Jerry Rutman | 1/32 P-38 Lightning Early Cockpit Set

Reviewed by Chris Sherland

Rutman Products have delivered a conversion set to backdate the Trumpeter Lightning cockpit to an earlier E/F or H version. The set includes the big sidewalls, seat, side consoles, panel backside, radio dec with radios, steering wheel., gun sight, frontal armor mount, and armored glass.

The set is cast beautifully from detailed masters that capture better detail than the kit, as well as offering the changes needed to backdate the office. Some careful cleanup will be required for the more delicate parts, and the instructions while accurate, are a bit sparse.

Here are some samples of the level of detail provided in the set.

The work involved to make the Trumpeter kits cockpit accurate is not trivial, let alone back date it while doing so. Rutman provides a drop-in replacement that beats the kit's office by a mile and saves lots of time in research and scratch-building.

Rutman also offers an external back date set for the Trumpeter Lightning as well.

Thanks to J Rutman Products for the review sample.

© Chris Sherland 2004

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This review was published on Saturday, July 02 2011; Last modified on Wednesday, May 18 2016