1:48 P-38H Lightning 3D-Printed & coloured Interior on decal paper (Hasegawa)

Performance held back by the radiators

The eighth form of the Lightning received Allison power units of around fourteen hundred horsepower at takeoff in 1943, together with automatic regulation of the oil cooler flaps. On paper it was a great step forward, but the turbochargers could be run up fully only within a limited band of altitude: the cooling system could not carry the heat away and pilots had to hold the throttles short of the stop. A real remedy came only with the next form. The roughly six hundred built served out their time over New Guinea, over the Mediterranean and in China, where the twin-engined concept stood out over open water and over jungle with no airfields to fall back on.

Detail that calls for printing

The instrument panel of this machine is packed with circular dials, and levers, circuit breakers and placards are crowded between them. Injection-molded plastic renders such density only as suggested relief, and a flat decal in turn looks like a printed photograph. The solution you are holding combines both strengths: the printing is colored and raised at the same time, the carrier is decal paper, and the part is applied with water, so it adapts to the curvature of the base.

The cut matches the parts of the manufacturer Hasegawa in 1:48 scale. The approach that works: a base in a dark shade, degreasing, seating the part without a softener, which would damage the printed resin, a day to dry, then picking out the edges and blending with a matte coat. Fit the clear parts right at the end. If you plan to build the model with the canopy open, it also pays to refine the shadows between the dials with a dark shade applied with the tip of a brush, because a great deal of light falls into the nacelle when seen from above and the surfaces would otherwise look uniform.