Creative Gizmology at Work-Monogram P-47D

Modeling Subjects Aircraft
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So, I have a couple 1/48th Monogram P-47Ds lying around, but what to do? Finally, after months of on-again/off-again pondering, I ran across a photo of some Jugs waiting for the “Axe to Fall” at Chino, CA, ca. 1947… I said to myself, “Self… I gotta do something like that…” Now since both Jugs are the same kit, I think, "Why not do a Before/After VE-Day diorama set?

So here’s some shots of the “After” in production, a raid on the spares box, some cutting and sanding, then add some sheet, strip, and round styrene, along with brass & aluminum tubing, some fine wires, and the lug-nuts offa Sherman drive sprocket, this is what I’ve come up with so far, a beheaded P-47…

While not a bolt-for-bolt reproduction by any means, the firewall looks fairly accurate according to the few grainy B&W ref-pics I could find, along with line-drawings of the supercharger, carburator intakes, & exhaust/waste-gate system… About 75% so, IMHO… This’s quite close, and although I’ll never fool a P-47 mechanic or someone with the manuals stored in their computer, once it’s painted & weathered I think it’ll look pretty busy in there… After all, that’s what the Gizmologist does… Suggestion, rather than reproduction. While there are probably after-market kits of this area done in resin with painstaking attention to detail and loads of PE parts for 80.00 bucks or more, this little baby cost me about a nickel in materials…

Anyway, thanks fer lookin’ and now I’m off to the left wing’s gunbay, then it’s onto the battery/radio compartment and supercharger facade…

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Great gizmology as always Hans. Looking forward to seeing how it all turns out!!!

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Interesting! Should be quite the side-by-side comparison.

Brian

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Very sharp idea ‘Hans’. I like it. I can’t say that I have ever seen such a concept. Nice change of pace.

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Interesting concept Hans. looks like a good start.

Regards, Rick

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Cool creative work that’s nice to see. Thanks Hans !

Chris

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I love gizmos and gadgets. That looks like a very interesting and unique project.

Darwin, O.F. [aln]

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Thanks, Men…

Here’s the radio/battery compartment and the left gunbay opened…

I had to add a "floor’ to the gunbay in order for it to be flat, and added some stretched sprue to separate the individual gun mount locations… Got a little sloppy opening the shell/link ejection slots, but it won’t show much after the rest of the junk is added…

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Looking forward to more on this one Hans! The firewall looks awesome… nice “gizmology”! [:D[

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Hans, Great idea going there. I think the engine ended up on my workbench. I just started a Jug myself. I’m going for the finished look on this one.

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Oh I see another

Hammer creation in the works. Great and differant Idea Hans [t$t] Gotta love that Gizmoligy ya know.

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Nice work on the R-2800… Obviously not a Monogram Jug, whatcha got there?

I haven’t decided whether or not the engine from mine will be nearby, although it’d be kinda nice… If I do, I’ll use the R-2800 from the Monogram P-61 kit (I cast several copies of it during the last P-61 build), maybe showi it bein’ lowered onto a truck bed with the folding-type engine hoist Shep Paine has used on several of his Monogram dioramas… Maybe do up a Tamiya GMC 2 1/2 ton as a surplus junk-yard dawg in “Old Yeller”. I have one left over from my (trashed) B-17 diorama… Too soon to tell yet…

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I like your idea. I have never seen anyone do something like this before. It certainly is an important chapter in the history of any WWII aircraft. This project also provides the possibility of new adventures in weathering!

I love to see what people can do with some scraps of plastic and a little imagination! I truly admire work like this. While aftermarket parts make things much easier, work like this really represents the art in the hobby.

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I can’t take credit for the idea of doing a junked warbird… Shep Paine’s B-25H diorama inspired me to do the derelect T-Bolt…

Again, it was Shep that inspired me to the use of “Creative Gizmology” and to use what I found laying around the house or what everyday objects “look minature”… When I started doing this kind of “imagineering”, there were no (or very few) after-market parts of ANY kind (except model railroad parts, which I’ve made use of many times). I also never had acess to a “real” hobby shop until the 80s, so I had to hunt for parts… I took his tips & techniques and went further with the idea of “If he used this material and it was cheap, what can I use that’s even cheaper?”, lol… Dunno if it’s art, but it’s certainly cheap…

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Hans, The engine is from an older Hasegawa P47-D Razorback I got dirt cheap on ebay. Great buy, but the rudder didn’t fill out in the mold, so I got to do a little scratch work there too. Thanks for the view of the work. Even though I like certain aspects of the photo etch and resin parts, scratch work with speaker wire and junk from around my world is very satisfying. Thanks to you and the other scratch builders for keeping this art lively. Rick.