Finally done with my very FIRST WWII aircraft, a P-47 Razorback “Assembly Ship.”
By no means perfect but not bad for a first of firsts (a lot of trial and error).
I was reading that the airplanes used for assembly were not in the best of shape and the ones that served as taxi trainers, were in even worse condition. I never did nail down what exactly the candy stripe P-47’s true mission was. In research phase, I came across articles that had it as an assembly ship, while others listed it as a taxiing trainer at an airbase in Italy. Either way it was a mess in both.
So… I tried to make it dirty and worn-out. Overkill? Maybe but now I know how to adjust the weathering for next time.
Also, I cracked the wing as I was trying to remove the masking, you can see it on the forward wing edge in the first picture.
A lot of fun and learned a lot. Ready for another!
Mostly it was worn out B17s and B24s that were used as assembly ships, with garish colour schemes and even coloured lights. War weary P-47s were used as formation monitors and were seldom as striking as the assembly ships.
Now that’s very nice indeed. I have 3 P-47’s I am doing as assembly ships, but none of them as colourful as this. Do you know what unit this one belonged to.
It would not be much of dog fight, as this aircraft had all armament removed. From what I read, this craft was only a P-47 shell with an engine. All usable parts were stripped and used elsewhere.
