P-47D Thunderbolt, 82nd FS, 78th FG . . .

Another First! The Checker Nose Thunderbolt is finally finished. I started this build back in February. A P-47D, 82nd Fighter Squadron, 78th Fighter Group, shortly after D-Day. When some Thunderbolts arrived in theater, they were NMF and camouflaged locally. In this case, RAF Dark Green and Sky and the Checkerboard nose. The checkerboard nose to a week to paint, to get the number of squares and the right shapes took some doing. All paints are Tamiya acrylics. The only decals on the model are the marking on the propeller, everything else is painted. I used my Silhouette Portrait cutter a lot for this build along with a lot of masking. I really like the look. It's not perfect but the airplane looks good to me. Comments and constructive criticism always welcome. First is a photo of the actual airplane.