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

[JayW]

Might as well ask - did Eileen have the canvas shield over the IP?  Often, I have learned from somewhere, they were removed.  John - I have no idea how it would be modeled, or if Trumpy has some version of it already.  Or if you want to bother with it at all.

 

[John Stambaugh]

I had no idea of the existence of this vent. Thanks for the information Antonio.

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!  Great tidbits of info, as always!

 

Since the bottom can be segmented into discrete areas because of the hard-edged invasion stripes, I'm going to lay those stripes down first on the wings.  I mask off the white areas first.  Don't really care about overspray because the neutral grey is going to cover it.

 

 

I already pre-determined the width of the stripes when I painted the flaps and ailerons so I use those same dimensions on the wings.

 

 

After the invasion stripes, I'm going to paint the outboard wing bottoms neutral grey. I'm using the same pattern I established on the gear covers by using the darker Mr Hobby Aqueous version of Neutral Grey as a base and then lighten by using the lighter AK Real Color version as post-shade.

 

 

Attaching the ailerons and flaps to make sure the stripes match.

 

 

As Antonio pointed out, this particular P-47D has a vent arrangement on the port side of the windscreen.  I'm going to depict it as a thin frame.

 

 

The prop blades have very light chipping on the edges.

 

[JayW]

You are flying through this build.  But it looks as professional as your FW-'s and your superb F4U.  I love P-47's, so I am highly anticipating your next post.  

[Thunnus]

Thanks Jay!  Here it is!

 

Here's the prop with the stencil decals and flat coat applied. Very light chipping on the leading edges of the prop blades.

 

 

After the invasion stripes, I painted the extra large US insignias on the wing bottoms.  Most 78th FG Thunderbolts had insignias under both wings. I decided to do the blue color first to avoid any white sneaking through the edges, which happens sometimes when you paint the white first.  I was going to mix my own shade of blue but when I shuffled through my paint inventory, I found a Mr Hobby Aqueous Blue FS15044 that was a great match for the blue on the Barracuda decal sheet.

 

 

After the blue dries, the rest of the mask is carefully placed within the mask outline on the wing.  Temporary tape is used to keep the mask together.

 

 

The white areas of the mask are then weeded out.  Tape and Micro Mask is used to seal the joint between the outer and inner masks.

 

 

White is then sprayed.

 

 

It's always fun to see the results as you peel off the mask!

 

 

No mishaps on the starboard wing bottom.  There is a tiny bit of paint lift on the invasion stripe but that should be super easy to fix.

 

 

A very small paint lift on the port wing star... again, easy to correct.

 

 

The wing bottoms are painted.  The next step will be to paint the fuselage bottom and the undersides of the horizontal stabs.  And then I'll start painting the top side.

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Great skill with those masks, John!

 

Kev

[zaxos345]

One of the best build of yours John!!! How did you do the chipping on the main wheel covers?? With sponge or hairspray technique?? Which color did you use?? 

 

John

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!

 

28 minutes ago, zaxos345 said:

One of the best build of yours John!!! How did you do the chipping on the main wheel covers?? With sponge or hairspray technique?? Which color did you use?? 

 

John

 

The chipping on the landing gear doors was done by hairspray.  I'm not the first to figure this out but I've found that darker colors can be more effective as a chipping base than the standard silvery colors, especially when the surface color is lighter.  In this case, I used a mixture of Alclad Dark Aluminum and Steel for the dark metal color.

 

 

[zaxos345]

2 minutes ago, Thunnus said:

Thanks guys!

 

 

The chipping on the landing gear doors was done by hairspray.  I'm not the first to figure this out but I've found that darker colors can be more effective as a chipping base than the standard silvery colors, especially when the surface color is lighter.  In this case, I used a mixture of Alclad Dark Aluminum and Steel for the dark metal color.

 

 

Thanks John

[Greif8]

I echo Kevin about the skilled use of masks John, you crushed it.  I will have to give the "marbling" undercoat technique a try, it looks excellent.  Your chipping work is also spot on, I like how restrained it is on the prop.

 

Ernest

[jeroen_R90S]

Looks great!

 

I find it rather revealing that I always thought of the late German schemes as complex, but this is definately it's own form of complex!

 

Jeroen

[dennismcc]

Great work on the masked markings, they look great, so much better than decals, well better than the way that I can put decals on.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[JayW]

8 hours ago, Thunnus said:

It's always fun to see the results as you peel off the mask!

 

Yes it is!!  Especially when it comes out so well!  When the time comes to apply the US insignia masks to my metallic skin surfaces on the Corsair, I am not sure "fun" will be the right word.   

[scvrobeson]

This build really is flying along John, but it's done up to your usual excellent level.  Interesting idea painting the wings before the fuselage. I look forward to seeing how it comes along

 

 

 

Matt 

[Thunnus]

Thanks guys!  Appreciate the words!

 

Before I paint the rest of the Neutral Grey undersides, I want to get the top ready for paint.  That means I need to get the windscreen on so that I can check/fix the joint.  First, I tried to glue the gun sight assembly in-place so that I could get some last shots of the cockpit area before it starts getting closed up.

 

 

But it was difficult to get the pin on the windscreen into the hole of the gun sight assembly.  So I had to remove it and glue the assembly into the windscreen BEFORE the whole thing gets glued onto the fuselage.  The port side fits almost perfectly.

 

 

The starboard side has an ever so slight gap.  I recognized this during pre-fitting so only the port side has been fused with glue.  I'll wait until that bond dries before I try to gently coax the starboard side gap shut.

 

 

And yes, I notice the paint mismatch spot on the rear quarter panel on the port side.  I'll fix that shortly!