Academy P-38J Lightning

Treehugger
Fun seeing a vac-canopy on this model. (I have the kit and the vac-canopy from Squadron which looks really nice). 🙂

Danumurthi Mahendra
Thanks @Treehugger! The vac-canopy was probably the hardest part of the build to work and finish but it was far better than the thick clear plastic from the kit.

Treehugger
When you say "hardest" do you mean time consuming, or, spending time carefully cutting/sanding to make the vac-canopy fit exactly onto the model? And how did you glue the vac-canopy on? Did you maybe use wood glue? Hehe, I've never worked with a vac-canopy product before myself.

Neuling
Super clean work with top finish! 👍

Danumurthi Mahendra
Thanks, @Neuling!

Spanjaard
It looks absolutely beautiful Danumurthi

Danumurthi Mahendra
@Treehugger. Everything above! LOL. the hardest included carefully cutting the vac. fitting it onto the fuselage, filling, sanding, masking, painting. What took the most time and effort was the need for constant measuring, correction or corrective work. Work - stop - observe - stop - work again. As I didn't have a spare, I had zero room for any mistakes.

Danumurthi Mahendra
@Treehugger, about the glue, yes, I used regular wood glue. I made 4-5 attempts as the canopy did not have any frames to it. Cutting and trimming the vac to fit the curves was insanely slow, as any gap will show. the trimming had to be perfect.

Danumurthi Mahendra
cutting the canopy was intense. I had only one chance so got paranoid. LOL. I had to buy a piece of clear plastic to test the blades, analyze the cuts, try different cutting angles. I would run a trial by inserting blue tack under a clear plastic sheet to see how it can hold the clear plastic when I performed the cut.

Danumurthi Mahendra
Thanks, @Spanjaard!