JUG-OR-NOT? Building the MiniArt P-47D

[quang]

Dear modeller friends,

This morning Santa disguised as a Belgian postman deposited this parcel at my door.

 

Keep in touch with the next episode for the unwrapping of the sprues and the usual stages of styrene fondling, surgical blade sharpening, etc. etc… 

Stay tuned,

Cheers,

Quang 

 

[Shoggz]

I'll be interested to see how you get on with one Quang - does look a nice kit, and it's a Jug!

[Juggernut]

I have the basic version of this kit...   The latest AK interactive book on the 56th, has some great decals.

[quang]

Just a teaser. Macro view of the MiniArt decal sheet…

 

One can read the pilot’s and crew’s names. Also note the brush strokes on the pin up.
It’s a pity that the stars and bars are in black instead of insignia blue. Nobody’s perfect!

Edited November 29, 2023 by quang

[LSP_Ray]

And yet it is insignia blue on the boxtop...

 

I saw Miniart was starting a P-47 line, wondered what they looked like. Will be following along!

[jep1210]

I want a postman disguised Santa to deposited one of these at MY door. I look forward to your build.

[LSP_K2]

On 11/29/2023 at 10:40 AM, quang said:

It’s a pity that the stars and bars are in black instead of insignia blue. Nobody’s perfect!

 

Replacing those should be a piece of cake, as there are gobs of decals available.

[quang]

7 hours ago, LSP_K2 said:

 

Replacing those should be a piece of cake, as there are gobs of decals available.

Looking at the level of detail of this kit, I think it was not a mistake but a well-thought decision from MiniArt to reduce the cost of printing. The dark blue of the insignia would add a 4th colour to the black/yellow/red of the sheet.

 

9 hours ago, jep1210 said:

I want a postman disguised Santa to deposited one of these at MY door. I look forward to your build.

Behave and Santa will come 

 

On 11/30/2023 at 12:07 AM, LSP_Ray said:

I saw Miniart was starting a P-47 line, wondered what they looked like. Will be following along!

There’s a consensus on the internet that the release of this kit is a watershed moment in scale model history (at least in 1/48 scale). We’ll see! 
 

Now back to the box opening.

This is the ‘advanced’ version costing some 10-15 euro more than the ‘basic’ kit released earlier. It has extra parts to build the kit with opened panels on the cowling and gun bays, a small extra PE fret and a different decal sheet with three iconic colour schemes. IMO the addition is well worth the extra cost without having to resort to after market stuff.

 

The quality of decals printed by Cartograf is impressive…

You get 3 versions of the IP: a full decal for the panel, without the panel and individual instruments 

The registration is top-notch. Look at the tiny yellow shadow on ‘Rozie Geth II’ .

Notice the censored swastikas 

A separate small sheet with service stencils

A well-designed instruction booklet with good-sized and helpful diagrams for both basic and advanced versions.

 

Useful paint references included

 

Friendly styrene, crisp and well-moulded, not as hard as Hasegawa, not as soft as Airfix. 

Impressive surface detail, exaggerated for certains but we’ll see under a coat of primer and paint.

 

Note the dimple on the wheel location

 

I’ve never noticed the extra thick plate

 

Wing details should show up well in NMF 

Opened gun bay on extra sprue in advanced version

 

Ammo cases in advanced version

Some details are tiny. Beware not to remove them!

 

Engine included in both versions

 

Cockpit lay-out. Two seats (with and without moulded seat belts) but only one seat pan included 

That’s it for now folks! Your comments and questions are welcome.

Until next time,

Cheers,

Quang

Edited December 1, 2023 by quang

[LSP_K2]

I'd say the reinforcements are there, but perhaps not nearly as pronounced as on the kit.

 

[quang]

Thank you Kevin. Overstated or not, we can only tell when the build progresses. 
Anyhow, here’s the cockpit under its Dull Dark Green primer ready for detail painting. All details except slightly modified ‘smooth’ floor are OOB.

I used the PE seat belts included in the advanced kit.

[mozart]

That's all well and good Quang....but your Anson??? 

[quang]

3 hours ago, mozart said:

That's all well and good Quang....but your Anson??? 

Aah the Anson!
I intended to do a post war RN machine for navigation training with the later smooth engine cowling. Fuselage is finished. I started the wings but found out I lost the extra cowling parts included in the kit. Furthermore apart from the cowling shapes, there are several subtle differences between the wartime and post-war Ansons, namely the type of exhaust manifolds and the location of the radiators.

So while waiting for the replacement cowlings to arrive and sorting out the engine details, I thought it would be easier (lazier) to build a modern state-of-the-art model. I want to do it OOB , or at least I’ll try because everyone knows about the leopard and its spots.

[TAG]

Cockpit looks great, Quang, you sorted out the non-corrugated floor issue quite deftly, bravo!

 

The 'reinforcements' on the belly are not actually reinforcements, they are merely sections of heat resistant stainless steel instead of the alclad aluminum used on the rest of the airframe. This is due to the ducts that run internally along the belly of the plane which get superheated by hot air from the turbocharger at the rear to the geared supercharger up front near the engine, which would compromise the integrity of the aluminum.

 

Here's a modern photo that illustrates well the size of the stainless steel sections, which extends all the way to the turbocharger exhaust just ahead of the tail wheel doors, and the color difference between the stainless steel bits and the rest of the airframe. Note that the inner gear doors also seem darker, despite being made of aluminum like the rest of the plane, but that is just because they are stained by the waste gate exhaust gases, not because they are made of stainless steel.

 

Here's the Jug's massive turbo-supercharger system.

 

Here's what it looks like outside the airplane.

 

Really looking forward to seeing you work your magic on this kit, Quang, just ordered one myself, hopefully I'll get around to actually building something again someday...

 

Let me know if you need any refs, I love the Jug and I'm happy to help in any way I can.

 

Cheers,

- Thomaz

[quang]

Thomaz, your in-flight belly view is invaluable for every modeller who, like myself intends to do a NMF T-bolt.
As someone who has always scorned the representation of divots on scale models, I now know why MiniArt took the painful effort to include the multitude of rivets on their P-47. The simple reason is that IT SHOWS especially on a bare metal machine.
Now the issue for us modellers is how to represent the 50 shades of sky reflecting on the metal 

Thank you @TAG for comments and input. They are fully appreciated and much welcome.

Cheers,

Quang

[MikeMaben]

I'd respectfully disagree about the stainage as I don't see much when enlarged.

 

 

Not a huge deal, just an observation on my part.