SPA Modeler

mostrich wrote:That's a very nice P-38. I heard a lot of horror stories about the Academy kit. Warped fuselage parts, bad overall fit, sink marks etc.
What are your experiences?

Not a perfect kit and it had some fit issues but I would describe it as a good kit overall. From my unofficial review of several different modeling sites and message boards, I heard that the Hasegawa Lightning kit had issues with fit around the twin booms and that the fit on the Academy kit was better. Based on those findings, I went with the Academy kit. Oh and there was mention of a Minicraft kit that seemed to be universally acknowledged as a cut below the the Academy and Hasegawa kits. The Academy fit built up ok in my experience and did not have the specific issues that you've mentioned. Cockpit and wheel well detail was a bit sparse but I had AM upgrades in those areas. The fit in the area of the fuselage nose wasn't great and required some shimming and putty work to make it blend in.

Here is a comparison between the kit cockpit tub and the Aires resin tub. The resin tub took a bit of work to make it fit but once I figured out that it fit into the top fuselage half very well, it was MUCH easier to make adjustments to the bottom of the resin tub and the lower fuselage to make things fit.



Here is the resin cockpit with paint on.





The cockpit tub after it has been inserted into the fuselage. Note that the windscreen coaming piece is simply resting in place in these pictures. Actual fit was quite good as I had ditched the resin coaming (which was undersized) and used the kit piece after some surgery.



Here's a look at the seams around the nose before the putty.



The Eduard wheels are nicely detailed and even have the Goodyear logo on them.


The Master gun barrels are so nice it's almost a shame to put paint on them.



This was the worst joint on this build and it came apart after decaling.




The seat and rear bulkhead were added after painting.



The biggest pain on this build was attaching the landing gear doors. The Eduard brass set had me remove the plastic hinges to make room for the brass but did not provide any hinge replacements. I crafted my own from sheet styrene but due the curvature of the door edges, they did not align to the wheel well opening at all. I ended up cutting the hinges in half to increase the gluing surface area, put dabs of super glue on each hinge and hoped that at least a couple held.

Thank you for providing such a detailed insight into this build, John. Much appreciated!

You're welcome Mostrich! Bruce, that is a great question! How do you select your builds? I've been interested in WW2 aircraft since I was a kid. And I've always gravitated toward Axis fighter planes, especially the German ones. When I re-entered the hobby about three years ago, I found the new research and info about Luftwaffe camouflage intriguing. Instead of just various shades of grey that was assumed 40 years ago, it was cool to see Bf109's and Fw190's in bright greens and even browns! So I was motivated to model some of those recently discovered color combinations. Soon I found an online model-building community and started participating in their group builds. These group builds had me consider subjects outside of my normal area of interest and so I started building some Allied subjects as well. I enjoyed them but to be honest, the passion when building a Thunderbolt or Lightning or Spitfire isn't as high as when I am working on a late war Dora or K-4.

There are some general preferences that I follow when choosing a subject. I don't like the look of all-metal finishes and much prefer camouflaged aircraft. So coincidentally, my Lightning, Mustang and Thunderbolt builds were all Olive Drab-based. I don't like prototypes and I don't like captured markings. Kill marks and personal markings are nice and finding a subject that has not been modeled extensively is a plus. You can see that Hill's Angels fit that criteria pretty well.

John, after reading your last post I suggest you have a look at the late war schemes of the 56th Figher Group P-47s. They were anything but common or ordinary. I think that they would make a good opposite of your late war Luftwaffe builds.

Stikpusher wrote:John, after reading your last post I suggest you have a look at the late war schemes of the 56th Figher Group P-47s. They were anything but common or ordinary. I think that they would make a good opposite of your late war Luftwaffe builds.

Thanks for the suggestion Carlos! I have no doubt that the Allies, especially the Americans, had a great deal of colorful and unique markings on their aircraft and would make great modeling subjects.

mostrich wrote:Thank you for providing such a detailed insight into this build, John. Much appreciated!

Thanks for the comments guys! Here is another rare (for me) non-WW2 fighter plane... 1/48 scale Spitfire Mark 24. This is the Eduard Special Edition, which is a rebox of the Airfix Spitfire 22/24 kit with some added goodies such as an Aires resin cockpit, resin wheels and exhaust pipes and a photoetch fret. I added a Squadron vacuform canopy to the build.

That's a wonderful looking Spitfire 24 John - I really like those postwar birds. I built a 1/72 version of this aircraft (or something similar) last year, with the addition of underwing rockets.

That P-38 is very sharp as well.