Dragon 1/72 P-38J Lightning

DRAGON 1:72 LOCKHEED P-38J LIGHTNING

Reviewer: Mark B (SMAKR Webmaster) (smakr1@optusnet.com.au)
Kit Built + Review Submitted: 5 July 2008

Kit Details:

#5018 - Golden wing series - 1:72 P-38J Lightning

Aircraft History:

The XP-38 was developed from being in competition with the Bell XP-39 for a 1937 USAAC requirement for an aircraft that could be capable of a speed that engines at the time were unable to achieve - and limited funding prevented further development of same. After a successful maiden flight in early 1939 (it was actually ready to fly on New Years Day) the XP-38 tried to do a headlining dash to a small place called Mitchel where its carburettors iced up on approach and the aircraft was lost on the attempt to land. It had showed enough promise that the USAAC ordered a small batch of YP-38s to be developed. As with all aircraft, and not withstanding this type's unique design for the time, there were lots of teething problems, some of which were eventually carried into the war.

After the YP-38s resulted in orders from USAAC and France, the latter of course being occupied by Germany so the order was picked up instead by Britain, some production models were made. One little known piece of history is that the British designated the aircraft "Lightning" based on its orders for the aircraft and the name "Atlanta" had been applied by the USAAC. After hearing the British version of the name the USAAC decided that was better and opted for the same name. Production started at 29 models excluding the XP/YP models, although it includes an XP-38A which had a pressurised cockpit. There were no P-38B's or P-38C's produced, and the P-38D's only remained in the USA for training and familiarisation roles. The RAF found its Lightning IIs useless, for wanton of a better term, for without decent superchargers and counter rotating props there were lots of problems, so they cancelled further orders. The P-38E model was the first to see combat while the P-38F was the first to see extensive combat, particularly in North Africa. A reconnaissance version of the P-38E was developed and designated the F-4A which was delivered to RAAF's photo group.

Various improvements and alterations were made to the aircraft, particularly in avionics, engine upgrades, intakes and some cosmetic airframe modifications, throughout a number of different models including the P-38F, G and H models, all of which saw good service. The P-38J of which nearly 3,000 were built then followed and could be considered having a couple of different batches (perhaps the designation should have changed?) - for the last 210 aircraft included a lot of changes that transformed earlier P-38J's into the high altitude long range fighter the USAAF (changed from USAAC in 1941) had been hoping for.

It's probably true that until the long range P-38J escort fighter variant came to the aid of the bombers in Europe, the Lightning was considered not a successful type in the European theater, which was probably more due to the compressibility problem, non-heated cockpits and icing carburettors because the cold air doused its potential. The Lightning was a far more successful aircraft in the Pacific and North African theaters where it excelled, being a larger, often able to out turn and faster aircraft than its adversaries.

Among the many P-38 stories of the war there are two which stand out to me. When the type first saw combat with the 5th AF in the Pacific the Lightning's first kill was in unusual circumstances. A P-38 carrying a bomb overshot the runway and the bomb fell into the water where it exploded harmlessly, except a trailing Zero flew through the wall of water and immediately went down. The second is how the RAAF cunningly and slyly (hell what else can you expect from us Aussies!) used P-38's (probably F-4A recon versions) to carry gin and alcohol to the base from the mainland in the ammo cans - usually in a group of four aircraft, three carrying the contraband while the fourth provided escort for the precious cargo!

The Kit:

The sturdy top opening box reveals a large plastic bag containing several plastic bags each with a sprue or two. There are four sprues of medium grey injection molded parts containing around 78 parts with engraved panel lines and surface detail. A separate bagged sprue contains one transparency for the cockpit canopy. The parts are nicely molded with no flash to speak of other than a couple of minor areas to run over with the hobby knife. The level of detail is very good on the parts and there are no etched fret which is often found in Dragon kits.

Instructions:

The instructions are similar to what you find in Hasegawa kits but just a bit larger in page size. The fold out strip starts off a brief history of the type in several languages followed by modelling information, symbol explanation and a painting chart quoted from the Gunze Sangyo, Mr Color and Italeri (presumably thus Modelmaster) ranges, with colour names also provided in several languages. There are 13 assembly diagrams which are easy to follow - my only concern was the sub assembly of the twin booms, since they are not really stated as starboard and port side, nor do later assembly steps refer back to a sub assembly, the modeller is left to interpret which sub assembly is which - nothing hard at all, but a trap for young players as they say! A four view diagram with close up inset diagrams of the forward fuselage (since it is partly obscured from the engines) provides marking and painting information for the single version the kit produces. The instructions conclude with a sprue map and method tips for applying decals.

Construction:

I am not a fan of brass etched cockpit stuff, mainly due to its fiddly and two dimensional nature, so it was nice to find this Dragon kit cockpit not only catered for in plastic but also actually reasonably detailed. Sure etched parts will improve the basics in the kit but here you still get a cockpit tub with rear radio box and side wall wiring and controls already molded. An armoured plate behind the bucket seat, two part control wheel, rudder pedals and a reasonable looking instrument panel completes the interior. This is painted up in the standard interior green and sub assembled on top of the nose wheel well roof inside the lower forward fuselage half. The alignment pins are hard to see on the roof of the nose wheel bay but it will fit nicely once installed.

The main wheel bays are trapped inside the twin boom halves and the instructions do not tell you which bay goes into which boom so again a case of test fitting. I used wheel bay part 15 in the boom comprised of parts 1 & 2. Part 16 was obviously then used inside 3 & 4. The boom halves are a shocking fit and do not line up at all but this was easily corrected by shaving off the alignment pins and butt joining the halves together. Then I needed a hell of a lot of pegs and rubber bands and bits of masking tape to hold the boom together while it dried. It's also pertinent to mention that the radiator intakes are completely see-through so you may want to add something inside before glueing the halves together (a dob of putty should do the trick). Seam lines were sanded smooth and the wheel well doors are also a poor fit, needing test fits and trims to fit in place followed by putty and sanding.

The turbo chargers are in halves but with care fit very nicely into the marked recess - again check to make sure you are installing them on the correct boom. The intake covers are also easy to install but yet again a test fit is needed to work out which side of the boom the cover applies to as the instructions are vague and the parts are engineered a little for one side. Likewise ditto this comment for the installation of the upper machine guns into the booms. I painted the recesses black (as these are not exact to shape of the guns) and polished steel, gun metal and a touch or two of aluminium for the guns.

Meanwhile the main outer wings were assembled which after scraping off small bits of flash go together nicely. These were installed onto the booms - the instructions again not helping you work out which side is which, so test fit first. Obviously the turbo chargers face the outer side of the boom - above which the wing should be. These are only a reasonable fit after test fitting and trimming around the edges and there's no escaping another session of filler/sanding afterward.

The outer tailplanes and the connecting rear stabiliser between the booms did not fit into the alignment holes, which had to be enlarged (read "carved") quite a bit before these fit into place. I decided to attach the inner main wings to the fuselage and booms together along with the rear stabiliser section rather than do these sections separately one by one. This was a highly tricky assembly but clearly if fitting to the model in stages, it all would have been misaligned. My way of trying to do all these at once, was a bit of a risk, but with care and patience I managed to affix it all in place at the correct angles absolutely beautifully. To be absolutely certain, I made sure I used some paint tins as lean-to's so the plane dried correctly over a few days. Perfect! But there was again a lot of filling and sanding at the fuselage/wing roots afterward for my trouble.

The underfuselage blade antenna was affixed but have your wits about you because the instructions will have you affix this part under one of the engine nacelles! The propeller blades are separate pieces, so I glued the spinner and prop base onto the front of the nacelles - I could not see any way that this will allow movement of the props. The canopy was added which was nearly a perfect fit, just needed a quick scrape over the edges with the hobby knife. There is no windshield armour plate depicted so clearly this is an earlier J variant.

I then fitted the small outer tail planes and the nose cone. The nose is smaller than the fuselage around it, so a very careful but long winded sanding session followed. The most frustrating part of the kit for me were the nose mounted machine guns. These tiny little guns are separate little pieces on the sprue to the nose (and the reason why you affix the nose cone first given it needs sanding to blend into the fuselage) and were very fiddly and delicate. After snapping one, dropping another on my workbench from a height of about an inch and never finding the piece again (it's one of those modelling laws - drop it from a tiny height, hear where it lands but know to go immediately looking in the toilet or bedroom corner!!), and then just about sanding my fingers to a smooth flat edge trying to fit a third piece, I simply gave up. I might add the guns another day, but for now they are holes in the nose cone.

Underwing stores are provided in the form of a pair of drop tanks and unguided rockets. The instructions tell you to affix a separate pylon and then to put the drop tanks on this with its locating pins. Trouble is there are no holes for the pins to go into so these need to be shaved off, and mating surfaces given a quick preparation sanding so they would butt join together. There are five unguided rockets to attach to each pylon and these were quite an exercise in frustration, in spite of what the instructions and plastic parts indicate there really is not a way to join them with locating holes/pins - I therefore opted to painstakingly add each one with superglue.

The construction of this kit certainly had a few moments of tricky fit situations, but note that while this may come across negatively above, the actual construction process was still fun, and the challenges for modellers with a bit of experience were nothing too hard to deal with. The tail booms, gaps to fill and sand and the machine guns were the main issues for me but you wouldn't know it at the end.

Colour Schemes:

Major Thomas B McGuire, 431st FS, 475th FG, 5th AF is the sole version the kit provides for. This is a natural metal aircraft with some red wing tips and black anti-glare panels. I have never been a fan of kits that provide only one option but thankfully there are plenty of aftermarket options if this is insufficient. Painting had to be done carefully because there were a few imperfections ready to stick out like proverbials with all the putty and sanding used. So before painting, I went over the model again smoothing out any wrinkles (for wanton of a better term) and then applying a thin coat of primer. Once satisfied the plane was as smooth as a baby's bum I applied the natural metal finish, simply using Humbrol Silver. I was getting a little frustrated with the length of time of this project (my current home set up requires the meals table to be used for modelling and it doesn't work very well beyond a few days) so I wanted as easy and quick paint job as possible (ie: no polished aluminium panels for contrast).

Decals:

The decal sheet is reasonably sized, as all the wingtip flashes, anti glare panels, engine panels etc are included on the sheet. As some of these are applied over things such as nav lights, a hole must be cut in the decal to fit over these parts (the hole looks there, but of course is simply clear decal film). The colour register is excellent and overall the decals applied with minimal fuss. The main issue is that decals such as the anti glare panel are one-piece, meaning they will not conform with the fuselage unless you cut them. Depending on your skill level and point of view, I actually found it easier to dispense with all these extra flash decals and simply paint the panels red and black where appropriate. There is also a good amount of stencilling provided. I was pleased with the decals I used.

Accuracy:

Dive brakes were applied to the last 200 examples of the P-38J and I don't have enough information to tell where in the production line this particular example came, so one has to err on the side of caution with Dragon for depicting the aircraft without brakes. This is really the only comment I will make on accuracy as overall the kit looks pretty convincing otherwise.

Overall Recommendation:

While reading the review it may not sound like it, I thoroughly enjoyed this project. But it did certainly provid a number of fit challenges at times - most of which could be overcome with a bit of patience, test fitting and so forth. It is not a kit for the beginner and while I often hear the term "Dragon fit" bandied about, I like to think I have an open mind before I tackle a project. After this project I can understand why this term might be used, but I felt that this kit provided no real problems than many mainstream kits might have at times, most notably probably Italeri. Certainly care and planning is needed when affixing the twin booms, wings and engine assembly to the forward fuselage, and if not done right, it will completely ruin your morale and probably the project. You can see where I had a few tricky issues to deal with during this construction but I'd certainly recommend this kit to those with intermediate skills.

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