Lockheed P-38G-15-LO Lightning

Published on
April 30, 2020
Review Author(s)
Book Author(s)
Dariusz Karnas & Artur Juszczak
ISBN
978-83-65958-92-1
Other Publication Information
Softcover, 24pp, scale plans, color profiles, b&w + color photos
MSRP
$11.99
Product / Stock #
“Single” Series #18
Front Cover

One of the latest in MMP’s “Single” series covers the P-38G-15-LO, and with the relatively new Tamiya 1/48 kit of the P-38 F/G the timing of this release is perfect. The idea behind this series of books (more like booklets) seems to be to get right to the point and show scale plan views, photos, profiles, etc.

Upon opening the narrow, softcover book, one is immediately presented with several pages of scale plans (in 1/72 and 1/48). No introductory history or anything like that, just right into the plans. This is followed by about 15 pages of photos that are a mix of wartime snapshots and modern museum aircraft, interspersed with snippets from the original aircraft manual. While there is no body of text, each photo has a pretty generous caption. The wartime photos show several aircraft and pilots and give a good sense of the way these early P-38 models were used. The museum photos, as well as the manual drawings, offer up a good mix of external and internal details. At the end of this section there are a few pages of color photos (of museum aircraft), focusing on the cockpit and nose armament. Those looking for superdetailing ideas won’t be disappointed here. To wrap things up, there are 3 pages of color profiles. These profiles are all the same aircraft, a New Guinea-based P-38G as of 1943. There are left/right views (including just the pilot’s ‘pod’ without the view-blocking ending nacelle) and a full view of the topside.

This is, by design, a very succinct, almost abrupt book to look through. But there is still a lot of useful information to a modeler within these pages. It is certainly much more of a dedicated airframe reference and much less of a historical treatise. A good one-stop reference on this model of the P-38. Not much history (really none!), but a lot of great modeling detail references. A reasonable price for a good addition to your library.

Thanks to Mushroom Model Publications for the review copy, and to IPMS for allowing me to review it!

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