P-38 Night Fighter

[Radish]

The Kits At War decals are correct. The RAF had a natural metal with PR Blue patches (over the USAAF insignia?) for the use of someone or other.
There's a photo of it somewhere (Lend Lease book??) as it was dumped post-war at RAF Lichfield ,,,,Fradley airfield....10 minutes drive away from me here.

I've always thought it'd look cool in natural metal but with insignia blue markings/stripes for the SEAC campaign.



Also, one reason why P-38s had difficulty operating in the European Theatre was that the fuel was supplied by us...OK, we got it from elsewhere, but whatever we "did" to it, it played havoc with the engines. In the Pacific Theatre, the engines were comparitively trouble free. The fuel in the Pacific was of a higher quality.
It was poor quality fuel that buggared the captured Italian P-38, which I believe, scored a kill.  

[cthulhu77]

Interesting information, and thanks for the replies...that kit took a long time to make, but I do like it. Enough to have bought more for the stash...

[jcf]

Hmm i do recall reading some ware (but it could be wrong) that the reason the RAF ordered its P 38's with out the super charger is that Uncle sam refused an export licence for the them as the were "classified" at the time.

Nope, the RAF Lightning I's were originally ordered by the Anglo-French Purchasing Committee as the Models 322-61-03(322F) for France and 322-61-04(322B) for Britain. The committee determined that the un-supercharged Allison V-1710-C15 was the best choice in order to standardize on the same power-plant as used in the Curtiss Hawk H-81A and to optimize performance for medium altitude combat.
After the fall of France the British took over the entire order of 667 aircraft but the order was modified to 143 un-supercharged Lightning I's and the remaining 524 aircraft as Lightning II's with supercharged engines.

The GE Turbo-supercharger was not 'Top Secret' or 'Classified' in 1939 and had been openly under development since 1917, the first 'live' tests began on Pike's Peak in the fall of 1918, and the GE units went into service in 1932 on the PB-2A.

The US wouldn't sell the P-38 with the Tubochargers story has always been doubtful for the simple fact that during the same period of time the RAF was taking deliveries of Turbocharger equipped Flying Fortresses.

Cheers, Jon