Military aircraft vol.82: Lockheed P38J Lightning Yippee

Subject:	Lockheed P38J Lightning Yippee
Scale:	1/72
Manufacturer:	Hobbyboss
Price	US$20,00 plus shipping
Description	Injected plastic model with  waterslide decals.
Comments	The 5,000th Lightning built, a P-38J-20-LO, 44-23296, was painted bright vermilion red, and had the name YIPPEE painted on the underside of the wings in big white letters as well as the signatures of hundreds of factory workers. This and other aircraft were used by a handful of Lockheed test pilots including Milo Burcham, Jimmie Mattern and Tony LeVier in remarkable flight demonstrations, performing such stunts as slow rolls at treetop level with one prop feathered to dispel the myth that the P-38 was unmanageable.  To build my version of Yippee i used Hobbyboss P38L and backdated  it to P38J. I could have used one of several P38J kits available, but i wanted to try this easy kit. Fit is very nice and detail is ok, but Academy's P38J is much better in all aspects. The decals from Iliad performed very well. I was afraid of the effect of the red color under the white markings. However, the density of the white is excellent. I hope you like the result as much as i did!