlier. Hopefully these two new ones will pan out too.

Thanks for stopping by, and for sharing your information with me about the Zero you had. I sincerely appreciate this.

I'll keep you posted with the progress on the Korean War GB.

Take care.

Last night I made some more progress with the Zero builds. Work commenced on the wings.

Hasegawa uses a small plug insert in this location, where the older Tamiya kit does not. From what I have read online, if any filler is needed, most likely this is where it will be used.

I decided that I would try to eliminate the problem and glued the insert in place now before I went any further. I thought it would be easier to work the gaps while I could get to both sides. Here are the end results. It's not perfect, but I'm happy with the results.


Before the air intake was glued in position, I used a small round file and thinned out the lip of the opening to make it look more realistic. There was a tiny amount of flash present in this location, so it had to be addressed anyhow.

I also finished the assembly work on the cockpits. Here the 3 Hasegawa offices are done.

I placed all 5 of them together for this next picture. The older Tamiya kit parts are lighter colored plastic and are on the right in the next picture.

The fuselage assemblies were also glued together. Here I have them alternating back and forth with a Tamiya fuselage placed in between each Hasegawa part.

The lower wings were prepped for final assembly. I filed and sanded away the sprue attachment points. Here all 5 wings are shown. You can see the differences between the Hasegawa plastic and the Tamiya which is lighter. You can also see the round wing tips of the Model 22 version, and how they differ from the Model 32 clipped wing tips.

The surface details are fairly close, even thought the Tamiya kit is much older. The Hasegawa kit has the advantage here, but please keep in mind it's also a lot newer. Tamiya was cutting edge when they released this Zero model back in the 1970's. Tamiya has the inner gear door actuators molded integral as a part of the lower wing, while Hasegawa includes them as a separate part. They look better as a separate part to me.

Here are the A6M-3 model 32 wings sitting next to each other. Tamiya is shown above the Hasegawa kit part.

Then I removed the engine cowlings and placed them next to each other. They look very similar in appearance, but the Hasegawa kit parts have the cooling flaps molded as an integral part. The air intake is more defined in the Hasegawa kit part in my opinion.

Finally, I glued the drop tanks together. The Hasegawa kit parts are shown on the right and are molded in a darker gray colored plastic. Tamiya tanks are on the left. These look very similar too, but Tamiya has a small vent pipe included that Hasegawa omitted. It's near the tail end of the drop tank. The Hasegawa part has a better detailed fuel filler cap.

Both look very respectable.

Louis @lgardner, I just caught up on this. Was visiting Lovely South Texas outstanding in the oil fields yesterday. I think I have finally found the middle of nowhere! 🙂 I digress.

The link to the Tapatalk postings was interesting to say the least. I think that there are more than a few people who are in agreement about the 'Colors' of O-planes.

Thanks for the share!

Louis,

What with all of these models...it would be neat to show the models in relation to where the planes where when Yamamoto was shot down. Perhaps a shot of a P-38 going in for the kill towards a Betty. The one shot would be involved enough along with having to photograph the squadron of models used to represent this event in history. Keep up the good work ...its kind of like a investigation with the process of discovery and we being the jury or fellow historians get to see the evidence and through the process of discovery can learn something about history, modeling and yes reading.

Ah Louis you truly are master of the Iron Werks building technique, I'll be following along for sure. Have the Avenger to finish up but I've started a tribute P-38 in memory of my mom. When I started building models again, about ten years ago, she took notice of my renewed interest. She remembered me as a kid building all types of planes and displaying them all over my bedroom as well as hanging them from the ceiling. So during a visit home she asked if I would build a model for her. Now even though mom worked in a plant making ponchos during WWII I didn't think she knew one plane from another. When asked what would she like me to build for her, without any hesitation she stated "I would like a P-38". Consequently, I did an 1/72 Academy P-38J for her which was returned to me after her passing. I've done the P-38E from Academy for the Kasserine GB, and since I have another Academy E kit I'm doing one named Annabelle in her honor. Working on finding someone to do the nose art for this P-38 which will be done in NMF. Should be fun, but not as much fun as your multi build approach.

Robert ! @roofrat
I was just admiring your F-100... That's a neat looking plane, well done buddy. The assembly line style of building works for me. It might not for everyone, but I like it. It works very good in the beginning and all the way up until you do the outside or camouflage painting begins. Then it drops down considerably and can become a bit boring. I ran into this with my F6F Hellcat builds I did a while ago when I had 4 going at the same time. I'm hoping these Zero's will be a bit easier that the 'Cats were.

I didn't know that your Dad served in Korea too ... Good thing he made it home when he did. Same thing for me I guess. My Dad spent 12 years in the Army and got out in 1962. Had he re enlisted again, his next duty assignment was Vietnam. He was going to be teaching the South Vietnamese how to fight...By this time he was serving with the 39th US Army Special Forces in Berlin.

So he called it quits. If he didn't, I might not be here today. You just never know. I'm a firm believer that everything happens for a reason. We just might not know why at the time though...

As far as the long term Korean War GB idea, I think it just might be a "GO"... I'll post an article about it in the headlines section in about a month or so. Let's get some more feedback on the idea from others. This will also allow the other group builds currently underway a little time to wind down. We still have until June 25th, 2020 before it would start up.