When the Americans decrypted a Japanese message and discovered that Yamamoto, the man that had planned the attack on Pearl Harbor, would be traveling to Bougainville in the Solomon Islands on 18 April 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt had one order: "Get Yamamoto." Admiral William F. 'Bull' Halsey, who was put in charge of the mission, knew that the only fighter aircraft available that had sufficient range to conduct the operation were the P-38 Lightnings based at Henderson Field. Flying from that base on Guadalcanal, thirteen P-38Gs with fuel tanks under their wings circled more than 600 miles around the Solomon Islands, still under Japanese control, 'wave-hopping' at less than 50 feet above the ocean while in radio silence to avoid detection by the enemy. Major John Mitchell, the commanding officer of the 339th FS, confided that the chances of even seeing Yamamoto, let alone fighting through a determined escort of Zeros, were about 1,000-to-1. Miraculously, when the Lightnings finally reached Bougainville and began climbing to the intercept altitude, two 'Betty' bombers and a fighter escort of six 'Hamp' fighters appeared at 11 o'clock! Lt. Rex Barber quickly maneuvered himself behind one of the bombers and raked it from wingtip to wingtip, sending it and Yamamoto plunging into the jungle below.
The 4-piece Operation Vengeance 'mission' set offered here actually includes 4 different models - (x1) all-new Mitsubishi G4M1 'Betty' model, (x1) all-new Mitsubishi A6M3, 'clipped-wing' Model 32 'Hamp' model and (x2) P-38G Lightning models - one all-new model complete with the under-wing fuel tanks that enabled the P-38's to fly the 1,000 mile mission and one model representative of the Lightnings after dropping their tanks, in the configuration that the intercept was made in.
Although the surfaces are not perfectly smooth (3D printing is done in layers), the plastic used can be sanded and painted much the same way you would handle resin or styrene. The landing gear of all four models is represented in the retracted, in-flight position but it should be fairly straight forward to add photo etch parts for a "gear down" rendition, perfect for an air base diorama.
NOTE: While we currently maintain limited inventories of most items, some items may be "printed on demand", which usually requires 10-15 business days from order to shipment.
