Little Bunny - Italian Front Thunderbolt

[JayW]

I like that sliding canopy John1!  Well done.

 

[Dekon]

All I can say is WOW!

[John1]

Getting closer to the finish line.   I added arming wires to the 1,000 lb bombs (for some reason not many folks add these), finished up the weathering on the underside (I think), added the landing / ID lights on the lower wing and added the machine guns.   The Jug really does look bad-ass with those 8 .50 cals sticking out. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

That's it for now, thanks for checking in. 

 

 

[Citadelgrad]

Looks BRUTAL, John, a real warhorse.

 

Did you do anything to punch up the centerline tank?  I have been avoiding mine.  My problem is that it's in every photo and frame of film of the bird I am doing. 

 

I really like the chipping, it's there but it's not in your face.  

 

Oh, how did you do the ID lights?  I am wrestling with how to do that, yours look great. 

[Woody V]

6 hours ago, John1 said:

I added arming wires to the 1,000 lb bombs (for some reason not many folks add these)

 

Probably because there are scant few photos showing them. I finally just gave up looking and guessed on my SBD build.

Edited October 18, 2021 by Archer Fine Transfers

[JayW]

John - that is one bad-ass looking Thunderbolt - which surely is just the way you wanted it to be.  I want to make a suggestion - to my eye, I believe the prop is protruding out a bit too far forward of the cowling, at least in the pictures you posted.   Possibly this is because it is merely inserted onto the shaft and it is not seated completely?  Anyway, for GE propellers, here is the way it is supposed to be:

 

 

 

That 6.82 inch dimension is merely a measurement I took on the powerplant installation drawing 89P61003.  It doesn't appear to be called out firm anywhere on any drawing.  However there are several drawings that show the prop in a side view, and they are consistent with what you see above.

 

Check and see how close you are to that .213 inch dimension (1/32 scale).  If you are significantly over that, I think you can easily make the modification.

 

BTW - you may know this already, but the GE prop installations sport a "brush housing" that fills the gap between the back of the prop hub and the front of the engine:

 

 

 

And it gets worse - Note the "brush assembly" above, which mounts to the side of the brush housing, and has an electrical cable dangling from it.  I have never seen these features modelled by anyone, save myself - I did it in 1/18 scale:

 

 

  It appears to me you have some sort of representation of this housing, but I cannot tell for sure.  I don't think any model manufacturer that makes a P-47 has this feature modelled, for the simple fact that Hamilton Standard props do not have this thing at all, and that prop hub mounts directly up against the engine, and most manufacturers provide both props in their kits.  I am not suggesting you do all this added work at this stage, but I am suggesting you check that .213 dimension.

 

Once again - superb Thunderbolt.  You should be proud.

Edited October 18, 2021 by JayW

[John1]

14 hours ago, Archer Fine Transfers said:

 

Probably because there are scant few photos showing them. I finally just gave up looking and guessed on my SBD build.

I found an awesome picture that showed the arming / safety wire on a 500 lb bomb but of course, I didn't save it and now can't find it.    This is the best I can do.   Should be the same for pretty much any US aircraft that carried 500/1,000 lb GP bombs.    I'll probably add a bit of very thin stretch sprue to replicate the aft arming wire which seems to protrude a bit past the fin assembly. 

 

 

 

 

[John1]

11 hours ago, JayW said:

John - that is one bad-ass looking Thunderbolt - which surely is just the way you wanted it to be.  I want to make a suggestion - to my eye, I believe the prop is protruding out a bit too far forward of the cowling, at least in the pictures you posted.   Possibly this is because it is merely inserted onto the shaft and it is not seated completely?  Anyway, for GE propellers, here is the way it is supposed to be:

 

 

 

That 6.82 inch dimension is merely a measurement I took on the powerplant installation drawing 89P61003.  It doesn't appear to be called out firm anywhere on any drawing.  However there are several drawings that show the prop in a side view, and they are consistent with what you see above.

 

Check and see how close you are to that .213 inch dimension (1/32 scale).  If you are significantly over that, I think you can easily make the modification.

 

BTW - you may know this already, but the GE prop installations sport a "brush housing" that fills the gap between the back of the prop hub and the front of the engine:

 

 

 

And it gets worse - Note the "brush assembly" above, which mounts to the side of the brush housing, and has an electrical cable dangling from it.  I have never seen these features modelled by anyone, save myself - I did it in 1/18 scale:

 

 

  It appears to me you have some sort of representation of this housing, but I cannot tell for sure.  I don't think any model manufacturer that makes a P-47 has this feature modelled, for the simple fact that Hamilton Standard props do not have this thing at all, and that prop hub mounts directly up against the engine, and most manufacturers provide both props in their kits.  I am not suggesting you do all this added work at this stage, but I am suggesting you check that .213 dimension.

 

Once again - superb Thunderbolt.  You should be proud.

Thanks very Jay, coming from a master modeler like yourself, that means a great deal.   Good eye on the prop spacing.   I've been looking at it for a while and something didn't look "right".  Only issue is that this is the Quickboost engine and it's got some sort of thick collar that I'll need to cut back.   I'm a bit apprehensive about doing this because the engine was a bit difficult to get secured during that phase of the build.   With my luck, I'll knock the entire engine loose.  Need to figure out a plan for this.

 

Regarding the prop itself, I was under the impression that I had the Curtis Electric prop installed, but you indicated that it's actually a GE unit?

 

BTW, that is an absolutely amazing R2800 you built.     

[Citadelgrad]

3 minutes ago, John1 said:

Thanks very Jay, coming from a master modeler like yourself, that means a great deal.   Good eye on the prop spacing.   I've been looking at it for a while and something didn't look "right".  Only issue is that this is the Quickboost engine and it's got some sort of thick collar that I'll need to cut back.   I'm a bit apprehensive about doing this because the engine was a bit difficult to get secured during that phase of the build.   With my luck, I'll knock the entire engine loose.  Need to figure out a plan for this.

 

Regarding the prop itself, I was under the impression that I had the Curtis Electric prop installed, but you indicated that it's actually a GE unit?

 

BTW, that is an absolutely amazing R2800 you built.     

Did the quickboost come with its own prop shaft?  The kit one is about 4 mm too long, my own prop looks goofy on it.  I will remove some of it. 
 

looking very nice, John.   Awesome T bolt.  

[Woody V]

6 hours ago, John1 said:

I found an awesome picture that showed the arming / safety wire on a 500 lb bomb but of course, I didn't save it and now can't find it.    This is the best I can do.   Should be the same for pretty much any US aircraft that carried 500/1,000 lb GP bombs.

 

Excellent, thank you. 

Only 500 and 1,000 pounders? Seems odd.

[Jeff T]

Superb work John!

 

This has turned out fantastic, top notch modelling all round.

 

Jeff.

[John1]

2 hours ago, Archer Fine Transfers said:

 

Excellent, thank you. 

Only 500 and 1,000 pounders? Seems odd.

I'm sure all US bombs had this arming system, just differed on the details.

[John1]

2 hours ago, Jeff T said:

Superb work John!

 

This has turned out fantastic, top notch modelling all round.

 

Jeff.

Thanks very much Jeff.  It's funny, after that year long Mosquito build, I lost my mojo.  This was supposed to be a simple, close to OOB build and to be honest, I had to force myself to actually start it.  I just wasn't that "in" to Thunderbolts.   It ended up being quite enjoyable and I learned a great deal about the Jug from all the experts here on LSP.   Now to figure out if the next build should be the F-4C or the Blackhawk.    Either one scares me due to the sheer complexity of the project.

 

Edited October 19, 2021 by John1

[JayW]

12 hours ago, John1 said:

Regarding the prop itself, I was under the impression that I had the Curtis Electric prop installed, but you indicated that it's actually a GE unit?

 

Sorry John, I mis-spoke.  Yes I meant Curtis Electric. 

 

BTW, the basic outer diameter of the brush housing for my 1/18 effort is 0.37 inch (not the flanges, just the basic shell).  I arrived at that through some pretty intense study, as drawings of that detail were not available.  But plenty of pictures of it can be found, and then it can be scaled to other things around it with known sizes.  Note that nowhere is the prop shaft exposed - it is entirely hidden inside the brush housing.  If you were to have your own brush housing in 1/32, then make it .37 x 18 / 32 = .21 inch diameter.  So some sort of 7/32 diameter stock would do it.  If the bolt circle on the quickboost engine is to scale, you might find it's fairly easy to get something in there that looks convincing.  As you can see by the pictures already provided, the housing has a mounting flange that mates up to the bolt circle on the front of the engine's big reduction gearbox.  And then another smaller flange that bears up against the back of the prop hub.  Since the bolt circle is already molded into the engine, you'd have no chance to provide a mounting flange.  But you don't need one really.  Just a little hollow tube would do.  You can vary the length (width?) of the housing in order to obtain that .213 inch dimension above (from front of cowling to centerline of prop).  And as a bonus, that spindly look from a small diameter shaft magically goes away! 

 

I'm gonna end it here.  You have a wonderful P-47 as it is, and I don't feel right critiquing it.

Edited October 19, 2021 by JayW

[John1]

2 hours ago, JayW said:

 

I'm gonna end it here.  You have a wonderful P-47 as it is, and I don't feel right critiquing it.

Please don’t feel that advice / critiquing is not welcome.   It’s the only way a noob like me can learn!   I appreciate you taking the time to answer all of my silly questions.   I think I should be able to replicate that brush assembly, just not sure how to remove the existing shaft housing without knocking loose that fragile engine.    Gotta ponder this for a bit.