Academy 1/72nd P-47D Completed Page 2

Well Bish buddy, ur cranking out what looks to be a fine specimen! Looking good.

Sorry Bish about missing the part about the pit color. TJ is right and Humbrol 117 is said to be a good match. The wells and doors were yellow zinc chromate and Tamiya xf4 is a good match.

Looking forward to seeing you start cutting this one up 

Thanks for the imput gusy. I have read about the Humbrol 117. Don't have that to hand though so was thinking of adding some black to Zinc Chromate yellow. Was reading the article on IPMS Stockholm and they suggest that might have been what Republic as they took litterally a wrongly worded regulation.

I have the Xtracolor Zinc Chromate yellow so i will be using that for the gun bays and wheel wells.

Thanks for the unput guys.

Another most ambitious Bish projects that I shall follow!

Toshi

Thanks Toshi.

I love the Razorbacks. That pit has an amazing amount of detail for the scale. This will be a nice one for sure, but heck, all your's are nice.

BK

Thanks for the compliment BK. I am rather found of resin pits. And its a lot less work than PE.

Way to, can't wait to see this finished, love the jug

Thanks for looking in guys.

Mancity, yep. There were only 2 USAAF fighter bases in Norfok, Wretham and Bodney. Both started out with 47's and switched to 51's. I was really glad to find some decals for 47's at Wretham, and of course i have Blue nosed 51's for Bodney. 

OOP's, forgot to update this last night.

Managed to get quite a bit done in the last week, going together pretty quick. After priming the pit, i used a mix of Zinc yellow and black, which is one of the possabilities suggested by IPMS Stockholm. Followed this with some dry brushing and flory wash.

And got some chopping done on the wings. Wheel wells removed and gun bays opened up.

And then time to get everything fitted. Went together pretty wel. Had to do a lot of thinning on the wings. The Aires set tells to to chop some of the fuselage where the wing joins it so the resin wheel wells fit in. But you have to cut a lot more than it says.

As you can see from the silver paint, i have been working on the seams. Still got a bit to do on those and get to work on the engine useing lawdogs tut.

Thats all for now.

Dont know how I overlooked this, comming along splendidly.

I hope to get my hands on a jug today if I get time.

I will be watching this project intently.

Thanks Damian. I have a few Academy and Hasegawa Razorbacks, pretty nice kits.

Amazing that you can do all this precision cutting to a 1/72 scale. I guess my eyes are getting too old  .  Anyway I'm watching with great interest and awe.

Thanks Jay jay.Its actually more drilling than cutting. I drill holes around the edge just inside the panel and remove the main piece then fill it down to the edge.

This is a neat project Bish, and its looking really cool.  I know what you are saying about being traumatized by a four kit build.  I'm in the middle of one

Thanks Scott, and you have my sympathy's and best wishes.

Nice work Bish.

That Academy kit is very nice right otta the box - but with those resin pieces it'll be even better.  Looks pretty spectacular already !

You using the kit supplied engine ?  As I remember - it was a good one with two separate rows of cylinders. (?)

Chris

Thanks guys.

Chris, ye, i am. Its all painted, just waiting on some fine styrene rod to spruce it up as per lawdogs great little tut.

The little guy packs a ton of details. Looking great so far!

Thanks PJ. There is a nice looking engine in the Aires set as well, but saving that for another build.

Just got the OD on tonight, so looking forward to geting the masks off and decals on over the weekend.

Oops, I've not been paying attention and just discovered your new build. Looks to be a good start. I'll try to keep an eye on this one!

Max

Cheers Max.

Guys, i am after a bit of help here. I have finished painted the 47, i now need to decide what to do about the invasion stripes.

According to my decal instructions, at the time of portrayal, the stripes under the fuselage and wings were crudley over painted. But we know the order to remove stripes was not given until some time after D-day and this only applied to the upper surfaces.

The problem is that the 359th FG seems to have been in the process of converting to P-51's at the time of D-Day. I know the 368th and 370th FS had some P-51B's in June and the Group commander had a D in July. But i can't find anything on the 369th FS. I would imagine the switch over would be done in stages.

So, does anyone know when the 369th FS of the 359th FG switched to P-51's.

And second, what do you make of this pic which is the only one i can find of the aircraft i am doing. I am starting to think that what you see under the fuselage star and bar is not the remains of invasions stripes but somthing else, and the makers of the decals have made an error.

I am thinking about not ading the invasions stripes at all, and just going with a before d-day look and just removing a few of the mission marks from the supplied decal.

Thanks in advance.

I like your idea of not going with invasion strippes.  We see that all the time, I'd like to see one without.  Not that I don't like them but ultimately, it's your call.

Toshi

Ye, i think thats the way i will go Toshi, play it safe.

I have a handful of P-47 kits and i don't think a single one of the schemes i have planed had the stripes, but now you menation it, we do see a lot of them.