It’s time for my yearly Tamiya Jug therapy build. 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 stuck 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 up like Mongram’s P-38 or P-61 and I could actually build something I’d be proud to display.
As I’ve said, I’ve been itching to do another Jug for awhile, so I’m going with two of my favorite subjects, the Tamiya Jug and the 56th FG. The 56th absolutely gave the Luftwaffe nightmares. So many great pilots, Gabreski, Johnson, Schilling Zemke to name a few. So what’s actually better than a Tamiya Jug? Two of course!
Actually I have been tasked with building two similar schemed 56th FG Jugs for different people, so I decided to build them at the same time for efficiency. The first will be 62 FS David Schilling’s “Hairless Joe”. Schilling became the 56th CO after Zemke was Pow’ed. On December 23rd 1944, he downed 2 Bf 109 and 3 Fw 190 fighters in one mission. He would ultimately be credited with 22.5 kills.
The second will be Gabby Gabreski’s bubble top. Schilling’s Hairless Joe will get the lion’s share of the attention as I don’t want to steal Hoss’s thunder over in his fantastic build thread. I hope mine turns out half as nice as his. Gabreski was a “wizard” with the P-47 and he would become the leading ace in the ETO against the Luftwaffe with 28 kills.
I started with the cockpits. They are awesome out of the box. I mixed about half XF-58 Olive Green with XF-8 Blue to come up with my own Republic’s “Dull Dark Green”. I tried somthing different and dybrushed a bit of light green here and there on the green edges. It’s subtle but I like the effect. I added some Eduard PE belts, which I sourced from my stash.
Schilling
Gabreski
Both together. I painted them identical. One got the K-14 gunsight though, essentially because I felt like it.
The instrument dials were the kit decals. I made sure they fit correctly this time.
What’s better than a pair of Jugs? Why a pai* ** **** Hang on, being told I can’t use that joke here, whoops! [6]
Joe as usual, you’re killing it. In one night you’ve done what would have taken me weeks to do.
Quick question, what do you use to simula the paint wear/chipping? I’ve got a cheap crappy paint brush that I hacked off and used to dry brush with, but seeing your work I want to copy it HAHA.
Lawdog - Thanks for the consideration on my Gabby Jug, which I just finished. It feels like I’ve learned over half of my modeling techniques from your tutorials! Thanks again for sharing.
I’m looking forward to your fading and shading on Gabby’s jug. I thought it was a challenging scheme in the trade-off between a nice, crisp model and the reality of overspray, tape lines, and sketchy sprayed on camo.
Thanks Hoss, and your welcome. Truthfully, other than some dirt, I probably won’t do much fading. The 56th were meticulous and actually waxed their planes to get a touch more speed out of them.
Where was I with these turkeys. As always, getting the airframe(s) together is a fairly painless endeavor. Sometimes the rear spine insert on the bubbletop can be problematic and care needs to be taken. I usually tape it tightly in place and glue it from the inside.
You also have to take care with the belly seam and not sand out detail where the panel lines converge (ahead of the supercharger waste gate). Masking tape along the seam helps preserve detail here. I did have to rescribe and add some rivet detail.
I switched to the Pratt and Whitney R-2800 Double Wasps. As I’ve always said, Tamiya’s example isn’t their best work and in my opinion is the weakest part of the kit. To quote Wally Cleaver I “gave them the business”, particularly some ignition wiring. Here’s how I do it.
The work you achieve on the radials just makes your builds pop. A work of beauty all round Joe, well done. Do you polish the airframes prior to preshading/primer?
Looks like a couple P-47’s to me… Carry on, my man!
Wouldn’t doubt that mold gets plenty of use, you may have kits from two ends of the run… either that or you got a Monday kit! I’ve got a Quickboost engine for when I do my razorback P-47D.
Thanks Max. That’s my thought. This mold is almost 20 years old already. I’ve been saying I will eventually drop a quickboost mill in one of these. Too bad you have to drill out the prop hub, and not do it crooked!
Mighty fine sir, mighty fine! You and Mr. Hoss have the P-47 arena covered, that’s for sure! Your an inspiration to us all, thank you for sharing [:)].
I love it so far! I envy your build speed my friend. I have a Tamiya jug that needs built, in Kenneth Dahlberg’s livery. I love your choices though too! Gabreski and Schilling are great personalities to go with great liveries.
