I decided to make my P-38 "stand-off scale" and not get carried away about faithfully reproducing a single airplane. Generally, I like the full-scale flying P-38 featured on the home page of this web site. I also like the "Stinger" graphics that Nick Ziroli used on his P-38. A bird of this size needs a painted finish including rivets. I chose not to do flush rivets as the real P-38 had, but found it easier to use glue droplets and panel lines. I just used Top Flite aluminum spray paint in cans.

The canopy needs a real frame...here's how I did mine. I waxed the inside of the canopy frame with Johnson's paste wax which serves as the parting agent. Then I put down three layers of .75 oz. fiberglass and used WEST epoxy. If I were doing this again, I would make the frame to fit on the outside of the canopy as I think it looks better.

I then cut my new canopy and marked the frame outline using a sharp tip felt marker.

Next I cut the glass areas away and painted the frame aluminum.

Finally, I glued the canopy frame inside the original using RC-56 glue. Looks okay, but would have looked better as an exterior frame.

Here is how I made the elevator counter-balance units. First cut out from lite plywood six counterweight shapes.

Then cut two of them so you can insert the counter-balance shaft.

Then add an additional piece on each side and epoxy the counter-balance into the elevator.

Then I used a two part epoxy filler to make the surface round. I painted it with epoxy to make the surface harder.

The wings and all other exposed wood was fiber-glassed using .75 oz. fiberglass. Here are the elevator and one wing drying on my front porch on a hot summer day. The other wing has been primed and is also drying in the hot sun.

I like to use a 1/48" scale model when I place the panel lines. You can see the model above the ailerons. I use 1/32" chart pak tape to first put down the panel lines.

Next I use a tootpick to drop white glue droplets along each side of the panel line. They will look too large, but don't worry, when they dry they shrink.

Here they are after drying and with a coat of aluminum spray paint. Take off the panel line tape and spray a second coat.  You will still see the panel line indention, just not as pronounced. Rivets take your eye away from other details and really enhance the image of the P-38!

I painted the wingtips bright red for added visibility.

Here I am placing more rivets. Notice the small plastic model, my trusty chart pak 1/32" panel line tape, shears and the white glue on the small square piece of paper. I'm using a BBQ skewer as it's larger and easier to hold than a toothpick.

Here is more painting. The port boom is still in primer, the starboard boom has the first coat of aluminum. The small model is a gift from my wife!

I glue in balsa backers on the under side of the turbochargers to give them more surface to adhere to

I painted the turbo chargers using model masters paint, then sprayed dead flat clear over that to make sure they were fuel proof.

The flat black anti-glare areas were masked off and sprayed from a can.

I used very thin decals from Model Graphics. They are placed using window cleaner to aid in positioning, then allowed to dry and finally the carrier strip is removed.

You can see how thin the vinyl is by the way the rivets show thru it. I sprayed dead flat clear over all of the plane.

The cockpit interior still needs to be finished and some gaps need to be filled, but it definitely looks like a P-38!