Thanks hutch!

Keavdog thanks man you should order one. I’m going to get a 2nd this was so much fun to build. No filling!

Gamera we’re looking forward to it. You should open some panels and show the skeleton ;-)

HossWA thanks for the accolades, you were a big help!

Wow. Superb work all around!  I really like your shading of the OD and underside as well as the crisp details. Wonderful work!  Congrats. 

Oh WOW!!! She looks friggin' awesome!!!

If you don't mind I'm using your P-38 plus Hoss WA and Lawdog's as models to base mine off when I start it!

She turned out great.  Nice weathering - she looks war weary.  Soooo tempted to order a P-38.  Your's looks super sharp.  Well done.

Great job, Mongoose, she's a beaut!

In what is probably a classic experience for all of us...once i took final wip pics I saw something I missed lol

spent all that effort to drill a hole in the glass and then forgot to put the wire thru

Finito!

The Akron Canton IPMS club has a nose-art theme coming up this winter and I was psyched to find something to use! I've had this P-38 in my stash since the Chattanooga Nats and this was the perfect reason to pull it out. I found the Exito decals for Beautiful Lass and it was all the extra graphics they provide that sold me on purchasing them.

5 coats of gloss clear, then rolled some 4000 grit paper on a dowel to sand down the edge of the decal all around to make sure it was perfectly smooth and you couldn't feel the lip from the decal (they are just a tad thick). Then I applied 2 coats of flat clear. By the time it dried the decal edge had totally disappeared. Super happy with this because it was so obvious to start with.

I preshaded in a lightened olive drab (used yellow zinc chromate) and then edged it all in black mist to get the varnish effect from the taped seams to show clearly. 

I modified a brush so it had just a few bristles and did the panel lines in aluminium. Tamiya leaves this center section smooth but the pics show lots of wear so this seemed to create the right affect.

I did the exhaust staining with rendered oils. I used ochra, burnt sienna, and raw umber

added some oil stains down under as well

And a final closing shot. I'm pretty darn happy with this  I still have some work to do on my assembly methods. Fortunately a little chipping goes a long way to hiding that haha

I'd also like to close with a big thanks to HossWA for his advice and a few detail pics he sent me showing how he did the radio antenna and the varnish 

thanks keavdog, appreciate you stopping by!

Wow great details under the glass.  Looks fantastic.

No I haven't. It's on the shelf so will try it on the next one. Definitely doing another. The decal sheet has one more nose art set I want to use. 

Wow!  This is really looking good Mongoose!

Regarding the thread, have you ever tried using Future for that kind of stuff?

working on closing the cockpit tonight 

you know i used Elmers glue on that thread but the macro lens really detracts from it don’t you think ha ha

Well fsm deleted everything i wrote before i went to copy pics so here we go again...

working tonight on lots of weathering. This 1st set is all about a new technique. I read a 3 part article by john miller on model paint solutions for the P-38. Before I left on my last trip I squeezed out a dollup of oil onto cardboard and left it for 10 days. Came back to "rendered" oil pigment. Blend some with odorless turpenoid, put a drop in the center of a panel and let it spread. use your hair dryer and then repeat till the color is as dark as you want.

i finished off tonight using a dark brown flory wash on top. The underside went so well and it drys right away compared to when i use the straight oils that i tried it on top. Then rendered oils for the exhaust staining. I wanted one darker than the other. Not sure tho if it's toooo different. Let me know. btw it's not this bright or coppery in person.

Thanks Hoss! Coincidentally I'm just finishing up decals andwas stopping in to give an update. Stencils are all from the kit. Beautiful Lass  nose art and insignia is from Exito decals. Not sure what I like better the decals themselves or all the extras that they provide in terms of photos and artwork. Oh heck who am I fooling it's definitely the artwork wow does this stuff give you something great to work from.

Looking great Mongoose. I like you idea of preshading the wing areas to get the rivet pattern. Nice work overall. 

Gracias mustang & hutch!

working on some little stuff right now...turbo superchargers! Check it out...

the interesting thing here was using some blue greys to startwith. i think it ended up giving a better metal look than a burnt metal color.

Such a beautiful job weathering this crate. Man this is good.

Lovely looking job, Mongoose, and good luck fixing the brush.

Thanks chukw!

got back to it after 3 weeks of traveling  i redid the center wing sections today. Preshaded them with black to get the image of panel lines. Tamiya left this area flat.

Add some liquid mask, then a couple shades of OD and onto some fine chipping with Vallejo metal colors. I used aluminum and duraluminum.

im hopeful that the roundedness of the some areas can be tempered with weathering. 
and to finish it off I dropped my airbrush and the guide for the needle broke off the back! Ugghhh, off to the Grex website next 

Coming along very nice.  I'll be starting this one again soon.  

Yes indeed! Looks great so far. 

I like how you did the tape marks- tedious but looks convincing in the end. 

Here's a few shots of today's progress. All the primary colors are done. Tamiya olive drab and neutral gray decanted from spray can for this one. Thinned with mr color leveling thinner. I traced the camo pattern right from the color instruction sheet, that was a perk.

A little nato green and yellow zinc chromate to create some blotches/weathering in the paint.

This one's got a preview of what the chipping will look like

Yeah ol' Zuerlein has got some work ahead of him or they'll end up fixing that. You're right.....that was probably the best Cowboys game I've seen in years.

All this paint prep work on this Lightning is gonna make this sucker turn out suuuweeeet!! Super light coats will bring out the best in all of this and I'm looking very much forward to seeing your results.

Mustang if you guys had a kicker that game would have been different! Regardless it was an awesome game to watch.

today the preshading is all completed. This 1st set is what it looks like with the black sprayed over the tape. I did it this way to create some soft shadows as your eye moves away from the tape line. Looking at the photos it seems there is randomness to how the black shows up under the olive drab and neutral grey. I thought this method might simulate that. We will see :-)

in these i used gloss black on the top where olive drab would be. Then i used grimey black on the bottom. It's much softer, has some blues in it And should be better under the gray.

I used light ghost grey on the tape lines to get a contrast once i put the cover coat on the underside. 

and a half way decent tape ball as a result. Almost as much as i use on a 1/32 Thunderbird!

gonna be a fun day tomorrow applying the final color coats 

Looking good so far Chris! I hear you on the tedious stuff. Seems like we're just spinning our wheels sometimes but it all comes together in the tail end of the project. 

Sheesh man.....got the Cowboys game against the Bucs tonight. I'm a fan and I'm hopeful but given their history and the way the Bucs are I just don't know man.  I mean .....anything can happen but I'm expecting a spanking on the Cowboys tonight. 

Listening to the Reds game tonight. 7 innings of baseball to get about 3/4 or so of the tape done. The score was tied but I didn't have it in me to do any extra innings. Tedious stuff this is. here's how the top is looking