Good day all. I have a Trump 1/32 P38L I want to build (some time this year). The one problem Im having is I dont want to do a NBM aircraft. I want to do a camo. BUT I am not able to locate any decals for a como ride for 1/32. Seems everything out there is for NBM. Can anyone help out.? Anyone know of a decal sheet for a camo P38 ? Ive been researching this for a better part of 5 months now, and about to give up the search. Thanks in advance…
Hmmm. I can’t think of any off hand, but worst case: print your own, it is actually a lot simpler than most people think, and it really expands your modeling world.
You could always try www.meteorprod.com. As you mentioned about building it sometime this year, maybe Cutting Edge or possibly Aero Master will come out w/ a OD & Neutral 38…
Hope this helps you out my friend!!
Flaps up,
Mike
Rangers Lead The Way
As a matter of fact Mike, I have emailed METEOR a couple of times about this very same subject and a couple of other questions. HMMM , never got a reply. Mabey I should try again. I`m not looking for any particular aircraft, just one thats all OD or something…
MMMmmm DH, thats weird, you’d think after a email or two they would respond?!?! Have you checked there web site out recently??
Leme see what I can do K
Flaps up,
Mike
Rangers Lead The Way
Mike, I just checked their web and no luck. I did leave another email asking them to consider making decals for 2 different aircraft., So we`ll wait and see what happens. I know there have been times I have gotten emediate replies with lots of help from them…
Just got off of Meteor’s site as well as for Squadron’s and nada…[banghead] Could have sworn that I had seen some decals for a OD and Neutral gray bird…
I stll have a few places I can check out!! Good huntin
Flaps up,
Mike
Rangers Lead The Way
Too funny… Laughs as by my last reply so did I. So what two a/c did you have in mind?
Flaps up,
Mike
Rangers Lead The Way
Well the first is ANY P38L in some color, and the other is COL. Jeff DeBlonc`s F4F4 of Guadlcannal. His was a Marine F4F4 and on his first mission became an ace and was shot down & rescued. I have a friend that printed up the # 29 for his aircraft and I plan on using all the kit decals for the rest. Its a 1/32 Trump. as is the P38.So thats my wish list. I believe I have just about everything else for my stash pile. I try and get everything I will need in advance, and am just about done. My next prodject of “getting everything set up” is my P51B. Should be getting it this week, I hope. But I already have the Tusgegee decals.
As far as I know all P-38 L-0 were delivered in NMF. I do not have and pictures of any P-38 L-0 with field apllied camo either. This could be the reason you are unable to locate and decal set for a camo P-38 L-0. I am currently about 60% done with my build of the Trumpeter 1/32 P-38 L-0 and I am pretty happy with it so far. Best thing you can do is throw out all of the photo etch hinges and just glue the flight controls in the desired position. They are absolute garbage and will only ruin what is a pretty good kit if you try to use them. Good luck!
Soulcrusher
According to my reference, Soulcrusher is right. The last P-38s in OD paint were the J models and most of those were NMF. The L series were all deliverd in NMF. Not saying that field modifications were not done, just haven’t seen any photo reference of it.[C):-)]
Thanks Soulcrusher.Thats one I have reaserched but nothing positive.I have seen pics on the web that seem to sugest that there where, indeed "Ls", but that could be argued. So thats where Im at. Not knowing if indeed there where painted “L”. Thats one of the things I`ve been trying to research, to no avail. I know to Hobbycraft P38 is the same as Trump. but has the aircraft painted not NBM.
Here is a drawing of a 5th Air force P-38L in camo. It’s the only one I’ve seen so far.
http://www.michael-reimer.com/CFS2/CFS2_Profiles/PTO_Allies_5_USAAF.html
Well Wayne, that would answer lots of questions. Now the other problem is finding a decent set of decals for a NBM aircraft. As I said earlier, there just is not that many P38L sets out there…
I’m guessing fron this data, (see link below), the LO wouldn’t even have needed to be painted for action.
Dirtball,
I’ve got the hobbycraft kit, it’s labeled as a P-38 J/L. The kit itself models the L with some instructions to convert it to a J. I believe the box art shows the J version, on the back of the box it shows the five different aircraft you can model, the only version shown in camo was the J.[C):-)]
First off I want to thank everyone for their input. NucMedTec, can you or anyone else explain the physical differences bettween the “L” & the “J”. Or are there any? And if there are none, would you be willing to part with the J decals??. Im just out of options for this build. I even thought of buying the expensive resin set to backdate it , just to get away from NBF! Dont get me wrong, they as well as other aircraft look stunning in NBF, I even have a couple Im doing right now. I just think it looks MEANER incolor…
Dirtball,
The most noticable difference is the J has a retractable landing light (I believe in the left wing), while the L had it in the wings leading edge. I’m sure there are more subtle differences and I’ll see what else I can find out. [C):-)]
IIRC, the retractable landing light was a feature of the early P-38s. The L should have been the first model with the leading edge light. As far as differences between the J and L, I dno’t think that there are any external differences worth noting. I would have to check references to be sure though.
Even if I am wrong about the light, it would be a simple matter to make that change and the mark your Lightning as an L. I don’t think that anyone would be any the wiser.
A quick check on-line and I was off by one model. The J did have the retractable landing light, but that should be the only real difference. The L could carry more weight on the hardpoints, but there were no major changes to the aircraft.
Here is a link to a brief description of the differences
http://www.p-38online.com/p38l.html