Wednesday, December 21, 2011

The Hubley P-38

Wednesday, December 21, 2011
The Winter Solstice
(Shortest  amount of Daylight for the Year)


The Hubley P-38

     The  P-38 was a model diecast airplane  manufactured by the Hubley Toy Company in the early 1960's. It was modelled after the Boeing P-38. It saw action in the Pacific more than the European theatre zone. 10,037 planes were built at a cost of  $ 97, 147.00 at the time. Wow,costs certainly have changed!  For a more thorough narrative of the airplane, please go to WaWikipedia:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_P-38_Lightning

     I started purchasing and re-selling the fine planes at the beginning of my toy buying and selling  period. They attracted my eye, and there was a good demand for them. You don;t always get the whole airplane, but thankfully, there are the Thomas Antique Toy Company , and Classic TIne Toy Company that do have replacement parts.

The design is what attracted me to these toys. 
It's different from most other WWII airplanes or any airplane for that matter.

This one is missing its' left landing gear, as well as its' left and right rubber tires.




The texture of the rivets is very interesting.
What's interesting is how such small detail can be created from a die cast mould.
Imagine the time that went into this!





TSo far you've seen 4 different models:

1. Silver on top with a bit of red.
2. Mostly red on top with silver underneath
3. All olive green
4. Camouflage deep yellow and green

TI decided to "play around" with this particular P-38.
I removed the foundation and background that the plane was on, and then did what is called a gradation of black to white.

By the way, the one above is variation # 5 for the Hubley.

Sample replacement propellers and blades from the Thomas Antique Toy Company.

There is another variation of the plane. That one that I never have had my hands on, is a dark navy blue.

So thanks for dropping by, and have
a good morning, afternoon, or evening,
wherever you may be.







1 comment:

  1. Hi can anyone help me please . I have a Hubley p38 with no elastic bands for the undercarriage, I have new ones but I just can’t seem to get them right could anyone possibly supply a photo of them I place or even a hand drawn diagram will gladly for for any inconvenience caused while your doing them please can anyone help me ? Thank you stephen

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