P-38J Lighting
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Eduard (Academy)
Eduard Big Sin aftermarket PE and Resin
Model Master gun barrels
After market decals from Kits World and Bombshell Decals
Represented is Jack Iifrey’s P-38J “Happy Jack’s Go Buggy” as flown in spring 1944. At the time Iifrey was squadron commander of the 79th Fighter Squadron of the 20th Fighter Group.
The initial kit was an “Over Tree” from Eduard. At the time Eduard had produced two different limited additions of the P-38J. The styrene was based upon Academy’s P-38J. As I was looking to build a kit with natural metal finish, yellow spinners, and invasion stripes, the Over Tree kit seemed like a good start. Over Trees simply provide the styrene; no decals, no instructions, not even box art, but at a nice price. A nice feature of Eduard’s web site is that instructions are all on-line. By the time I procured after market parts I had spent more then the limited addition kits. Oh well. One of the many lessons I learned on this kit was that the PE provided in the Eduard Big Sin set did not match the PE of the limited addition kit. Caused some initial confusion. But I preserved on. Alclad paints were used for the NMF. Alclad gloss black was used as a primer and base for the aluminum finish. This was allowed to cure for a couple of days. When the aluminum coat was painted, some crazing did occur. Not sure why. I have used the products before without issue. A few panels were highlighted with white aluminum.
Invasion stripes just look right on a P-38, but I learned a second lesson in painting them. I assembled all major parts before painting. The stripes were painted after the NMF. This made masking the wing stripes near the booms difficult, especially on the underside. I would now recommend painting the stripes on the wings before attaching the booms. Then masking the stripes and painting the base color around the masked areas. The stripes on the booms are easily painted after the base color is applied.
