I recently bought a Tamiya 1:48 P47M, the kit with George Bostwick’s P47 as the boxart. I wanted to deck the kit out, and was looking for some aftermarket to get for it. I found quite a lot of options and wasn’t sure what to get, here they are:
Okay, the first two links are cockpit detail sets. The P47M Aires set is for the tamiya kit, and also the ‘M’ variant that I am making so I know it would fit. It comes with resin cockpit sidewalls as well as a photo etch sheet including a seatbelt and other stuff I can’t see. The Eduard P47d detail set is made for the ‘d’ variant Tamiya kit (couldn’t find one for the ‘M’), but would that still fit on the P47M kit? If it does, which one would you all recommend? The eduard one seems pre-colored, so the control panel will have cockpit dials that have detail on them, while aires stuff will have to be painted… I know a lot of people are big fans of the painted up dials on the eduard PE control panels as well as their seatbelts, but Aires seems good too.
Next, a gun bay detail set so I can display the gun bay open like the image below. The one thing missing are the .50 cal belts, anybody know a good place for those?
If the image won’t show, here’s the link: gunbay picture
This is one of the greatest model kits ever made. It doesn’t need an aftermarket cockpit and it’s stunning right out of the box. Aries is a waste of money in my opinion. The instrument decal works great too. Maybe add a resin seat or Photoetch seat belts and be done with that. I have no experience with the gun area. Good luck.
Here’s my recent Tamiya Jug if you need a reference…I know it’s a Razorback but it’s essentially the same kit.
Lawdog: well just pulled out the sprues, and you’re right. Cockpit has plenty of detail, no need to buy an Aires set. I will though get some seatbelts, probably the eduard PE ones. And I will get the Aires gunbay kit to add interest to the kit. You can bet that I will be using your radial engine tutorial! Really well written. Also you p47 build looks fantastic!
7474: yea I saw all these items on eBay. I will add up and see if the AM is cheaper on scale hobbyist or eBay.
I was gonna say, don’t bother with the a/m pit…but we’re past that already!
If you are unaware, Yahu makes beautiful pre-colored instrument panels. Those are well worth the 5-ish bucks, and are every bit as good, if not better than Eduards…but you’re not paying for all the extra stuff.
I know Squadron has em listed (“in stock soon”) for the P-47D…not sure if there’s much or any difference to the “M”.
Personally, I haven’t used any of them yet, but I have bought about 15 or so and stashed em in with their respective kits. These things are beautiful!
Thanks for the reply. I was looking for some precolored PE instrument panels, but the eduard ones were 15-20$ ! So I decided to skip, but those Yahu precolored ones seem great, and are only around 6$. Even though I purchased the AM already (the gunbays and PE seatbelt set), I think I’ll go back and get one of the Yahu panels… maybe a couple for future builds.
Yeah, the kit doesn’t need much at all. I used HGW fabric seatbelts, and I did have an Eduard cockpit set I got for $1 or something and had already snatched the harness out of, so I ended up using the Eduard stuff for the instrument panel because I’m lazy and it looked nice.
Here is a shot of mine with the Eduard panel and HGW fabric harness. FYI the color I used for the pit is Mr. Paint Dark Dull Green.
Well I’ll have pretty much the same as you for my P47, I ordered some PE seatbelts and a 5$ PE instrument panel. Nothing else for the cockpit, the detail already looks good. I have some mission models zinc chromate green which seems to be common for people to use on USAF ww2 interiors, but some people also use the dull dark green. I’ll see which one I use… maybe just stick to the zinc chromate green instead of buying another bottle of paint.
Depending how accurate you want to be, bubbletop Jugs had a dark green interior. I remember reading that they called it “Republic Dull Dark Green”. You could add a touch black and blue to your ZC green which would get you close. I always do that but start with Tamiya Deep Green as a base.
Well, seems like I’ll have to do dull dark green. When you add blue is it regular blue or the medium blue (xf18)? Maybe I’ll get some modelmasters dull dark green green from my hobby shop. Also what would I use my bottle of zinc chromate for? The wheel wells and engine bay? Or would that be zinc chromate yellow.
