*I'll give the Hasegawa kit the nod because the surface detail is much better. I suppose this is why Eduard threw a ton of PE and resin at the Academy kit to improve things in overall appearance. I don't particularly like the raised rivets on the Academy kit.
*Hasegawa's kit is tricky with boom alignment and it has underside wing root issues. On the Academy kit, the boom to wing alignment was fairly painless with no wing root to deal with due to the kit design. It's just a matter of gluing the upper piece to the lower piece. Both gun bay nose assemblies were a lousy fit with lots of sanding and scribing.
*Hasegawa's glass is thinner and more detailed but the Academy glass, particularly the windscreen, fit better, at least to me. I've never liked the fit of Hasegawa's windscreen.
*If it was not for the PE fret offered by Eduard, the landing gear bays on the Academy kit would have no detail.
So on conclusion, factoring everything in, I'd still have to go with the Hasegawa kit with a few add on goodies. Eduard did do a nice job updating the Academy basic kit and is no slouch either. I doubt I would bother with the basic Academy kit but your mileage may vary. I do hope to try out the Hobby Boss Lightning some day.
My personal additions were Quickboost gun barrels and brake lines. I didn't particularly like the flat table-like stance, as most parked P-38s I've seen tilted slightly backwards. Since I had PE scissor links, I decided to fix this by replacing the front oleo strut with a longer piece and then using the said supplied PE scissor. I like the look but it did not go without consquence. I discovered it was now a tail sitter as I failed to compensate for the weight shift.....Angry. Unfortunately this one will need to be fixed to a base by the front wheel. We live an we learn. I will however be doing this on all future P-38 builds.
Here is my rendition of "Phobe", #122, flown by Thomas Lanphier Jr. on the Yamamoto Mission. In all, Lanphier was credited with 9 kills, 8 damaged, and a Destroyer sunk.
As much as I love this subject, I'm officially Lightning'ed out. Time for something easy. How about a Tamiya Wildcat?
Thanks for following. Comments or criticizms are always welcome.....
