Thanks All.
Once I receive my new tube of putty, hopefully today, I start the dreaded task of filling seams. And the biggest hurdle will be the seams between the clear sub-assembly and fuselage.

As shown in the Special Hobby L-4 and J-3 instructions, these clear parts are different versions from the L-4 to the J-3.

Where this works well for the L-4 version, the J-3 seams need to be completely removed and as close to non-existent as I can make them.

L-4

J-3

OH BOY, CAN’T WAIT (he says sarcastically)! Wish me luck…

@brithebuilder Thank you for the encouragement Brian, I need it. For me, on any build, I call this stage the doldrums.
Steel the mind and get through it...LOL

gary sausmikat (@gwskat)
I knew there were some differences, but I didn't realize just how much more plexi-glass / Lexan was involved with the L-4, when compared to the J-3. Those are some great photos by the way... 🙂

Seam work is a necessary evil it seems... Pun intended 😉

The last few times at the bench I have been progressing with fuselage seams filling and sanding and filling and sanding and filling and sanding (well, you get the idea)...
Not as smooth as silk but I think it's as close as I'm going to get.

Replaced the kits internal framing with some solder wire.

Couldn't sleep last night so thought I'd get some work done before heading off to the job. TGIF!
While testing the wing fit I broke off the spar/support...exactly like I thought I was going to do...LOL
A quick field mod...replaced the spar with a piece of copper wire.

Assembled the wings, added the horizontal stabs/elevators and cleaned up the wing struts.

Installed the wings

Up next: install the front windscreen, wing struts, landing gear assembly. Start prepping for primer.

gary sausmikat (@gwskat)
Occasionally I have trouble sleeping too, and that's a good way to solve it by doing something at the bench. I'll have to give that a try sometime.
Your Piper is looking like an almost complete airplane now. Keep it going, the weekend is almost here... Yippee ! No wait a minute, that's a P-38...

Thanks, All!

My weekend accomplishments do not look like much progress but a lot of pondering, getting little things done and prepping goes a long ways.

The prepping progress included:
Drilled out various holes for final assembly pieces and rigging. Mainly in the wings and empennage.
Installed the main gear.
Installed the windscreen and filled in some tiny seams.
Replaced the kit fuselage hand grabs with wire.

Up next:
Somewhere in the process I ended up breaking off the tail wheel assembly, so I will have to scratch build a replacement.
Add the wing struts.
Final masking.
Start cutting the insignia masks.

Question...I've read, but have never tired, painting a pink base/primer is good for the yellow top coat coverage... Has anyone tried this with success?
I plan to test this out before I try it on the build.

Gary@gwskat: I have used pink as a base coat for yellow and it works terrific. However it depends upon the shade of pink you use. The amount of red in the pink will also make the yellow gravitate toward orange so be sure to start off with light pink and make samples first until you achieve the yellow density you’re looking for.

Your Piper is coming along nicely. You made a lot of progress.