I’m in for my yearly therapy Tamiya Jug. This kit, as well as their Razorback, is my go-to kit that I build when I need to go back and remember why I stayed with scale modeling all of these years. After a few stinkers, I thought about giving up and going back to video games for stress relief. Then the Tamiya Razorback jug entered my life and that was it…I was hooked. I realized not all kits build like Mongram’s A-10 or P-61 and I could actually build something I’d be proud to display.
I am once again going with the 56th FG, namely Fred Christensen’s very colorful D-25 RE “Miss Fire/Rozzie Geth II”. Christensen had 21.5 kills to include 6 Ju-52s in one mission on July 7th 1944.
I started with the cockpit. I mixed about half XF-58 Olive Green with XF-8 Blue to come up with my own Republic’s “Dull Dark Green”. It doesn’t need anything but a set of Eduard PE, which I sourced from my stash.
The instrument panel is a decal. It turned out ok. A few on the bottom right got misaligned, so I carefully scraped them out and replaced them with individual Airscale decals. On my next Jug I may use Airscale exclusively.
Off to a great start… as usual!!! I admire your ability to just “eyeball” it. I’m starting to get more into paint mixing, but I cheat and use the iModelKit app.
Other than the seatbelts, what did you use from the Eduard etch set? Maybe a couple doodads on the side?
I’ve been collecting bits to make Miss Mutt/Pride of Lodi for an upcoming build, so I’ll be keeping my eye on this one.
I’ve been working on this one along with the P-51. I go back and forth between the two. I decided to knock out the engine first. I rigged it with .10 plastic styrene rod and some copper speaker wire.
If you would like to see how I wire up my radials, see the link below.
Other than a mildly annoying belly seam, the airframe presented no issues. This kit has great fit. To ensure there are no wingroot gaps, I always glue the top wings in position first and once dry, I add the lowers. It works everytime.
A few weeks ago I was watching a review of AK Interactive Xtreme Metals on You Tube. They are enamel based and appear quite durable. The reviewer was pleased with them, so I was intrigued as well. I decided to grab a few, namely Duraluminum, Aluminum, Dark Aluminum, and Matte Aluminum for a test run in comparison to my usual Alclad. I started with their black microfiller primer. It went down smooth with a matte finish.
I then gave it an overall coat of Duraluminum. I was pleased with the coverage and did not experience wingroot pebbling like I do sometimes with Alclad.
Now it was time to add some different shades of aluminum, namely dark and matte to break up the monotone silver. Here is where I discovered the downside to this product. The enamel takes quite a while to dry, cure if you will. I found that it scratched easily with a fingernail, so I had to wait a few hours before it cured enough to be taped over. Alclad dries almost immediately. For someone like me where my bench time is at a premium, it’s an issue. I used post it notes to tape off the panels where I could. This is like three days of work…lol.
I used Gunze Olive Drab and added the anti-glare panel. I faded it a bit with some XF-57 Buff.
Next I added the 56th FG red cowl band then the yellow rudder for the 62nd FS.
Soon I will be painting in the invasion stripes and markings.
I’m in for a quick update. I spent yesterday painting the invasion stripes and the stars and bars. It was tedious work with Tamiya tape and a ruler, but the end result is way better than decals.
I used Montex masks for the stars and bars. They worked great…
Very worth it.
Here’s why I rig my radials. The final result is very noticeable.
Lawdog, I am following this P-47 build very closely. The Jug is probably my all time favorite fighter plane! I have the Tamiya P-47M in my stash. The kit depicts a 56th FG Thunderbolt late in WWII. In your post of August 28, you state that you always attach the upper wing half to the fuselage before attaching the lower wing half. You do this for every build? By attaching the upper wing half you always get correct dihedral, right? Plus no gap between the fuselage and the wing join. I am redoing a Monogram T-28 at the moment and I am going to try this technique of yours to see how well it works for me. As we all know, the wing to fuselage gap on these older kits is always an issue.
Your Thunderbolt build is coming along very well. I aspire to achieve the build quality you have shown here. Modelpalooza is coming up very soon and I will be hunting all the vendors to find the Tamiya Razorback and Bubbletop Thunderbolts to add to my shelf.
Thanks for sharing your build with the rest of us.
Thanks for the mini-review of the AK Interactive Xtreme Metals. I used Alclad for my first metal finish last year, and the masked off painting of some wing panels and subsequent fast drying of the individual panels was a stand out treat of the build, so I understand.
Every time I look at one of your builds you do something even better than the last, well done.
I too bought a heap of AK Extreme Metal paints to coat my P51 build, so looking forward to blasting that down. And I’m still deciding on buying my own vinyl cutter or not…
Frank, On all my builds I dry fit everything to test the wing root fit before I commit to glue. If there’s a gap, like on most Hasegawa kits, I do it this way. On this kit, which I build quite often, I sometimes have gap issues if I assemble the wings per the instructions. I find it easier to do it this way to ensure a good joint then use tape “wing tip to wing tip” with tension along the bottom to bring the lower joints together. It works great.
Hello Mike, thanks, actually no. Truth be told, lately I’ve been having residue issues with these. Some of the adhesive is getting left behind when I peel them off. I don’tknow what that’s all about.
