Thanks all.
I finally got a chance to get a little more done to the P-38 this afternoon. I finished the boom assembly and then closed up the fuselage halves, it seemed to fit fairly well and I hd no difficulties with any of that part. I thought I could do the booms with out the gaps but no go there but no biggie.

so now it sits on the gear with 3/4 oz of egg sinker to hold it on the the gear and not the tail. After I get the elevator and horizontal stab on Ill see if I will need some more.

All-in-all it looks pretty nice just sitting here next to one of my 32 scale Spitfires and waiting to be finished but I will take a break for a couple days and do some of my shelf queens.

4 attached images. Click to enlarge.

well I thought I could but I am just not ready to scratch the necessary frame work to display them with. Oh well, C'est la pool.

I used 3/4 oz egg sinker and yes it is one big momma. I don't know if the nose pieces such as the gun bay doors will close with that weight in there so I may have to go buy some BBs or something like that in order to get it to work well. I am also hoping that I have the booms liked up correctly since I did a boner and didn't put the horizontal stab before I put the booms on.
I never said I was a smart builder to begin with. I will still have to fill the inside gaps on the nacelles and fuse/wing area but they aren't that much of a gap hence the miss aligned booms, yada,yada.

I will have to find some sort of support for the bird so I can work on it inverted and get the wing bottoms and flaps, ailerons and gear doors in. I should do that tonight. We shall see.

Having built four of the Trumpeter kits (one as a straight "L", one as a P-38M, one as a P-38H and one as an F-5E, using the Jerry Rutman conversion parts now available from Greymatter Figures), I don't know where the "troublesome" reputation comes from. Don't waste time on the engine plumbing, you can't see any of it.

My reviews of those projects are available over at Modeling Madness.

Thanks Tom, I think I may have that nose problem solved, a 3/4 oz egg sinker and some split shot seems to have it well in hand but I am keeping it ( the nose ) open for additional weight and that may be sufficient as I add more plastic to the front, props,spinners and cowlings to be countered by the boom stuff like the scoops and the main gear doors.
I dont have the funds for the Rutman stuff but I am sure glad to have a look see at your builds on MM.
I am more concerned with the stuff that was assembled in the booms and have protuberances like the door actuator linkages and landing gear to be broken off at a later date. another issue is the small gaps in the wings and the gun bay doors, I know I may have missed a step somewhere but I am not displaying the bay open anyhow. I will only add the guns mounting deck so I may have some place rigid to mount the guns so they will
protrude through the nose correctly.

Right now I have on yon shelf of despair lest I fly yon air machine into far wall.

It has been a while since I posted any updates of this one. I can see Harv's frustration but mine will never be a nice as his and I am not going to attempt it anyway.

I added the gun tray to the gun bay for something to mount the guns to and then dropped in 1 and 3/8 oz of lead ballast to the gun bay. Yep that nasty gap showed up on the right side and other gaps in other places.

Something appeared to inform me that I screwed the pooch in a step and have a really neat issue as a result.

I havent really thought how I will remedy this fauxpas but I'll get it done some time soon.

The rest of the build is doing as well as can be expected with a few minor glitches here and there but hey it looks like a big P-38.

8 attached images. Click to enlarge.