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At long last! (This thread could be subtitled: The lengths I'll go to to avoid a natural metal finish) Here is my rendition of P-38G s/n 43-2239 as it served in the 339th Fighter Squadron on Guadalcanal in early spring of 1943. According to Michael Claringbould in his book "Pacific Profiles, Volume 9," this aircraft was badly damaged after a forced-landing following an attack against a floatplane base at Faisi. The 339th ground crews towed it to the scrapyard where engineers from the 44th Fighter Squadron snatched it, brought it back to airworthy condition, and christened it "Old Ironsides." Apparently there was something of a kerfluffle between the two units as the 339th later tried to reclaim the aircraft - no word as to who came out on top, but the aircraft was used as a hack at least until mid-1944. From there, it fell off the radar and its final fate is ultimately unknown. Claringbould's book features a picture of the aircraft after it was named by the 44th FS, but I don't want to post it as I don't want to run afoul of copyright issues. In all my searches, I never found the second picture online anywhere and I suspect the original is in his personal collection. In any case, if you were following the build thread for this, you know what an adventure it has been. Most of that was due to my repeated, and uncharacteristic indecision. This started life as the Trumpeter P-38L kit and it was my intent to build an ETO bird in natural finish. But, I'd been sitting on the Grey Matter Figures backdate resin set forever and I knew if I didn't use it now, it'd go to waste. Aaaand, I like the looks of the pre-J models better anyway. So, with a little encouragement from @BiggTim, I decided to take the plunge and do the necessary surgery. I've never attempted anything so dramatic before and it was one heck of a project that involved quite a bit of surgery. You can check out the build thread for most of the details, but as you can see, this was no easy feat. While I'm very happy with the final results, I admit it is far from perfect. Some components, particularly in the cockpit, I just couldn't backdate as I didn't have it in me to scratch build complex parts like instrument panels, gunsights, and other sundries. That said, I'm quite pleased as this is as close as anyone is going to get to a pre-J model P-38 in 1/32 scale until Tamiya gets off their collective butts and upscales their kits (Dear Tamiya, I would buy several. Just saying.) Anyway, with this one done, I can now say I've done a heavy conversion (check that off the bucket list), and now I can focus on deep cleaning my model room to prepare for the arrival of the HKM A-20G. Enjoy the photos!

Hello all. I have been searching the interweb for details of P-38 drop tanks. In particular, the shakles without the tanks, after the tanks have been jettisoned. The tanks appear to be mounted on a pedestal, that I suppose remained on the wing. The details I am searching for would be the detail of the remaining pedestal. Any help would be appreciated...thanks.

I am a long time avid viewer, but new member with LSP. This is my first post on any website. Hope I have done this correctly. Currently in the middle of backdating Trumpy P-38 to build Miss Virginia, the plane Barber used to shoot down the Betty carrying Yamamoto. My intention is to show the plane just after landing, with the landing gear high to represent empty fuel cells, spent ammo, etc. The plane used the 2 external tanks to make this long interception. My question is this, wouldn't these tanks have been jettisoned before the engagement, and therefore would not be on the plane upon landing. What do you all think. Thanks for input...Bob.

Here are some of the other pictures from the Open House. If anyone is interested in a weathered P-61 or P-38, let me know, I have a lot more. Enjoy! Most worn Catalina I have ever seen. Will have to find the backstory to this aircraft. Well worn P-38 - I have a lot more pictures of this bird as well. Non-warbird - didn't see action in WWII. Was mothballed, then pulled back into service by NOAA for hurricane testing (needing props for that work, not jets) and this is the high altitude version of the P-61. The weathering is rather interesting - all over, except the radome in the nose. Yes, it is as big as it looks! Cheers, folks! Chris

In 1947, civil war looked imminent in Paraguay. President Higinio Morinigo sensed rebellion in the air and thus decided to bolster his air arm, as this consisted mostly of WW2 unarmed training aircraft. Open Civil War broke out on March 7th 1947, by this time a dozen surplus P-38J's with mercenary pilots and ground crew recruited in the US were on their way. Most of the former Paraguayan air force sided with the Communist rebels, but the hastily repainted P-38's served pro government forces well, shooting down most of the rebellions aircraft, while carrying out bombing and strafing runs on insurgent positions. By August 20th the rebellion had been violently put down. This kit is the old 1970's Revell mold. It's not a great model, I started it as just something to tinker on between projects and it had been sitting 95% complete for the last month. I did plan on doing a Cuban machine, but I decided against using a nice decal sheet on what is a pretty poor model. Thus, I invented this little story. The P-38 did not see action in the Paraguayan Civil War.