1/48 Monogram P-38 “Marge”

Gallery Article by M.J.Gormley on Aug 11 2015

 

      

This kit was inspired by a picture I came across in my grandfather’s scrapbook from WW 2. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I found an autographed pic of Major Bong to my Grandpa…then Colonel Guthrie. Mom said he was good friends with Bong as the Major actually flew for my grandfather in the war. I believe at the time they were in New Guinea. Small world! I had seen the kit “Marge” before and I knew I would have to build it.

Flying the P-38-Lightning in the Pacific theater Major Richard Bong was the top scoring U.S. Ace during WWII with 40 kills. A skilled flyer, Bong was noted for his silent approaches to his airfield with both engines feathered. As he swooped over the field he would loop his P-38 and land. He claimed to have poor gunnery skills (this was far from the truth in that he was so good at gunnery that his commanding officer had him remain at Luke as an instructor for several months.) for which he compensated by closing on his targets until he was nearly touching them. After he topped Eddie Rickenbacker's WWI record of 26 kills Bong was reassigned to training duties but he managed to bend the rules and shoot down thirteen more planes.  At Talcloban airfield on Leyte on December 12, 1944, Dick Bong was awarded the nation's highest honor by General Douglas MacArthur, Commander of all U.S. Army units in the Far East who, after casting aside a prepared speech, said: "Major Richard Ira Bong, who has ruled the air from New Guinea to the Philippines, I now induct you into the society of the bravest of brave, the wearers of the Congressional Medal of Honor of the United States." 

Dick Bong, a hero in an era of heroes, represents a generation of young men and women who willingly left their farms, villages, and cities to defend their country's freedom. They carried out the work that had to be done - and did it well. 

Bong was the first fighter pilot handpicked by General George C. Kenney in the fall of 1942 for a P-38 squadron designed to strengthen his Fifth Air Force in Australia and New Guinea. Dick Bong loved flying and the P-38 was the ideal fighting plane for the combat techniques he mastered: swooping down on his targets and blasting them at dangerously close range, then pulling up fast. His own aircraft was damaged in battle in several of his missions, once so badly he had to crash-land. 

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General Kenney pulled Dick Bong out of combat when his score reached 40 and sent him home to "marry Marjorie.”

Bong began training for a new assignment in Burbank, California: testing the plane that would take the Air Force into the jet age - the Lockheed P-80 Shooting Star. In California he reported to Lieutenant Colonel C. J. Langmack, head of the Air Force Department at Lockheed and in charge of all flying, experimental testing and acceptance of Army Air Forces aircraft there. From July 7th to August 6th he made 11 test flights and logged over 4 hours flight time in the Shooting Star. Dick Bong was intrigued by the new jet fighter and enthusiastic about his assignment. On August 6, 1945 (the day the Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima) Dick Bong was killed when the P-80 he was testing stalled on takeoff and he bailed out at low altitude. His body, partially wrapped in the shrouds of his parachute, was found 100 feet from the plane's jet engine. On 8 August 1945 he was buried in the Poplar cemetary, Poplar, Wisconsin. 

I was rather impressed with this kit as the fit was not too bad and the detail was very good. This P-38 was painted with Model Master chrome silver followed by darkening of some of the panels with powder graphite. Then glosscoat…decal & panel wash with sludge mix previously discussed, and a final semi-gloss lacquer to finish it up. Rigging is Easyline…works great! Fun model of one of if not the greatest U.S. aces…ever! Good modeling & God bless!

M.J.Gormley

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Photos and text © by M.J.Gormley