Hey guys and gals all these P-47s posted recently reminded me to get off my butt and post these I’ve finished for a couple of GBs back in the spring:
‘Gladys/Texas Kay’ is the Tamiya P-47D built right out of the box other than replacement decals. Sorry about the background, it was dark and overcast here for over a month and the colours kept getting messed up so I just took them at work.
And yes I was insane enough to try to wire the engine, though not much is visible, didn’t even wire the top cylinders since they’re completely hidden.
Pilot Hans von Hornet takes her out for a spin:
‘2 Big And Too Heavy/Short Snorter’ is the Monogram ProModeler P-47N. Not quite as good a model the Tamiya kit- lotsa patience required here:
I’m currently working on my Razorback (Tamiya 1/48) and have a Bubbletop from Hasegawa (the big one) with lots of AM goodies in my stash for the NMF GB! I just love the thunderbolt! It’s such a nice plane. I built Tamiya’s Bubbletop as well (but with wrong colors everywhere) as my first plane model and it turned out quite good for beeing my first attempt… I’ll order that kit again and do it right next time (would be my 4th Jug!)
Thanks guys! You’ll love the Tamiya kits, they’re some of the best models I’ve ever built, I forgot to mention I added an Eduard ZOOM set to each but the Tamiya kit doesn’t really even need it
And I saw the the 1/32th Hasegawa kit with all those cool extras you posted over on the new NM GB Clemons, I’ve got one in my stash too and hope you don’t mind if I follow along even though I’m too busy to enter another GB?
These are jugs number two and three for me, I posted my first one- the 1/48th Hasegawa ‘Fat Cat’ here sometime back. Love the P-47!
Oh nice work! If you have any questions please shoot them at me, though I’ll admit it’s a matter of just fooling around till it looks (mostly) right for me. I messed up a B-17 and did a sorta bad job on a P-51 just learning how to get a good undercoat for the Alclad.
Thank you very much! That green color was a pig to get on the model without looking bad (Aqua Color Clean is no good thinner…). Please tell me what to do for a nice alclad finish.
Actually the Alclad is a snap to use, I wouldn’t call it foolproof but it’s very hard to screw up. The hard part (at least for me) is getting a perfect undercoat since any blemish under the Alclad will stick out like a sore thumb. If you just want to go with regular aluminum you can apply it over just plain flat grey. But I picked up a technique from DoogsATX who used to post here. He pre-shades like this:
1). Gloss black undercoat
2). Airframe aluminum
3). Post-shade the center of each panel with plain aluminum
4). The airframe aluminum will show though some of the black undercoat so the centers of each panel will be lighter. Apply a couple of mist coats so the results won’t be too stark.
I know he wrote about his technique on his blog but I can’t seem to find the posting now. Anyway here’s a link to his 1/32nd P-51 build, he talks about NM finishes but doesn’t go into a lot of detail there.
His posts are still on this site but typing in Alclad into the search engine and then wading though a zillion posts probably isn’t the fastest way here!
There are also a bunch of demos on using it on YouTube as well, this is just one of them.
I used the normal aluminium paint over Alclad’s flat black primer on my first thunderbolt (my first plane model) and the finish looks pretty nice. It is really dull however.
Clement: No problem at all, a war time aircraft shouldn’t be too shiny like an airshow aircraft. If you want a little more shine though airframe aluminum works as well as shiny aluminum- chrome is super mirror finish.
Excellent builds Gamera, makes me want to finish off this B-36 and get on to a jug. I really like the NMF result as well, that technique is one worth learning.
I thought about that as well. I’ll just use Doogs technique. Maybe I’ll make the Mustang a bit shinier than his one and the P-47 like his Mustang. I’ll build both in 1/32 for the NMF GB and I like the idea of the mustang being a little bit shinier (probably only on the fuselage though). The Thunderbolt looks a bit more rugged this way imo.
Hey thanks Reasoned- always fun to build a Jug - and so many great kits! The Monogram ones are good, the Hasegawa excellent and the Tamiya is pretty darn perfect, hard to go wrong with any of them!
Clement: Sounds good to me! Since the P-47 was often used for ground attack she might be a little dirtier and duller. And yeah the P-51 the wings should be a little duller than the fuselage since they were painted over.
