I am starting to get the necessary paints to build a P-47N. I am going to have the gun bays open and perhaps the cowling off. My first true diorama scene. In looking at a ton of pictures for reference, with a lot of variances. How do you know which panels to make a different shade of metal? I see flat aluminum, aircraft aluminum, white aluminum, Ron Burgundy aluminum. So is it just personal preference or is there a method to the madness?
Also, I have the 1/48 Revell kit, if you know of any good after market kits/sets to make it awesome let me know which ones!
Squatch, I’ve done only a few Alclad projects so I’m no expert, but I am cheap so here’s how I handled the different shades without having to buy a ton of Alclad . I basically shot my P-47 with the obligatory gloss Black. After that dried I went back and masked some panels and shot some with flat black, and some with grey primer…voila, the same polshed aluminum shade of Alclad came out like this
The kit is going to be a 1/72 Hasegawa P-47. I got the detail set to go with it, I was wanting the 1/48 but couldn’t find any gun bay kits that were within price range. (The plane kits were ~$60 and the AM sets were ~$30) Has anyone built this kit/am set? I usually do 1/48 so 1/72 will be a tad smaller for my pudgy fingers!
Following this because I have the same question. I know on a P-51 that the panels behind the exhaust are different and the wings are duraluminum, but I don’t know if some panels weathered differently across all planes or if each was different or if that’s even a real thing, haha.
The difference in the panel shades is all down to the thickness of the actual metal on the plane. Gun bay covers, undercarriage doors and any small opening panels are thinner on the real aircraft than the rest of the airframe, and in fact may well be made from a different material. Engine cowlings and other panels which are regularly removed for servicing have to be lighter in weight. It pays to research colour photos of the aircraft being modelled to look for these differences. Any panels which have been replaced in service will also have a different hue as they have not weathered at the same rate as the rest of the airframe. I hope this helps explain the different shades.
IIRC the pannel around the exhaust on the P-51 was stainles steel and that is why it will diss-color differently to the allu cowls.
Alclad sheetmetal has a grain direction as it comes off the mill. The rule of thumb is that you want to bend metal accross the grain, therefore you might have bent pannels with the grain running in different direction to others.
This grain plays with the light falling on it if you look at it from different angles, that is why pollished planed look a whole lot more “uniform” in texture.
Remember that when allu is in short supply they sometimes used magnesium alloys aswell.
It is also true that different alloys are used to make different hardness of alclad sheets, this will also have a different look to the sheet.
When alclad weathers it becomes slightly dull and gets a grey look to it.
Here is my 1/32 J-6 . I used only dark alluminium and airframe alluminium over a gloss black base to give it some depth. I am also a cheap skate and don’t buy many different alclads. The more coats you put on the lighter it gets. I sometimes put on a few coats of say airframe allu, then mask of some pannels and shoot some more of the same alclad on, this gives a nice tone difference yet is subtle.
Protect the alclad after decals are on with ONLY alclad’s range of clearcoats, they do not take away from the alclad look.
You are correct Don, they were seam filled and painted with silver lacure to preserve the crytical laminar flow airfoil for fuel economy on the long range escort sorties.
Lateron the putty started to be stripped and the bare matal finish came though on the wings as I understand it.
Thanks a ton guys. Greatly appreciate it. I’ll get started here in the next couple weeks or so. I’d like to get started earlier but the girlfriend is moving in and I don’t want the model getting smashed by a moving box. I’ll start a build thread soon enough
