Anyone know if Yippee had any other special markings or modifications to it besides the lettering on the nose and lack of guns? Also, what color were the props- they look red in my photos, but that could be a defect. How can I model the lack of nose guns on Revell’s P-39J kit, the one where you can build Marge, a Night Lightning, and a droop-snoot? One final question- does anyone know if I can use Testor’s Decal Maker to make the lettering myself instead of buying a P-38J marking sheet? The factory decals come with the miscelaneous placards.
It sounds like you’re building the old Monogram kit. I assume this is 1/48 scale?
I did a quick search on the web and the pictures I found all had guns:
http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/research/p38-18.jpg
http://www.karrart.com/karrart/avpix/2dme3/yippee.jpg
If you wanted to build it without guns, you could just take the gun nose and fill in the holes for the guns with putty.
I have seen a decal sheet for this aircraft. I just checked the stuff I was going to sell on Ebay and I happen to have it in 1/72 scale. The 1/72 version is 72-130 from Microscale. I think I’ve seen it in 1/48 scale too.
It looks like the spinners were red, but the prop blades were standard black.
Bill
I believe the color used was called Vermillion (I know, it’s just a variation of red, but what the hey). According to the reports I have read, it was stock P-38J which was painted for a couple of weeks and then repainted in OD and Neutral Gray and delivered to the USAAF.
Dolson, do you know who makes the decals for the 1/48 scale Revell-Monogram kit? I checked the box, that is the one I have. Also, do you think that a standard gloss red paint would work instead of vermillion? I can’t seem to find any company that makes a vermillion paint.
It also had “YIPPEE” across the wings in large white letters. Don’t remember if it was on the top, bottom or both. Seems like the picture I remember was a belly shot. As for color, vermillion sounds too orange. Gloss red would likely be better. Keep checking for a color pic.
Regards
Dick
Hasagawa produces a model of the P-38 “Yippee”. Does anyone know if the red color is identified by Federal Standard (FS) color number? From the pictures I have seen it could be gloss insignia red or just a little darker, such as Testors Model Masters “Gaurds Red”. I have read that the colors in those old color photographs were not the best representation of the ACTUAL colors. The P-51 photos where the OD appears to be blue is a good example.
I seem to recal that the P-38 Yippee was a “landmark” P-38, such as the 5000th P-38 built and the special paint job was for the publicity. It has been a long time since I read the AIRPOWER or WINGS article about this airplane, so I’m not sure that is the correct reason for the paint job. Anybody know?
It was a red orange I think Chevy engine red is close. Microscale did decals in 1/48 number 48-24 but they are out of production. The guns were installed and it said yip pee on the underside of the wings here’s a pic.
Yes, it was the 5,000th P-38 rolled out of Burbank, I picked it because I am just starting and I wanted an easy solid color project.
It was from Microscale, who don’t make decals anymore. Superscale has re-released a number of old Microscale sets, but I’m not sure if the Yippee P-38 was ever re-released. You could check Ebay.
Bill
You may want to check out the book “The Lockheed P-38 Lightning” by Warren M. Bodie which has an overhead view of the “YIPPEE” on the front cover and a full bottom shot of the huge letters on the bottom plus a close up of the nose and left front of the plane waiting to taxi. I had a friend blow up the 72nd scale decals to 1/32nd for my Revell kit and it looked great to me. The white letters have a black surround. Guns were installed on the real plane and had red overspray on the barrels while the canopy frame apparently was left bare metal.
Drop tank sponsons were installed on the real one which will make it difficult to put decals on your model. I’d suggest any bright red color as being satisfactory because this plane will get a huge response where ever you show it.
How would you go about blowing a 1/72 decal sheet up to 1/48? That seems to be the way I have to go because no one makes or sells the sheet in 1/48.
Tony LeVier, the Lockheed test pilot who I believe is flying Yippie in most of those photos, also flew a red/vermilion/crimson P-38 in the 1946 National Air Races. It might be the same ship. The air racer had a white lightning bolt with LeVier’s name painted on the nose and the number 3 painted on the engines and wing tips.
We used Adobe Illustrator after scanning the original decals. I can’t remember the exact ratio to increase the 1/72 to 1/48. You’ll have to touch up the enlargement to keep things sharp.
Our model club went in on an Alps printer about 5 years ago and that’s what we used to print our decals.
I’ve also used Adobe Photoshop (the version that came with my scanner). Illustrator would probably do a better job. I was in the process of blowing Ian Gleed’s Spitfire decals up to 1/24 scale when Airfix released a kit of his aircraft in 1/24, so I never finished the decal project.
Matt90, this is a decal making system that has been around for a few years. The company that makes the kits provide 8 1/2 X 11 sheets of decal film in either clear or pure white and you print the rest of your decal using an injet printer. Then you spray their protective stuff on top and the ink is then water proof. Alps made a printer that would print white several years ago. They tend to go for a fair bit when they come up on Ebay because its the only game in town if you want to print in white.
With the Yippee decals, you could probably get away with using white decal film and just print the the rest. You would have to be careful cutting out the letters and aligning them on the model.
If you can be patient, you could watch Ebay and see if the 1/48 scale decals come up. Microscae did make them in 1/48. The 1/72 sheet appears to be more readily available. I see Rare Plane Detective has them in 1/72. I also have a sheet if you want to buy it from me.
Bill
Thank’s bill, I did check the Rare Plane Detective, and I looked into the paper, but looking for the decals on eBay seems to be the best option.