Hey Guys, sorry I haven’t been around in a while. Been a busy summer. Some of you are probably off frolicking at Airventure’s Fly-in right now. I am very jealous…[;)] So here I am. Just to try something new, I attempted a review of a kit I built on a whim: Minicraft’s 1/48 Scale P-38J Lightning.
To start off, this kit is definitely NOT a wunderkit.[:O] Despite the fancy boxing and good looking markings options, this kit is like a very bare artist’s canvas. Most of my on-a-whim build time would be spent detailing (or trying to) the blank spots of this kit. Take for example this picture of the nose gear well:
A little dissapointing. But there are modelers here a darn sight better than me who can deal with this easily. Here’s the rest of the sprues:
Overall, detail is soft and rounded in most areas, including the cockpit. Basic would be a good word to describe the detailing of this kit. However, making up for a lack of detail is a good, well fitting assembly. Having built the monogram/revell kit, this kit was by far easier to build. It is not Tamiya fit, for sure, requiring filler in some areas like the booms, but overall its fit is good. The booms are easy to line up, moreso than the Revell kit.
Departing from the trodden path, I committed a cardinal sin and started with the wheel wells. They were experiments in two areas: one was scratchbuilding all- I mean ALL- the detail seen in the wheel wells (see first picture- this is what all the wheel wells look like [B)][xx(]). The detail is probably innacurate (forgive me!), being more of representation of what should be there. It’s better than nothing, for sure. The second was the use of yellow zinc chromate paint, a color my hobby shop only recently got in stock. I tried it just to see what it would look like. Again, this is probably innacurate, so I apologize. Here’s some pics of the finished bays:
The details were made with stripwood, cut styrene, and fine electrical solder. All were superglued in place, painted with MM yellow interior zinc chromate, an washed with a dish soap/flat black/water solution. The landing gear itself is not bad at all, but the wheels are a litte basic. Once the wells were finished, the booms were assembled around them, each weighted in front to help the aircraft sit properly. This was done with rocks from my driveway. Having been glued together, I sanded the seams and left them for later.
I then assembled the cockpit. No real suprises here. The only things really missing are a gunsight and an instrument panel–the panel is just a piece of flat plastic. In the instructions it says there’s a Decal for it, but none was ever found. I rummaged through my stash of unused decals, eventually finding a decal (a Tamiya RAF Stang III panel cal) that looked the part. The decal was applied, and the panel was installed per kit instructions. The gunsight was installed after painting-- it’s just a block of wood and a piece of clear plastic, but better than nothing.
Once the cockpit was installed on top of the lower wing center section, the upper wing+plus inst.panel and lower outer wings were installed on top of it. No fit issues there. I then tried to install the booms and tailpieces. No Luck! the spaces between the outer and inner wings were too small! I scraped back the roots on the booms until they dropped in place. As a plus, this produced a near-gapless fit. The booms were then aligned, and the tailpiece installed to keep them there. All was then superglued together. The booms are just a tad off, but it’s not obvious unless you look close. I then glued rocks in the nose immediately forward of the cockpit to weight the nose. After assembling the seperate gunbay and extreme nose section, I glued in as many rocks as I could without interfering with the fit. This section was then glued to the main airframe with superglue. The aircraft, as a result, sits firmly on it’s forward gear.
To the paint shop! I replicated the markings of P-38J “Scat II.” Upper surfaces were Tamiya’s Olive Green and lowers were Tamiya’s Sky Grey.
After that, I installed the landing gear, gun barrels, gear doors, and canopy. Out of all the assemblys, I liked the canopy the least. It didn’t fit too well, and the framing of the top and side pieces were marred. However, they were clear, and all the other parts were very nice. In assembling the gear, be very careful not to confuse the two legs as I did. It can make for a long night. The model was then coated with future and a touch of flat black. The airframe was weathered as follows:
The weathering was achieved with the same manufacturer’s Red Earth Brown (I think…) and a mixture of MM Flat Black and Tamiya Sky Grey. The Turbos were painted Tamiya flat aluminum, then oversprayed with the above mixture. I am very pleased with the finished effect:
Overall, I had a lot of fun with this kit. It builds up to a good representation of the Fork Tailed Devil, and with some TLC can be stunning. I hope you all have a go at her. A measured Kudos to Minicraft. Recommended to all but the barest beginners.
Here’s the finished product:
Thanks for reading. I hope you enjoy the build.
Cheers,
-Chris- Red