P-38 Lightning racer - 1948 National Air Races - Hasegawa 1/72nd conversion + Arctic Decals

 

In this guise, N25Y was flown by Charles Walling at the 1948 National Air Races without much success, having being converted from a surprisingly more effective 1947 configuration that had a much more bulbous nose and the airscoops in a different position. N25Y had a very long and eventful life and it’s still flying today in a different guise. 

In the following group of photos, the prevailing lighting made my camera alter the original hue (well reproduced in the photos above):

If the Lockheed Lightning wouldn’t have been invented, it would have probably been created as a retro-futuristic ship for a Sci-Fi movie, cartoon or magazine. Of alluring lines and heavenly proportions, its aesthetic virtues are even better appreciated in racing guise.

In a parallel build (Green Hornet racer) I used the Academy rendition, (there is on the market an Italeri clone, if you can not get then Academy kit that’s the way to go).

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/02/green-hornet-racer-1947-converted.html

For this build I made the valiant decision of rescuing the very old Hasegawa kit, which proved more work than I expected. Its pitfalls are described in the step-by-step building article.

https://wingsofintent.blogspot.com/2024/01/old-dog-new-tricks-p-38-lightning-racer.html

Among other things done to squeeze the racer from this kit are:

1) Deletion of military features

2) Change of position of the airscoops

3) Deletion of turbocharger and re-shaping the area}

4) Clip wingtips and external sections of horizontal tail

5) Add some bare resemblance of wheel bay detail

6) Provide some additional elements for the cockpit (sadly lacking in the original)

The only photo I have of the area that in service had the “mirror” -polished metal- used to verify LG deployment, shows no such device, sometimes omitted in racing machines.

At the end, Light(ning) prevailed over darkness and the results are pleasant and credible.

Much was pondered among friends and fellow modelers about some details and the overall color of this plane during the initial stages of this build. Piece by piece the necessary information was gathered, provided by a number of good souls. To all of them my gratitude for their valuable input and help.

This old Hasegawa kit proved to be a veritable Japanese Yokai (malefic entity), but a fairly convincing result was obtained in the end, in no small measure thanks to the beautiful set made by Arctic Decals.

See you in the next adventure.