Willy_N

Thanks! It's a pretty cool little plane, more like a kayak with wings

I have assembled the wings and the center section, the wings are just dry-fitted to the center section for now as they need some more work. The fit leaves a thing or two to be desired, but nothing that can't be fixed. Compared to photos of the real aircraft, the ribbing detail is quite overdone so I have decided to sand this down a bit. Oddly, the ailerons are depicted with a smooth underside and a ribbed topside. I'm guessing that only one is correct but I haven't spent a lot of time looking for pictures yet. But look at that beautiful profile! I have also glued the fuselage sides together. They fit very well, but left a rather big gap at the rudder joint. The upper decking is just dry fitted for the photo to illustrate another quirk - the transition between the hull and the decking is supposed to form a smooth curve between the cockpit and the bow, but Amodel has designed this in the oddest way. The decking is almost 2mm too narrow on each side. At first I thought that I had sanded the fuselage mating surfaces too far down prior to gluing and the decking was supposed to fit between them. But I discarded this theory as the decking fits very well sitting on top. That transition will have to be dealt with though. Ah well, it's all part of the package with some of these kits and I really don't mind

Good luck on your further search!

I'm not sure how much this actually is of any use, but 226635 / MX-E (copy/paste from google: P-47D-25RE, USAAF, 82nd FS/78th FG, 8th AF, "MX-E" BuNo. 226635, Duxford) is a fairly well known modeling subject. It is camouflaged though, so it might not be in the same time frame. I built one a long time ago using aftermarket decals, but I can't for the life of me remember who made them. I do remember the instructions stating that there was some controversy re. the paints used, with several suggestions. I went with RAF dk green over Sky. IIRC, zinc chromate yellow was used as a first coloured primer coat, then mixed with black to form the second coat which became zinc chromate green. And I have also read that it was to tell the coats apart during production, as different parts of the airframe had specified a different number of protective primer coats.

Thanks Peter, that was pretty nice!

Thanks guys! I hadn't heard about it either, but it turned up while I was searching for something else at Hannants and I thought it looked really unique and cool. Do not expect it to be up to the standards of the other builds here, it's only my fourth kit since re-entering the hobby and like the others it will be built straight from the box and brush painted. It's still fun to be back in the fold, even if only on a small scale compared to how I used to build

There's always the 1/144th kit

This will be my next build, straight from the box with a pilot figure is the plan. I know next to nothing about this aeroplane, but it's such a cool looking machine! The parts looks to be of the fairly standard short run variety. I.e. some work required. The clear parts do not look very good but we'll see what can be made with them. Now this looks like fun to fix Actually, this wing is the only part with significant sink marks. Markings for six different machines. I think I'll go with the one depicted in the box art. The decals look thin and very matte. I'm not sure about the colours, but I won't worry too much about that.

The differences between the two are really significant! But I think it's probably easier to convert a VIIc to a VIIc/41 than the other way around. I remember making the balkongerat by building up epoxy putty around a bottle cap (Sorry for hijacking your excellent build thread with German hardware!)

The 1/144 VIIc was the only available kit at the time. The 1/72nd /41 wasn't released until a few years after I abandoned my project. But it would of course be a better starting point! And it would probably still be fairly easy to convert the conning tower to the shape of the Norwegian boats. IIRC it was a little bit longer and with a slightly different shape aft than the regular short variant without the wintergarten.

This thread inspires me to finally do something with all the reference material I gathered while serving in the Navy! I started on a project converting Revell's 1/144 Type VIIc to a post-war Norwegian Navy VIIc/41. It was put on hold when I couldn't figure out how to make the charactaristic wooden deck and never resurfaced (pun intended). I think I'll have a look to see if I can find the folder when I visit the family over Christmas The Commander of the submarine squadron I was attached to was very interested in history, so when I approached him about my project he ended up spending hours telling me tall tales from his life beneath the waves and digging up plans and drawings from the base archives, plus copying parts of his private photo collection for me. I feel bad about not putting it to good use yet. The type VIIc/41 U995 on display at Laboe in Kiel, Germany is the former Norwegian Navy KNM Kaura.

Ha ha! THAT I didn't know

I'm not sure exactly where to post this, but this seems as good a thread as any. I have noticed there being a bit of discussion around the webs about making turnbuckles for the rigging on this and other models. Has anyone thought about using wire end ferrules yet? They are small tubes made of tinned copper, and are available in sizes from tiny to pretty big The enclosed link just points to a random retailer who seems to have detailed info and pictures. A simple google search should provide more. I have used these for gun barrels, air intakes etc in the past with good results. Plus they are pretty cheap compared to some of the more tailor made solutions. http://www.ferrulesdirect.com/electrical/WIRE_FERRULES.htm

Yay!

Hey, that was pretty easy! (It's MPM's Blenheim Mk. IV in 1/72 finished some 10 years ago - and I honestly can't recall if the right gear leg actually was out of alignment or if it was just an oddity due to the angle of the pic)