P-38 Model - Review

Some of my earliest memories involve P-38s. I can remember my Dad bringing home a small plastic toy Lightning for me when I was all of 4 or 5 years old. I loved that little silver plane! Even when I broke the propeller blades off, there it sat on my bedroom dresser…ready to take off at a moment’s notice.

Later, it was the Monogram Kit sitting next to that old battered plane that brought the images of the stories my Dad told of his time with the Lightnings during the war to life. I remember how long it took to build, and how careful I was...even painting the instrument dials with silver paint on the tip of a wooden toothpick to get as much detail as possible. I think it may have been one of the proudest days of my life when Dad looked it over and caught every detail I had worked so hard on. I was sure that had to be the most detailed P-38 model ever.

Time passes. Dad’s gone, and now I have an office with shelves filled with P-38 memorabilia, books, and replicas. Everything from the big, expensive, hand-carved mahogany pieces to little rubber balls with a tiny P-38 in the middle. Thought I’d seen it all, until last Friday, at the local toy store.

Enter a company from San Lorenzo, California called 21st Century Toys. They’ve made a very respectable name for themselves by producing high-quality, extremely detailed replicas of vehicles from the Second World War to today, including aircraft like the P-51 Mustang and the Messerschmidt Me-109. These are not your ordinary war toys, folks. These things are BIG. Large enough to show the rich attention to detail that can only come from painstaking research and a real “can-do” attitude.

And now they’ve brought their attention to our favorite Lady of the Skies -- Kelly Johnson’s Dream Machine, the P-38 Lightning.

The first thing that strikes you is the size of the box -- it’s huge! The box is detailed enough with pictures and a brief history of the aircraft that you will carefully put it aside to perhaps cut out and use for a backdrop. But your attention to the rich detail of the package vanishes as soon as you open it up, because for the next five minutes, you sit there wondering how the hell they managed to shrink an actual aircraft into this box! It really is that good.

Having purchased the previously mentioned P-51 and Me-109 from the same company,I had been exposed to their incredible attention to detail, even to the painting of the parts -- showing “weathering” and discoloration from engine exhaust and general wear-and-tear. No pristine, phony-looking decals here! But the P-38, even just out of the box and not fully assembled, takes your breath away. Sitting there, all secure in the custom protective tray and wire twist-ties, you can easily spot small details that could only have come from hours and hours of planning and study.

Although the box does not specify it, with the armament provided and the details visible on the model, this is the P-38-LO-5 series. The model comes with all the armament options: bazooka tubes, rocket pods, drop tanks, and bombs, all neatly arranged on the protective tray ready to snap together. Because of the sheer size of the piece (34.5” wingspan, 24” length) there is some assembly required; but the process has been made so simple and almost foolproof by the manufacturer that the only instructions included with the piece are those explaining the operation of the landing gear. The entire assembly, from the tail booms and stabilizer, to the outside wings, to mounting the tanks and rocket pods, took only 15 minutes! All parts “lock” in place, and the joints are virtually seamless. The assembly may take longer only because you may want to stop and marvel in the detail they have incorporated into each piece!