Lockheed P-38 F4/F5 Lightning Photo Recon

It's the Minicraft kit. Not a great kit and it needed much filling and sanding to get the photo recon. nose to look halfway decent.

The decals were the best part. They laid down like a dream and with the aid of Microsol, really do look as if they are painted on.

If you are wondering why it's propped up with half a cocktail stick........... well that's cos Minicraft don't tell you in the instructions that, being a nose wheel plane, it isn't balanced. It's tail heavy. Of course I didn't realise untill too late!!! Don't they build their kits before releasing them.

The paint on the real deal was called Haze Blue. It was a specialy developed paint for high altitude recon. planes. It made the plane virtualy invisible to other aircraft. However, the first attempt made them look bright pink at high altitude.

When I sprayed the matt paint on (Valejo Oxford Blue) It looked a decent match. However, when the clear went on prior to decals, it darkened quite considerably and stayed that way even after the final matt finish. Oh well!

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Remarkable plane Al! The colour looks great. :)

:cheers: Spot on.