but I couldn’t confirm that any
F-5As were painted with it, except
for one test subject. There is a
well-known series of photos of an
F-5B in Synthetic Haze that looks
nothing like the colour photo of
“Zola” or any other UK-based F-5s.
I pre-shaded major panel lines
and control surface gaps, followed
by thin coats of Model Master PRU
Blue lightened with white until
satisfied with the effect. Random
areas of further lightened blue
were applied to give a weathered
look. I lightly polished the surface
before applying Tamiya gloss clear
in preparation for the decals.
“Zola” has a very simple
marking scheme, indicative
of a field repaint. The decals
worked well without setting
solution. RS provides extensive
stencilling, which adds interest.
The only letdown from the
decals was the representation of
the oval polished natural metal
panels on the inside of the engine
cowls. These are light grey in
the F-5 kit instead of the more
realistic silver that was supplied
in the P-38 kits. I used themanyway and put a drop of Future
on them to make them glossy.
The decals were sealed with
another coat of gloss and panel lines
were highlighted with Flory wash.
A coat of Tamiya flat was applied,
after which additional weathering
was applied with pastels.FINAL BITS
The RS landing gear struts look
OK after cleaning up, but I was
concerned about their strength
with all the weight I’d added to
the nose, so I ordered a set of Scale
Aircraft Conversions white metal
struts. These were also painted
grey as with the wheel wells.
The canopy masking was
removed and adhesive residue
cleaned off with Goo Gone. The
clamping required to get the
canopy to fit crazed the plastic,
but luckily didn’t crack it. I’ll call
that operator error on my part.
Doors, drop tanks, and antennas
were added, working with the
underside first and progressing to
the topside. The landing gear doors
are arguably the best componentsin the kit, with exceptional
3-dimensional detail. Wheel
covers were painted grey, and tires
painted Floquil Grimy Black.
A significant omission on the
RS kit is the prominent red/green/
yellow marker lights on the bottom
of the fuselage. I represented these
by punching out small decal disks of
the appropriate colours. I couldn’t
find the pitot on the sprue, so I
scratch built one from brass wire.
The turbochargers were painted
Metallizer steel and weathered
with rust pastels. One last
instruction error is the location
of the antenna mast. On the P-38
it is on the bottom as RS shows it,
but on the F-5A it was relocated to
a similar position on the top. The
antenna mast from the kit was
not accurate, so I replaced it with
one from the spares box. EZ-line
was used for antenna rigging.
The props on the P-38/F-5
rotated in opposite directions to
counteract torque effects, and
outward, i.e. toward the wingtips,
to mitigate the tendency to roll
during single-engine-out failure
conditions. The kit props arecorrectly configured, left and right.
Just be sure to keep the sets together
and install them on the correct side.CONCLUSION
As noted at the beginning of the
review, this is a difficult kit to build. It
is also fairly expensive in the US. Add
to this all the ambiguity over paint
schemes and colours, and I would
only recommend it be attempted
by experienced modellers. The old
rivet-laden Airfix early model P-38
is much easier to build, and would
easily look as good with the rivets
removed and some interior detail.
My thanks to RS for
the review sample.REFERENCES
- Model Aircraft Monthly,
Volume 6, Issue 9, Sept., 2007.
- Model Aircraft Monthly,
- P-38 Lightning In Action
#10222, by David Doyle.
- P-38 Lightning In Action
- P-38 In Lightning Action
#1109, by Larry Davis.
- P-38 In Lightning Action
- Air Force Colors, Vol. 2 ETO
& MTO 1942-45, by Dana Bell.
- Air Force Colors, Vol. 2 ETO
- Wikipedia
KIT REVIEWS
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