Need help, need to leave prop off for painting, but can't...

For the propeller I would use a piece of plasic card to cover the back area of the engine to hold the shaft in place. Trim it to cover just the area needed and glue it in place.

For raised lines there are many ways to accent them:

1. Preshade like recessed lines but when you put finish coats on spray from one direction only to create a shadow.

2. Preshade with black then paint normally. After paint has dried use fine sanding stick to sand top layers of paint off the raised area to expose the underlying color - takes some skill and practice to do this.

3. Use a Micron pen or artist pencil to trace the lines after final painting.

4. Wash with sludge wash then wipe carefully in one direction only with slightly damp paper towel.

Interesting Swanny, that's great advise about both. I think I can take care of that prop shaft now. But the panel lines I'll have to do some thinking about which I should do. Thanks!

Hey Davrukr, Another solution might be is to insert the prop shaft into the backside of the engine, and glue it in place . If I remember the P-47, the prop shaft has a step in it so it will assemble to the proper length protruding from the front of the engine for engaging with the prop. Once glued, the shaft cannot fall into the void you were worried about. While gluing, you can dry run the prop to make sure there is enought shaft sticking thru to satisfy the assembly, and it will still spin if you want it to. You can paint the inside of the cowel and the engine in detail and then assemble and glue the two pieces together, Make sure you have a good glue joint on the back side of the engine, and it is well secured to the inside of the cowel, and make sure that the prop is free to rotate. I have on occasion put too much pressure on the prop, and have popped that most important joint.....Now we are in real trouble, You now can assemble the cowel/engine sub-assembly to the plane for final painting. Prepare for painting by leaving the prop off and masking the front opening of the cowel. Once again, be mindful of this joint. I hope this will help you.

Another option is to ahead and assemble the engine and cowl but leave the prop shaft out. Glue it into the prop, cut off the aft end and insert after completion of painting. As long as no one handles the model, the prop won't fall off.

Why not just paint the prop, then mask and assemble. Then you can paint the body and after that take the masking tape off and touch up?

These are all good ideas, but I think Swanny's is the cure all. I will be simple to put the shaft in and glue a piece of plastic over the back of the shaft to hold it in. I just need to make sure it is not pushing on the back of the shaft too much that it won't let it spin.