Tamiya has been doing a little teasing with close ups of their next 1/48 scale release. The clues are in the images.

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Thanks!

That looks suspiciously like a P-38...?

If this is a Tamiya P-38 in 1/48 this will be fabulous and welcome news !

Gary

I would wait in line for a Tamiya P-38

A 48th P-3 Orion would have been even more exciting-especially if Tamiya did it! I know many would agree! Even though another 48th 38 doesn't really light my fire-I'm sure it'll be a phenomenal high-quality kit.

I'll bet the farm it's a Vickers Wellesley! Well, maybe not.

Fabulous news!!! New tool P-38 in 1/48. Will be all over that when it’s released.

Tamiya 1/48 scale P-38? Hold me back!! Never encountered the Academy kits, but from experience the Hasegawa kits are beasts to put together. A P-38 from Tamiya would be a dream with their design and engineering - but..... the price point?
Methinks a P-38J/L would be the most likely??

Hi, All!

THAT'S a P-38, if I ever saw one! I checked the various panel lines in the photos with my HASEGAWA and ACADEMY P-38s and this is a "BINGO"!!!

In an agreeable response to Mike's (NZMikey) musings in this thread, YES, the 1/48 HASEGAWA P-38s are an absolute bear to put together because of various mis-alignments and poor fit-issues. The ACADEMY P-38s are much better as to parts-fit, but this comes at the expense of less detail than is found in the HASEGAWA kits. MY money goes to the ACADEMY P-38 kits, hands down.

Having experienced the joy of TAMIYA's latest 1/48 Spitfire Mk.I (kit #61119), if this new Lightning, (I don't care which model P-38, "E" through "L"), is anywhere near as good as that last Spitfire, I'll be very happy to buy 2 or 3 of those new P-38s and HANG the expense!!!

Although I have a soft spot for the earlier "E" through "H"-model P-38s, I would gladly settle for the "J/L"-types. Knowing TAMIYA, over the last 30 years or so, they won't stop at just ONE P-38-type or another. My money is on either an earlier or a later P-38, with an additional earlier or later kit coming a few months later, in order to counter-balance the first one, which ever one comes first... (Examples are their EXCELLENT P-47D "Razorback" and Bubble Top", F-14A and D-types, F4U Corsairs, Bf.109E-3, -E-4/7, -G-6, Fw.190A-3, -A-8, -F, Mosquitoes and Beaufighters, and so on down the line)

HAPPY, either way!!!

PS- PLEASE!!! NO vinyl Tires!!!

The second photo is definitely P-38's horizontal stabilizer with elevator.

AGREE! The photos are of the following parts:

Photo 1- One of the Booms, with the rear part of the Main Landing Gear Bays showing

Photo 2- The Horizontal Stabilizer and Elevator, as Damian (Sleepwalker71) noted in his post

Photo 3- The Upper Right Outer Wing, with the appropriate "cut-out" for a "pose-able" Right Aileron,

This last, leads me to surmise that TAMIYA MIGHT have engineered a Main Wing Spar into their design of how the Main Wing components will be supported, as they similarly did with their P-47D kits...

Hi, Mike!

I would surmise that you're probably correct in your thinking that TAMIYA will more than likely release a P-38J/L first, as the J/L variants were the most numerous. These seem to be more popular with modelers. Also very likely, as I stated in an earlier post of mine, TAMIYA could release an earlier type such as a P-38E/F/G/H coming soon after the P-38J/L...

OH! HAPPY DAY, in any case!!!

As far as I'm concerned, but if we're going to talk "big" Aircraft in 1/48, a P-3 would be nice. Speaking personally, I would LOVE to see a series of brand-spanking-all-new-tooling 1/48 B-17s, B-24s, B-26s, B-25s and an all-new B-29, while we're at it. A Privateer would be nice, too... If HK can do those monstrous 1/32 B-17s, WHY can't we see all-newly-tooled 1/48 issues of the Aircraft that have been mentioned above..?

1/48th scale B-26 Family is on route from ICM I believe.

Hi, Darren!

You must be thinking of ICM's Korean War Douglas B-26 Invader. ICM will be doing TWO of the Douglas A-26 Invaders Invaders of WWII-fame as a prelude to the Korean War B-26 version, which we should see by the 4th Quarter of 2019. No doubt there may well be a Vietnam War version in the future, as well.

The B-26 I was referring to in my earlier post was the Martin B-26 Marauder, which was discontinued at the end of WWII. When the US Army Air Forces became the US Air Force via the Key West Agreement in 1947, the Douglas A-26 Invader became the B-26 Invader. How's THAT for clouding the issue???

MONOGRAM/REVELL made both the A-26 Invader and the B-26 Marauder in 1/48 scale for years. I knew that ICM would be releasing their A-26 Invader soon, and that's why I only referred to the B-26... I probably should have referred to the B-26's name, "Marauder" in my post. I could also have referred to it by it's colloquial nicknames as well:

"The Baltimore Whore" and the "Destitute Prostitute"...

The B-26 kind of backhandedly "earned" these somewhat derogatory nicknames not because it was a bad aircraft, but because the initial versions of the B-26 had a much shorter Main Wing initially, so American Pilots being who they were at the time, wise-cracked that:

"The B-26's Main Wing is so short, she doesn't have any visible means of support!!!", ergo the references to "Ladies of the evening"...

Actually, the Martin B-26 had the lowest COMBAT-losses of any American Aircraft that flew during WWII...

PPS- Again, as long as we're talking about the big stuff in 1/48, us getting an RAF HALIFAX Heavy Bomber and a Fleet Air Arm SUNDERLAND Flying Boat would be GREAT. The old TAMIYA Lancaster also needs a SERIOUS up-dating with a brand-new, newly-tooled kit!

New 1/48 P-38! Count me in!

And since we're playing the game, as long as they've done it in 1/48, why not 1/32? I'm sorry, I'm going to sit in the corner and drool now...

Michael

Here is the announcement !!!

https://www.tamiyausa.com/blog/tamiya-61120-148-lockheed-p-38-fg-lightning/

Thank You for the link, Anthony!

This is indeed GREAT news!!!

So now, we see the projected "box-art" and the question of which P-38-model TAMIYA would release first- The P-38F/G. Hopefully, an -H, with the first installation of the P-38's "Compressibility Brakes" and the subsequent -J/L models can't be too far behind...

"Miss Virginia"- The P-38G I've wanted for years, since I missed the HASEGAWA-issue. Now TAMIYA will be doing her. "Miss Virginia" was Rex Barber's machine, and he allegedly was the one who "got" Admiral Yamamoto in that G4M "Betty", which TAMIYA also makes. The two aircraft will make for a nice "vignette" in one of my display cabinets...

ME, for this one, or two!!!

F/G!

https://www.themodellingnews.com/2019/07/tamiyas-148th-scale-lockheed-p-38-fg.html#more

Michael

Though I have still 10 Academy P-38 in my stash (and 3 built .... ), I'll give Tamiya a chance of course. As I have tons of P-38 decals still waiting, I have the anguish of choice. Twin booms are my favs ....

Torsten

I'm a 1/4 Scale (1/48) guy from waaay back in 1958, so it would take WILD HORSES for me to switch scales, now. However, you're absolutely right, Michael. The '32 scale-guys deserve some TAMIYA-style LOVE with a brand new P-38!!!

Found a very comprehensive in box review

https://ninetalis.com/reviews/aircraft/tamiya-1-48-p-38f-g-lightning/

From "the other place"...

http://www.hyperscale.com/2019/reviews/kits/tamiya61120reviewbg_1.htm

Michael