Trumpeter 1/32 P-47D Razorback "Eileen"

[John Stambaugh]

Isn't that just typical of Trumpeter. Excellent in many ways and WTH were they thinking in others. I completely missed this hatch on my build. Thanks for the heads up John. 

[Thunnus]

On 11/17/2022 at 5:36 AM, Troy Babbitts said:

Where to begin?

The Trumpy Razorback is a great kit. A LOT of detail i.e., internal parts that will not be seen once everything is buttoned up, just fun to build though. The fit..... eh. The way you were able to tackle some of the other builds you have shown here, there should be little problem.

The color of 78th FG Thunderbolts. Here is where the fun begins. O.D. Green upper with neutral grey lower is the conventional reasoning. However, I did read an article many years ago in a Fine Scale Modeler magazine, "Special Edition", where a P-47D Razorback "Miss Behave" of the 78 FG was built using British colors for the exterior.  R.A.F. Green upper and "Sky" for the lower portion.

All I can say is, have fun, fit twice, glue once, swear, remove part and re-glue. Lastly, best if you listen to someone else, who knows what they are doing .

 

I just wanted to touch upon Troy's mention of "Miss Behave" being painted in RAF colors of Dark Green and Sky.  I know it is difficult to ascertain color information from black and white photographs but looking at photos of "Miss Behave", the contrast between the upper and lower colors is apparent.  The lower color seems to be significantly lighter than Neutral Grey.

 

Ignoring the possibility that these might be two different aircraft (2nd photo... a restoration?) and assuming that the undersides were painted in a lighter color like RAF Sky, the contrast between the upper and lower colors of "Eileen" is much different and more in line with OD/Neutral Grey.  I think OD/Neutral Grey is the correct choice for this aircraft.

[brahman104]

Great scribing tips John! Thank you

 

Craig

[Citadelgrad]

John, that "little" scribing job is jaw dropping.

 

Agree that those 2 photos are of different, or at least a repainted, AC.  Look at the area between the cowl flaps and the leading edge, there is an missing scallop there in the bottom AC, and it has no wing guns, doesnt have that round mirror above the windscreen.

 

But that little panel you outlined is going to haunt my dreams.    

[Thunnus]

Thanks everyone!

 

11 hours ago, Citadelgrad said:

John, that "little" scribing job is jaw dropping.

 

Agree that those 2 photos are of different, or at least a repainted, AC.  Look at the area between the cowl flaps and the leading edge, there is an missing scallop there in the bottom AC, and it has no wing guns, doesnt have that round mirror above the windscreen.

 

But that little panel you outlined is going to haunt my dreams.    

Yeah, I started noticing those differences as soon as I preparing the post.  No stars and bars on the wing bottom, different invasion stripe configuration on the landing gear doors, etc.  Because of the lack of guns, I started thinking it might be a restoration or display. But I left the photo because the contrast between the top and bottom colors looked to be very similar.

 

Back to the model... here is the engine temporarily housed in the cowling, which is a pretty positive fit due to the exact shape of the front frame around the engine. The engine is attached to the firewall at those two D-shaped holes and nothing else.  The firewall can be solidly glued to the fuselage.  Without the rear engine assembly, you can see that the there is a possibility of securing the rear of the back cylinder base to the firewall... maybe with magnets?

 

 

While I think about that, I fashioned up a small oil sump and scavenge pipe using a bit of styrene and copper wire.

 

 

The oil sump is nestled under the bottom front cylinder head.

 

 

Making sure that the oil sump does not interfere with the front frame.

 

 

I'm using lead wire for the ignition wiring cables. There are two additional wiring connections at the back of each distributor, hence the gap in the harness spacing.  The harness and the distributors are from Vector and obviously designed to be used together.

 

 

I noticed that the closed cowling flaps (top) are missing a panel line.

 

 

I also added a little triangular shim to the edge of the cowl flaps so that they would sit flush. Notice the very faint panel lines.  I've already started to re-scribe these.  There is just enough of a depression to guide my scriber along without any guide tape... living dangerously!

 

 

The Curtis Electric prop has been cleaned up.  I thinned the blades down and filled in the depressions that were molded onto the cuffs.

 

[Gazzas]

Dude!  Dude!   That scribing!  The result is sublime.

[Thunnus]

Thanks Gaz!  I hope this gives you more confidence when scribing simple shapes like squares and circles.  If done carefully, results like this should be eazy peazy!

 

I'm jumping between the engine and cockpit, depending on what aftermarket stuff arrives in the mail each day.  Within the cockpit, I'm wanting to go a little beyond what I've normally done with cockpits with this build.  I was inspired looking through JayW's crazy 1/18 P-47 build.  At one point he compared a photo of his cockpit with the real cockpit and I had to do a double take because the two were so close.  I don't think I'll be able to achieve the same level of detail/completeness as Jay but it's a good bar to strive for.  In addition to other build references, I'm poring over all of the documents at the AirCorps Library and I've found lots of interesting and useful detail that I hope to incorporate into this build.  Mostly within the cockpit.

 

I just received a set of 7/16" neodymium magnets in the mail today so I was able to start to test the idea of using magnets to provide a more secure attachment between the engine/cowling and fuselage/firewall.  I got the idea surfing Youtube and finding Doog's Razorback build in which he used magnets to attach the engine as well as the wing gun blast tubes.  I've got other ideas for the wing guns but the magnet idea for the engine holds a lot of advantages.

 

As I showed in my last update, the rearmost engine component closest to the firewall is the intake pipe ring. The circular base of the intake pipe ring is about level with the opening in the firewall so I thought that this would be a natural connection point.

 

 

The magnet is almost the same size as the circular opening at the base of the intake ring.  But knowing the strength of these magnets, I wanted a more secure glue base.  So I cut a small piece of sheet plastic and glued it into the opening from the other side.

 

 

The magnet was attached using CA glue.

 

 

I cut a ring of thicker sheet plastic to serve as a spacer/mount for the other magnet to placed on the firewall opening.

 

 

The ring was glued into place using CA glue.  Thin CA first and then a ring of black CA to reinforce the bond. The magnet in the engine seems to level with the spacer.

 

 

Instead of my initial idea of using a sheet of plastic, I wanted to minimize the distance between the magnets so I used a disc of brass sheeting was used to cover the opening.

 

 

The second magnet is glued into place with CA glue.  To place the magnet permanently, I actually mounted the engine assembly with the first magnet onto the firewall FIRST and used the magnets' irresistible urge to align themselves to locate the second magnet.

 

 

Time to see how this will work with the magnets secured into place. The engine components have been dry-fit into the cowling and I've taped the firewall onto the fuselage.  Man, these magnets are strong!  As soon as the magnets got within whiffing distance, the engine assembly flew out of the cowling and snapped into place on the firewall.

 

 

I had to place the firewall onto the engine FIRST and then attach the firewall to the fuselage for this dry fit.

 

 

Preliminary tests look good.  Alignment and position seem ok.  But we'll have to wait until the glue hits the plastic to see if this is a success or not.  If it goes as well as I hope, I'm thinking of keeping the engine cowling removable.

[Brett M]

Really nice work, John. The magnets are going to make for a cool option to keep that cowling removable and show off what I'm guessing will be a stunning engine!

[Troy Molitor]

Same comment to what Brett mentioned above.  A great idea moving forward.  I can imagine this concept will morph into only more ideas to come in the future.    

Great idea John.   

[Greif8]

Some exceptional and very clever scratchbuilding John.  The build looks great thus far.

 

Ernest 

[Dpgsbody55]

That's an ingenious way to attach the engine on this model.  Your method may well work on other round engine planes too.

 

Very clever.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Gazzas]

Very clever use of the magnets, John!  Really enjoying this WIP.

[scvrobeson]

Certainly an attractive way to attach the engine to the front

 

 

 

Matt 

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!  Like I said, I got the idea from a Youtube video by Doogs so I can't take credit for the idea but I adapted it to fit my needs.

I still haven't gotten all of my aftermarket stuff yet so I can't go full bore into the cockpit just yet.  However, here is a small detail that I've worked up...

 

 

These are small pulleys for the rudder cables that lead from the rudder pedals to the rear of the cockpit.  They were fashioned from punched circles of sheet brass and plastic.  My initial idea is to use elastic thread to maintain taut and straight lines but I'll have to work on that thought later.

 

 

Playing with a mock-up of a potential replacement for the exhaust waste gates.  Getting the right size of tubing and the actual thickness of the brass tube are potential issues.

 

 

Earlier, I worked out the view from the mid-fuselage intercooler openings.  But there are a couple more small openings that need to be addressed.  One is the area in front of the exhaust waste gates seen in the photo above. Mostly covered by the oil cooler vents but the ducting is included in the kit as part of the extensive ducting network, which I am planning on leaving out.

 

 

So I sawed off the needed bits, which will block any potential view into the fuselage from this area.

 

 

The supercharger outlet on the bottom fuselage seems tucked away enough to not worry about the view here.

 

 

Moving on to the engine... Since there is a magnet installed onto the intake pipe ring, I put one into the rear engine assembly as well. If all goes as planned, the engine will be removable and I thought it'd be worthwhile to have the rear engine available to snap on when the engine is detached.

 

 

The engine components have been have been assemble and ready for paint.

 

 

Silver for the engine cylinders, mounting frames and firewall... dark grey for the gear reduction housing and rear engine assembly... black for the pushrods, input and exhaust ducts and duraluminum (a metal shade with a hint of yellow) for the ignition ring harness.

 

 

After the base paints have been applied, I detailed by hand-painting the various components.

 

 

Because the recessed lines of the cylinders were not very defined and had difficulty holding a pastel wash, I left the pastel wash essentially unwiped after application.

 

 

Here are the engine components after the detail painting.  The input and exhaust ducts were painted Alclad Steel over the base black.  The exhaust ducts were highlighted with Alclad Manifold Exhaust. The ignition wiring was painted a light brown color. I changed my mind about the color of the mounting frames and firewall and painted them zinc yellow chromate instead.

 

 

Assembly of the engine could now begin by gluing together the front and rear engine cylinder banks, sandwiching the black baffle plate between.  The pushrods were glued onto the ends next.  The input pipes are keyed so they only go on one way. The exhaust ducts are not keyed so it is easy to install them in the wrong orientation.  So the gear reduction housing was put into place temporarily to help guide the correct placement of the exhaust pipes. The exit ends of the exhausts need to line up at the bottom of the engine.

 

 

The last step and most time-consuming task of the build so far was mounting the wired ignition ring to the gear reduction housing and then terminating the ignition wires to their respective cylinders. More than a couple of wires became detached during this process but eventually I got it done. Note the little Pratt & Whitney logo... luckily I had a few left over from the F4U build!

 

 

Here is a preliminary look at the engine after the wiring work was completed.  

 

[Citadelgrad]

Looks amazing, John, really stellar.

 

I am strongly leaning toward a P and W powered next project.  Can I ask what you used to decide the exact routing of the plug wires?  Obviously, they are mostly in sets of 2, with the ones between the front cylinders going to the back ones, but it looks like the end stubs on the bottom have 3 wires each?

 

Are the wire looms aluminum tape?  Did you use epoxy for the wire to ignition ring join?  That's giving me cold sweats and I haven't cut a sprue yet.

 

Looking mighty fine, John.  

Edited December 5, 2022 by Citadelgrad