Another Hasegawa T bolt Bubbletop, my first LSP. November 12, 2022, It is DONE at last!!!!!!!!

[Citadelgrad]

I do appreciate the input i sought.  As mentioned, i scrubbed very thoroughly with dish soap and brushes, rags, paper towels, and q tips. The only thing i managed to do was make clean streaks that made the remaining staining look worse.  If i had just left it alone, it would be better.  But i didnt.  
 

so tonight i thinned down some sea gray and white and sort of post shaded it to try to hide the streaks.  It went pretty well, it doesnt look lime a freshly painted patch of new color, its just not as discolored.  I stayed away from the cowl, as i am much happier with the grime up there near that big radial.  
 

before

 

 

you can sort of see the WHITE clean streaks i made to the right of the centerline.  
 

after 

Yes, its a bit brighter than the aft stripes, but i have already clearcoated it again and will try to match the panel line and tone of the rear bands. 
 

 

we will see if i can blend this, but i think i may have dodged another bullet.  
 

Bill

[MikeMaben]

Lookin' good Bill    See , you can handle these 'issues' without any help. 

[Citadelgrad]

19 hours ago, MikeMaben said:

Lookin' good Bill    See , you can handle these 'issues' without any help. 

Thanks, Mike.   Its all so new to me, i get off script and i dont know whether to zig or zag.  
 

moving along, i checked the clear today and it was bone dry, so i did a quick wash to try to match up with what is already there.  I think im ready to seal this and proceed to oil streaking. 
 
this time its much more panel line and much less general grime

 

The difference is much less stark now

 

and always multitasking, so that when something goes wrong its a major event, i future dipped my first canopy, its drying in my mini clean room

[Citadelgrad]

Tonight i experiments on the mule, both spraying some clear over the decals from the same sheet as are on the plane, and playing with a dull coat.  I plan to dull coat the plane, then do some oil washes, then seal it and weathering will be done. 
 

Dance with the one who brung you, right?  I have a bottle of alclad matte lacquer, but was worried it would be too flat, so i mixed it 50/50 with the alclad gloss “klear” that gave me the shine thats in the plane now. 
 

i sprayed half of the glossy mule wing

 

Its approximately eggshell

 

 

its tough to show the difference on this wing

 

this is the mule wingtip that got 2 coats of gloss, it was mirror glossy before the half and half

 

its no longer shiny but not dead flat.  I might up the gloss to 60/40?  
 

i also stuck the cowl on, and the flaps, and the painted one pice canopy, for some soon to be finished shots

 

 

 

the flaps look a little extreme, they seem too far deployed, but i dont know if i can fix that at this point.  They fit, and theres no option other than down or up.  
 

What say you on the level of flatness of my mix?

[Citadelgrad]

Forgot to ask, i peeked at the canopy, it looks very shiny.  How long does future take to dry after a dip, and should i do a double dip?  Ambient temps here are 80s during the day, high 60s at night.  Call it 75 in the garage.

[Woody V]

2 hours ago, Citadelgrad said:

Forgot to ask, i peeked at the canopy, it looks very shiny.  How long does future take to dry after a dip, and should i do a double dip?

 

If exposed to air it should dry hard in a couple hours and no, no double dipping.

Dip something else and see how long it takes.

[bdthoresen]

Morning Bill- some feedback (over coffee) of you latest progress if I may……

 

I like the sheen you have managed with your clear coat. It’s flat enough, and I think that the eggshell sheen will help you with clean-up of your oil effects. If the finish were dead matte, you might have trouble with staining using oils. Is your clear coat acrylic?

 

I remember meeting Gen. Gabreski in 1990 at Oshkosh, as well as a couple of crewman from the 56th fighter group who were in attendance, and they had done a Q&A one afternoon. One gentleman was a T-bolt crew chief, and he was talking about what it was like working on the P-47. The mechanics of that group had an enormous sense of pride in keeping the pilots in the fight, doing everything they could to keep the aircraft in tip-top shape. He had even mentioned that they would clean them every chance they had, some guys using car polish to try and get them as slick as possible. They would try anything to wring as much performance out of their aircraft as they could. It was a fascinating talk. So to me, your finish is as plausible as any!

 

Now, as far as your flaps, they look like they are off from each other. The right one looks to be about the correct angle, the left one looks out of kilter…..are they evenly deployed? Is it perhaps a trick of the camera lense?

 

Keep up the good work! 
 

Thor    

[bdthoresen]

Oh, almost forgot- if your canopy has dried in the box overnight, you can mask and spray it at anytime after that……

 

Thor    

[Citadelgrad]

1 hour ago, bdthoresen said:

Morning Bill- some feedback (over coffee) of you latest progress if I may……

 

I like the sheen you have managed with your clear coat. It’s flat enough, and I think that the eggshell sheen will help you with clean-up of your oil effects. If the finish were dead matte, you might have trouble with staining using oils. Is your clear coat acrylic?

 

I remember meeting Gen. Gabreski in 1990 at Oshkosh, as well as a couple of crewman from the 56th fighter group who were in attendance, and they had done a Q&A one afternoon. One gentleman was a T-bolt crew chief, and he was talking about what it was like working on the P-47. The mechanics of that group had an enormous sense of pride in keeping the pilots in the fight, doing everything they could to keep the aircraft in tip-top shape. He had even mentioned that they would clean them every chance they had, some guys using car polish to try and get them as slick as possible. They would try anything to wring as much performance out of their aircraft as they could. It was a fascinating talk. So to me, your finish is as plausible as any!

 

Now, as far as your flaps, they look like they are off from each other. The right one looks to be about the correct angle, the left one looks out of kilter…..are they evenly deployed? Is it perhaps a trick of the camera lense?

 

Keep up the good work! 
 

Thor    

Hi Thor,

 

thank you for the insight into the maintenance of these monsters.  That must have been amazing.  
 

good eye!  Yes, one of the flaps didnt want to stay fully “plugged in” at the actuators, and kept backing out.   It was easy enough to get it pressed in fully, but it would back out.   I think with glue it will be fine, but i will make a note to ensure that i watch carefully as it sets up. 
 

both clear coats are lacquer.  
 

You are very fortunate to have been able to hear first hand about an amazing group of people and machines.  

[bdthoresen]

Thanks for the kind words, Bill. I hope I have not intruded on your build too much. But, Gabreski is an absolute legend to me, and having met the man and grilled him with a bazillion questions as a fourteen-year-old aircraft nut, I will always be struck with what a gentleman he really was. He was genuinely blown away by my best friend and I, asking the most detailed questions about his time in the P-47. To my best friend, Brice, Gabby was, and still is, a god. The P-47 is his “Great White Buffalo”……your thread has taken me back in time, where Brice and I would sit in his garage on an old picnic table, building models wherever we could. He always wanted to build Thunderbolts! He gave up the hobby when we were heading off to college, but you ask him about Gabby, and he will rattle off everything he ever remembered reading about him!

 

I guess, I want to say thanks. Your thread has taken me back to a time that I cherish!

 

Enough sappy sh@t! Carry on, sir!

 

Thor

 

[Citadelgrad]

1 hour ago, bdthoresen said:

Thanks for the kind words, Bill. I hope I have not intruded on your build too much. But, Gabreski is an absolute legend to me, and having met the man and grilled him with a bazillion questions as a fourteen-year-old aircraft nut, I will always be struck with what a gentleman he really was. He was genuinely blown away by my best friend and I, asking the most detailed questions about his time in the P-47. To my best friend, Brice, Gabby was, and still is, a god. The P-47 is his “Great White Buffalo”……your thread has taken me back in time, where Brice and I would sit in his garage on an old picnic table, building models wherever we could. He always wanted to build Thunderbolts! He gave up the hobby when we were heading off to college, but you ask him about Gabby, and he will rattle off everything he ever remembered reading about him!

 

I guess, I want to say thanks. Your thread has taken me back to a time that I cherish!

 

Enough sappy sh@t! Carry on, sir!

 

Thor

 

Not at all, Thor.  I am a history freak.  I just wish id known as a kid that these great men were passing and a lot of history with them.  I didnt get to Normandy until i was almost 50, and by then, these guys were all 90+ and in no condition to travel. Imagine seeing them in the 1970s when they were younger than i am now, full of stories and eager to share. 
 

remind me some time to post the story of when my mom mistook Chuck Yeager for a base maintenance worker, and he played along.  
 

i hope my build can live up to your memories.  
 

EDIT My dad is from Pittsburgh, he remembers Col. Gabreski’s parade after the war.  He went on to Pitt and AFROTC, ended up a flag officer with some cool stories of his own about B-47s, he was a FAC in Viet Nam and in charge of the air aspect of the Grenada operation while i was a knob at The Citadel.  
 

man, this thread is a walk down memory lane. 

Edited September 25, 2021 by Citadelgrad

[Citadelgrad]

I puttered around a bit just now, getting ready to seal the pastels, but nervous i might miss something like a blob or drip that will be frozen forever. 
 

i had been anxious to put the HGW red “no step” markings at the inside edge of the flaps, but in a first for me, they didnt fit.  The angle wasnt right, and it it was straight along the front, the marking didnt rest agains the edge of the flap, and if the edge was aligned, the top and bottom edges were off.  I pulled them off and decided they wont work.  Three options, leave it unmarked and assume when they sprayed the wings they covered it, use the decals, or paint it.  I am leaning toward just leaving them off, with a painted marking a close second.  No photos, they werent on long enough to capture. 
 

i also repaired one of the PE flap edges that keeps popping off, and then repaired the adjacent “aluminum” using sanding pads and another alclad coat. I think its ready for matte.  Maybe tonight?

 

time to start thinking about LSP #2 for me?  

[Citadelgrad]

1 hour ago, MARU5137 said:

Bill.

Exceptional quality work.

Thanks so much!  I appreciate the kind words. 

[Citadelgrad]

just rechecked the few photos of this bird, i had assumed the red tabs were there because all the decal sheets have them, but there are a couple angles where it looks like there were not present.  No flaps down, which would really show, but i think i am ok leaving them off.  

Edited September 26, 2021 by Citadelgrad

[MikeMaben]

Yep it looks like they were painted over Bill.  They're only on the decal sheet because they were factory standard.

Looking good

Edited September 26, 2021 by MikeMaben