This
is my Revell 1/72 P-47D Thunderbolt.
Construction
Overall,
this was a nice kit to build. The biggest issues
consisted of the rear bulkhead in the cockpit being too wide, requiring a
lot of filing to get the fuselage halves to close, and
the cowling to firewall fit being poorly designed (at least in my kit),
resulting in a larger than normal gap between the cowling and fuselage.
On
the plus side, the kit is well detailed and includes the fin fillet as a
separate piece, making it much easier to paint the fillet and the
surrounding fuselage area.
Click on
images below to see larger images
Painting
& Detailing
Model
Master Olive Drab was used for the anti-glare area with Testors Flat Red
being used for the cowling band, windscreen and canopy framing, propeller
tip, fin fillet and vertical tail band. The painting
guide called for the wing tips and middle section of each horizontal tail
plane to be painted red and the area cowling area behind the “Balls
Out” decal to be painted white; however, my research as well as part the
attached picture that I found on the internet didn’t show any of this,
so I chose not to follow that part of the painting guide. Humbrol
Matt Aluminum Metalcote was used for the natural metal finish, which was
sealed with Model Master Metalizer Sealer. Testors
Yellow Zinc Chromate was used for the wheel wells, inside of gear doors
and strut covers, and engine interior areas and the cockpit
interior was painted Humbrol Bronze Green (# 75).
Minor
scratchbuilding consisted of adding brake lines and fuel lines (for the drop
tank) from beading wire and drilling out the gun barrels. Since the
cowling flaps as molded are somewhat “gap-toothed”, I added small strips of
plastic card (about 1/16” wide) to the inside of each gap to reduce the
separation.
Weathering
& Decaling
I
went light on the weathering and used black pastel chalk exclusively to shade
some of the panel lines, gun stains, and exhaust/waste gate area. An oil
wash of Burnt Umber and some drybrushing was used in the cockpit and an oil wash
of Ivory Black was applied to the landing gear /wheel well area. The wheel
treads were drybrushed using Humbrol Panzer Gray and Testors Flat White.
The
decals went on pretty easily (no solutions being used for the application), with
the exception of the large "Balls Out" decal on the cowling, which
would've been better off if designed to be applied in 2 or 3 pieces.
The
Base
The
base was obtained from a local craft store (Michael's) which I stained with two
coats of stain & sealer. The tarmac is from sheet plastic which I
primed and sprayed with very thinned Polly S "Old Concrete",
which resulted in a lot of the gray primer showing through. After letting
it dry overnight, I drybrushed it with Old Concrete to cover more of the primer
yet allowing some of the primer to show through resulting in more
of a worn look to the tarmac. The lines and cracks were made using a black
pen and the vegetation is Woodland Scenics “Turf” sprinkled over Elmer’s
White Glue applied with a toothpick with the excess blown off. The tarmac
was then glued to the base using Elmer’s White Glue, which was also used to
glue the model to the tarmac.
Special thanks to ARC'er Dave Marshall for creating the label and to G & J
for their assistance with the label's border.
I
finished this project on
February 7th, 2007
and built it as a donation for the silent auction at my children's main school
fundraiser on
February 10th, 2007
, so I got it in just "under the wire"...whew!! The bidding
started at $15.00 with the winning bid going for $65.00.
The
model represents P-47D-30-RA 44-33813 “Balls Out” as flown by 1st
Lt. Milt Thompson of the 509th
Fighter Squadron, 405th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force in
1944-45.
Happy
Modeling!
Rick
Click on
images below to see larger images
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