She's finally ready after the canopy debacle.  But it cleaned up nicely, so all's well that ends well.

This is the P-47D-16-RE of Lt. Cipipen, 58th FG, 310th FS. The 310th "was converted into an operational squadron in March 1943 at Bradley Field, Connecticut, being re-equipped with P-47 Thunderbolts. Was deployed to the Southwest Pacific Theater, being assigned to Fifth Air Force in Australia in November 1943. Began combat operations in February 1944, providing protection for U.S. bases and escorting transports initially, then escorting bombers over New Guinea and sea convoys to Admiralty Islands. From Noemfoor, bombed and strafed Japanese airfields and installations on Ceram, Halmahera, and the Kai Islands.

Moved to the Philippines in Nov, flew fighter sweeps against enemy airfields, supported U.S. ground forces, and protected sea convoys and transport routes."

First, here's some shots of her before the complete weathering effects were applied.

The scheme is a little different from the box version of the paint job.  The cowl flaps are painted alternating red and natural metal.  Apparently, there is some evidence that the aircraft was painted this way and at least one decal company (Aeroscale) shows the aircraft in this paint scheme.

And now after weathering...

This was the first plastic aircraft model I've built in about 40 years, so it was a test bed of sorts.  I went a bit far in adding stuff to the old Revell/Monogram kit : brake lines, new instrument panel, gunsight, resin wheels, air intake, brass gun tubes.  The antenna wire is rubber band bead string, 0.5mm thick, along with the lower brake lines.  The pilot was placed in the cockpit to help hide its lack of detail, and I managed to get his arm up as if he were grabbing the canopy.  The harness is masking tape cut to size and painted tan, then glued in place.  The cowl flaps were cut apart, but that was probably not a good idea.  They were really hard to clean up afterwards, and I won't do that again.  I never could get the seam in the wheel wells filled completely.  They're a bear to deal with.

Painting was done with brush and spray cans as I don't have a place to use an airbrush.  That's why the paint job is mediocre.  The use of Silly Putty for demarcation was quite a useful technique.

Keeping up with the theme of going all out, I placed every stencil included on the decal sheet on the aircraft.  Quite a chore!

Several weathering techniques were tried out, including dry brushing silver, india ink wash, sandpapering, streaking with paint thinner and diluted white paint, and artist charcoal and pastels.  I overdid it in places.

This was really a learning experience in building for me.  I hope it helps in finishing up the next one on the table:

Thanks for looking!

Gary