1/48 Tamiya P-38G Lightning, Lt. John G. ONeill, 9 FS, 49 FG, New Guinea, Oct 1943 (Complete)

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
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This Tamiya wonder of engineering has been staring at me from the shelf for a while and I finally built up the courage to tackle it.

I wanted a subject other than the Tamiya choices and was originally going to build the P-38H kit markings, until I found some new decals from Exito for “Jump” O’Neill’s “Beautiful Lass.” The decals are printed by Cartograph and have fantastic color profiles for each scheme. Exito makes some interesting claims on the nose art coloration, surmising that appearance differences in various photos are due to photographic artifacts such as color filters and film type rather than repainting. Lots of weathering opportunity on this one.

The plane was built by Lockheed in Burbank and shipped overseas disassembled and then reassembled. Lt. John O’Neill piloted Beautiful Lass from March to November 1943 on missions over Rabaul and New Guinea, claiming eight aerial victories during this period. The aircraft was lost on December 28 1943 when pilot Lt. Ormond Powell encountered foul weather and was declared MIA when he failed to return to base.

I used the kit decal for the instrument panel.

Finished the office and am working on the wings section. The seat and radio equipment comes toward the end of the build. Using Mr. Color paints and it’s going to be mostly out of the box.

Thanks for looking.

2

I would question the red.

Following type after the initial B and L.

The hair and nipples.

But not knowing what Cartograph had as a reference, I would go a faded pink.

Bill

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Favorite WWII plane! Your work on the cockpit is going along nicely. I’ve been so tempted to pull the trigger on this kit but haven’t yet. I was at the IPMS Nationals in Chattanooga, Tennessee in 2019 and they gave some of these away as door prizes but unfortunately I never won one. I haven’t seen this version of the boxing yet, is it a new release? Love the olive drab scheme and especially the heavily weathered look. PS the noseart isn’t too bad either!!

4

Oh that’s awesome!!!

Picked up the same kit last year, I really need to build mine. If my cockpit turns out half as good as yours I’ll be thrilled!

5

Oh wow, nice pit!

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Great airplane. Nice work on the cockpit.

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Thanks Bill!

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Thanks Tom! This boxing is contains most of the F/G sprues and a couple of more sprues and markings for one H subject. I’m making reasonable progress.

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Thanks Gamera! Much appreciated. It’s really a pleasure to build.

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Thanks Steve!

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Thanks Johnny!

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The rest of the office is now complete as well as the main build.

The seat, radio equipment and armored plate are assembled at the end of the main build. I used the Eduard steel seatbelts instead of the kit supplied decal.

The main build fit was absolutely perfect. The design of the major sections is very clever, requiring zero fill and resulting in stellar alignment and no gaps or issues.

The one “watch out” is the landing gear and door actuators that are installed early in the build. I high recommend waiting until after painting is complete to plug these in. They are very fragile and exposed. As you can see in the underside photo, I’ve broken off one of the landing gear actuators. Tamiya has a habit of sequencing their builds with fragile parts early on. It’s an easy fix – just a minor annoyance.

Time for main camo painting. Thanks for looking.

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making great progress. The pit looks fantastic.

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Perhaps the best kit ever made. It’s almost laughably good. Your work so far is stellar Hoss. Great subject too. I’ll be doing Perry Dahl’s Skidoo soon.

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Thanks keavdog!

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Thanks! It sure is a great kit. In fact, I’ve already purchased another one, lol.

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Continuing to make progress on Tamiya’s wonder-kit. Priming and main camo complete. This is one of those P-38’s with the tape seams everywhere from shipping across the Pacific, so that’s next.

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My rendition of “Beautiful Lass,” John G. O’Neill’s P-38G aircraft in New Guinea during 1943, is now complete.

The focus for this build was to convey the heat, wear, exhaust and especially the marks left from the tape used to protect the seams during transport over the Pacfic. I used the Exito decals profile as well as photos as my guide for painting and weathering.

The profile highlighted quite a bit a color variation on the OD areas as well as chips and scratches in heavy wear areas.

2mm Tamiya flexible tape was applied over the main seams, followed by a light, dilute flat black shading to represent the varnish residue after tape removal.

The Exito decals were flawless and some of the Tamiya kit stencils were used. I only applied X100 gloss in the areas where decals were applied.

I tried a pin wash with diluted black paint instead of the usual Flory wash, which worked well with the color scheme. The panel lines are very refined and precise on this kit.

The final flat coat was Model Master Flat Clear Lacquer.

Exhaust staining was applied using dark yellow, white, gray, black, brown and khaki colors, built up slowly.

I sequenced the build to add the guns, exhaust and canopy after the main painting and weathering was complete.

EZline was used for the antenna, which was rigged before the canopy was attached. I always paint the cables RLM 75.

The profile indicated very heavy exhaust staining with residue apparent on the vertical tail fins as well.

Chips and scratches were applied with silver pencil. The profile had a excellent detail on the rivet patterns and was followed for the wear marks.

I was impressed with the cockpit details - the armored front glass, gunsight, armored front plate and canopy framing is all remarkably detailed.

The P-38 is such a sleek airframe. I was surprised how big it is compared to a Mustang or 109.

The nose art decals are certainly a highlight on this scheme. Something was needed to spice up olive drab over neutral grey.

Thanks for looking!

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The P-38 is such a sleek airframe. I was surprised how big it is compared to a Mustang or 109.

Remember, in addition to the second engine’s weight, there is the second engine’s fuel consumption. Plus, the Lightning was designed as a long range fighter, so it would have larger fuel tanks than normal anyway, plus to have long range with a second engine I think it is marvelously compact for the mission. The 109 was a very small airplane, but the lightning is, agreed, a lot bigger than the -51, but it figures. The -38 was a big success and carried out its original mission very nicely (once they got the turbochargers figured out).

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Very nicely done. Your tape residue came out great. Doing the same kit as Barber’s.