--Originally Posted 5/25/15--

I recently learned that a type of P-38 which I had been wanting to build in plastic, since about age 10, was also directly associated with my current, naval modelling interests:


What I call the "Slick Lightnings" were the earlier P38 variants, having the above, fish-like, streamlined engine nacelles - all the versions prior to the "J"-model, with which the nacelles were redesigned forever after to the more familiar, gape-mouthed look which would come to typify the (especially later) Allison engines. Above is "White Lightning", a P38("H", I am fairly certain), maintained currently in operating condition by the owner of the company that makes Red Bull energy drinks (apparently based in Switzerland).

Only in recent years did I finally see a 48-scale, plastic kit of a "Slick Lightning" - a P38G (IIRC), by Hasegawa - and missed a specific opportunity to get one (at a reasonable $30) a couple years ago, at one of Donny's local hobby shops. So, after 40 years, the kit finding its way into my stash once again was the classic Revell P38J:


Click on Image to EnlargeDespite having the wrong type nacelles, this kit (left) was admittedly now really affordable - around $15 at the local Michael's or HobbyLobby, etc. - and, I was surprised to rediscover, has really quite decent panel/surface details, including even most of the cockpit. So, I finally just bit the bullet - one avoided for 40 years, while my skills finally caught up to the task - and chopped the engine nacelle-panels, reworking them - with relative ease, per the thick and soft Revell plastic - into the Slick Lightning configuration (right). Only the actual intakes confronted persistent difficulties - currently finding solution with prefabbed, clustered brass tubing inserts (right, foreground).

All this was going well enough - including substantial work (not shown) towards a hypothetical radar/photo-recon/pathfinder variant (which I doubt ever actually existed), to incorporate almost all the numerous and beautiful alternate parts of the Revell kit. Very cool, but nothing at all naval-related - and so you didn't see anything posted about it, here.

But then last week - while surfing all the additional historical refs by now available on the web - I was stopped cold by the following:


Click on Image for FULL-RESA P38F Slick Lightning - the mount of ace Robert Faurot, of 39th Fighter Squadron, of the 35th Fighter Group, in New Guinea - lost at the BISMARCK SEA action! Not only Faurot's, but - so I learned - a mix of (nearly identical-design) P38Fs and -Gs, from both 39th Fighter Squadron and 9th Fighter Squadron, of the 49th Fighter Group, provided crucial CAP (along with P-39s and P-40s) over the Allied attack-bombers at Bismarck Sea. This changed everything - and I decided (although Faurot's double sharks' mouths, above, were a bit over the top for my taste) this build just had to depict a gun-nosed Slick Lightning fighter, from Bismarck Sea.

To build which, I needed another kit - as the Revell fusealge was already committed irrevocably to the above "what-if" configuration. However, at this moment of realization, it was found that, in (the 3x places that sell models in) this entire county, but a single 48-scale P38 kit remained on the shelves:


Click on Image to EnlargeAnother P38J (left), this one from MiniCraft - but, having already scratched out the above, Slick Lightning nacelles, ready to swap with the kit nacelles, and in no mood for further delay - I immediately snagged it. And discovered my (completely unthinking but) rather good luck, that the MiniCraft wing attachments to the engine booms (right) are designed almost identically to the Revell (top).

The only other visually-crucial feature - again, lacking in either of these kits - was the smooth, conical Slick Lightning windshield:


This is P38F "Glacier Girl" - restored to flyable condition after being melted free, as the name suggests, from ice in which she had been trapped - and preserved - since the day she came to ground in the Aleutians, in 1942. Note how slippery and graceful the combination of smooth engine nacelles and windshield make her look.

My solution for the needed windscreen I found in yet another cheap-cheap, but really quite decent, Revell 48-scale kit:


Click on Image to EnlargeThe Revell 1:48 F/A-18 Hornet (left), in my stash for going on 20 years, I have never and probably will never develop any desire to build. Thus I was free to pilfer its "bubble" canopy - really more like two butting (half-) cones - the aft piece yielding a section having near-perfect curvature and size for the required windshield (right, top). Quite different from the flat-faced P38J windscreen (background), the replacement piece was cut free - carefully - as indicated. Minor reshaping of the Minicraft instrument hood, and slight augmentation of the cockpit rail (right, bottom) allowed for a near-perfect fit - to be made well and truly perfect, later with glue/filler, during installation.

While the above may look like little progress for a lot of effort (and even more talk ), actually these are the only significant mods required - so that, when finished (which they nearly are), not just one but both builds can then be completed, essentially OOB.

And so that's the "official" story - and start, on yet another modelling subject, over which I've been obsessing for 40 years, now: my Bismarck Sea Lightning! Pretty Slick, huh?

Cheers,

- Matty