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Guys, I typically have three models on the workbench at any given time, so thanks for indulging me in a second WIP thread. We are picking up this one already in progress; this first post will provide the “how we got here” background. The P-47 is without a doubt my favorite airplane, and building a checker tail Jug from the 414th FG on Iwo Jima was always something I thought would be really cool. I purchased the Trumpeter P-47N as soon as it came out, but I had a Hasegawa P-47 in the stash as well and despite the fairly well known tedious cowling fit and alignment issue, to my eye I like the lines of the Hasegawa fuselage better than the Trumpeter one. Looking the two kits, I started wondering if the Trumpeter N wings could maybe be mated to the Hasegawa D fuselage. After a little bit of fettling, I found that they did in fact mate up decently enough to proceed with a conversion. The fuselage is build pretty much straight from the Hasegawa box with some Quinta cockpit updates we’ll see once the spare canopy is removed after painting. The distinctive N style fillet was cut from the Trumpeter kit and when thinned from the inside fit the Hasegawa fuselage just as well as the late D/M style fillet that comes in the Hasegawa kit does. Resin horizontal tail planes will be used to facilitate the characteristic elevator droop seen on parked P-47s. The engine mount was sawed off and lowered about 2mm to correct the Hasegawa kit’s built in misalignment. There are homemade vacuformed ducts behind the oil cooler waste gates that I’m not sure add anything to the build. The wings and landing gear are from the Trumpeter kit and include Eduard PE to dress up the wheel wells; the inner gear wall was modified by glueing it plastic card with a hole cut out to enable me to create the depression needed for the retracted wheel to fit. The Trumpeter gear legs were updated with brake lines and hollowed out oleo scissors. 8 spoke resin wheels will be used. My plan is to load the plane out fully with 10 HVARs, two big 175 gallon crop tanks and maybe a bomb on the center line rack to draw attention away from the lower wing to fuselage join. There is actually a wartime picture with this impressive load out. The idea for this conversion started at least 10 years ago and somewhere along the way I had misplaced the IFF lights. Sifting through some spare parts for another project I found a little baggie containing the lights, already painted and ready to be added to the wing. They were added and faired in with black superglue; one thing you can’t unsee once you are aware is that P-47 landing lights had black electrical tape wrapped around their edges. The next few updates will focus on painting the tail checks, painting the nose art and adding the gun fairings and blast tubes. That will bring you up today with where I am in the build at the start of the NMF. Thanks for dropping by!