Cool!  I've got a 1/48 Tamiya P-47 in the stash.  I'll be watching

=]

Great job on the pit Joe. If I may, a little tip to cover up the missing lap belt. Take any old map you have lying around and take a pic of a section of it and shrink it down to the right size on your computer. Print it out, fold it up and lay it on the seat where the belt would be. The print will be so small that it's impossible to read but the map itself will make for great interest. I've done this a few times and I'm sure it doesn't hurt.

I'm dong this for a P-47D I'm working on for a friend of mine who flew them in WWII (He's 90 but sharp as a tack and in better shape than I am at 73). It's actually covering up a little excess glue on the seat while I was installing the seat belts. He knows about the slip up but likes the idea of the map.

Jim 

Nice. One of my favorites.

Joe I did a 56th P-47M from the Hasegawa kit years ago. Wrong engine but who will really know.  

That's some lovely work on a great kit, Joe! I'm a huge fan of Tamiya's P-47 kits so I'll be watching closely...

fox

Great job on the pit Joe. If I may, a little tip to cover up the missing lap belt. Take any old map you have lying around and take a pic of a section of it and shrink it down to the right size on your computer. Print it out, fold it up and lay it on the seat where the belt would be. The print will be so small that it's impossible to read but the map itself will make for great interest. I've done this a few times and I'm sure it doesn't hurt.

I'm dong this for a P-47D I'm working on for a friend of mine who flew them in WWII (He's 90 but sharp as a tack and in better shape than I am at 73). It's actually covering up a little excess glue on the seat while I was installing the seat belts. He knows about the slip up but likes the idea of the map.

Jim 

Excellent suggestion Jim!

Gary

Thanks for the compliments guys.  Great idea Jim.  I may do that.  I also considered adding an O2 hose which seems to be void in the M cockpit.  Perhaps I'll drap it across the seat.  I was perusing the net on P-47 builds the other night and I noticed others were adding wires to the back of the instrument panel.  I may do the same since this area was apparently visible.  Neat tid bit about your buddy.  I bet he has some neat stories.  How about some more information about him?    

Tempest, thats a beauty.  What colors did you use for your camo?  There seems to be controversy about these. I read everything from Azure Blue and Insignia Blue to Insignia Blue lightened with white. The Hasegawa kit comes with the wrong 2800?  I would imagine the only visible difference would be the gear reduction box.  I've heard the magnetos on the Tamiya R2800-57 are wrong but I will use them anyway.  Sometimes too much research is counterproductive.....

Joe

I replaced the kit's engine on my latest P-47 with a Quickboost set and I think I'll do the same with all my Thunderbolts. The resin engine looks much better than the plastic parts, but it's not really necessary because the OOB one looks quite good already once it's glued in place... I can post some comparison pics if you're interested (I think I should paint up the Tamiya engine first though?)...

Hey Joe, great looking cockpit!  Looking forward to the blue paint scheme.

Steve

I've seen some pics of the pits with the hose and some without. In some of the pics, the pilot has the hose attached to the facepiece as he walks to the plane and hooks it in when seated in the pit. So, it can go either way.

I'll tell you a little about Joe, the P-47 pilot. H was in the 40th Ftr. Sq.,35th Ftr. Gp.,5th Air Force. He was stationed at Nadzab, New Guinea, later at Morotai. This is his favorite story.     Coming back from a B-24 escort mission, as they were flying past the tower on landing approach, his engine quit. The other planes were peeling off to go around to land but he couldn't. He tried restarting the engine but couldn't. He came down at the end of the PSP runway and ran straight into the woods. The first trees sheared off the wings. Then he spun around and the engine was sheared off. Then the tail section was sheared off, leaving only the pit, which ended upside down over a ditch. As the tail got ripped off, he got hit in the leg with one of the cables and he hit his head on the bomb sight and was knocked out. He said there was no fire because he didn't have a drop of fuel left on the plane. When he came to, he heard guys calling out to him but he couldn't see anyone. Pulling out his knife, he cut the chute straps because the chute pack was wedged in place and he couldn't get himself free with the chute on. He dropped head first into the ditch. He crawled out of the ditch and yelled out to the guys he heard looking for him. He didn't know at the time that he had lost his sight (temporarily). They picked him up and carried him out of the woods and put him in the back of a jeep, transferred him to a stretcher in a truck and took him to the base hospital. On the truck ride, he realized that he couldn't see. As they took him into the hospital, which had a sign over the door "My Blue Heaven", he was able to see for a minute and saw the sign. He thought "I must be dead and I made it to heaven because there is no pain and I can see again". He was in and out of consciousness for 3 days in the hospital. A couple of days later, he was up, out of the hospital, and back flying.

He flew 93 combat missions. Returned to Foster field, Victoria, Texas as Instructor of Gunnery and then to Eglin Field, Florida till the end of the war. His Son, Joe (Junior), flew F-111s in Nam and is now Base Commander of an air base somewhere near Pittsburgh. Joe (Senior) builds and collects model cars from all around the world. He has a few planes in his collection too. I hope he adds my P-47 to his collection of planes.  

Jim 

Joe: Another awesome cockpit there! Looking forward to following this one too, thanks for posting your WIP.

Jim: Wow, now that's a story! Glad to hear he made it though all that without more harm than he did.

Joe, looking forward to this one.  So that IP is stock, the dials included as decals, wow that's sweet compared to this Mono Do 335 IP I'm doing.

Thanks for the info Jim, love those stories.

Thanks Jim.  What an amazing story.  I guess the Jug cockpit was an armored bathtub afterall.  I assume the Jug you built was his yeah?  Reasoned, The IP is a decal provided by Tamiya.  It settles right in under Micro Sol. 

I got some quality time in last night.  I was tinkering with Jim's idea of a map on the seat, by cutting up a post it note, but I just couldn't get it to look realistic (sorry Jim)  I ultimately decided to fabricate an oxygen hose and drape it over the seat.  I used fine wire wrapped around a hypodermic needle, painted it Olive Drab, then superglued it in place.  I used a piece of styene rod to simulate te connector.  Here's how it turned out.  I'm happy with it. 

The wing spars were added and the fuselage sealed up without issue.  Here the IP wires can be sort of be seen.  I guess this was a good addition afterall.   

I then turned my attention to the PW R-2800-57 engine.  This will have a scratchbuilt ignition harness  and here's how I do it.  All you need is the following supplies and some superglue. 

I started by painting the cylinders Alclad Dark Aluminum and the gear box XF-53 Neutral Grey. The instructions call out the wrong magnetos and it  was unfortunately too late for me.  Oh well. I fabricated a ignition ring out of .25 styrene rod then added the "points" with .10 rod glue together and sliced (above).  It will look like this at this stage. 

I then used the speaker wire, cut the length to size, then bent it to go from the "points" to the cylinder.  Once you find the right size, dip the tips in superglue and attach them.  Heres how it should look.

Once satisfied, the ring was painted Floquil Old Silver and the the wires XF-28 Dark Copper, which seemed to be the most common color for these.  After a dusting of Testors Gloss, I then added the Pratt and Whitney decal followed by a detailer wash.   

It was finished off with Testor's Dull then a quick blast of full strength X-19 Tamiya Smoke.  The smoke gives it a smokey used look. 

I finished off by painted the gear bays, doors, and everything else that should be zinc chromate with XF-3 Yellow Green.  I then added a red-brown postshade to dirty it up. 

I'll be getting to the assembly soon. 

Joe

Great looking engine Joe!  Another beauty!

Steve

Sorry I took so long to reply. The Aero master sheet the decals came recommended flat sea blue and intermediate blue. It look right so....

I can't tell you how much I appreciate you sharing the "how to " details on  this build.  As an aspiring realist modeler, I am learning a ton from your detailed descriptions.  This Thunderbolt is going to be my next build and I am anxious to attempt the techniques you are sharing here. TY TY TY

That cockpit tub and engine look awesome, Joe! Thanks a bunch for posting all those mini tutorials in your build reports. I saw your technique for wiring engines a while ago and adopted it right away.

Great looking engine I always find your builds very informative.

Amazing so far, I'm going to be watching this as the Jug is one of my favorite planes.  Like the others I really appreciate the detailed how-to with each picture.

Thanks guys.  I'm glad you find some of my techniques useful.  The Thunderbolt is one of my favorites too.  It certainly would have been my first choice if I were in these heroes shoes back then.  I actually wanted to be an A-10 pilot growing up but my hopes were quickly dashed when I found out my uncorrected eyesight was not good enough.   It was A-10 pilot or nothing for me much to the recruiter's dismay.  

Here's the tutorial on how I rig my radials for those interested.... 

http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/149327.aspx

Joe

Excellent work so far, Joe!

I really like the tone and finish of that pit! I thought I'd chime in on the color schemes for M's.

I've got that kit and similar decals in my stash for a future time. I had done a lot of research on the colors a few years back. It seems the 56thFG did some of the usual "aquiring" of paint as they saw fit. The Grey tone is most likely the same grey used on spitfires, (The Ocean Grey or Medium Sea Grey), as I found some mention they came across an RAF paint stock.

The closest blue I came up with for the darker tone is MM Insignia Blue. (There is so much controversy, as you mentioned, about this shade of blue that I am not sure what is "right", though I did read some saying it was "Dark French Blue")

Joe,

You might want to peruse this old thread over at "P47 Heaven" before deciding on a paint scheme.

http://p47.kitmaker.net/modules.php?op=modload&name=SquawkBox&file=index&req=viewtopic&topic_id=127214&ord=&page=1

(Afraid you will have to copy and paste the link.  It doesn't allow hot linking).

Gary

Thanks Panzer and Gary.  I'm leaning towards a 63rd subject because I find the two tone blue appealing. I'll probably eyeball these colors with my Tamiya paints.  I've had the stomach flu for the past week so I've been out of commission.  The other night  I got the frame together with no issues.  I test fitted the engine, cowl, rudder and flaps.  All indicate they will fit nice.

Here's a shot of why I rig my radials.  They just look naked without ignition wires.

Soon I hope to prime it and spray the NMF lower surface.  I'm still trying to decide on a subject.  I've considered George Bostwick's Jug but everyone who does a two tone blue scheme seems to build that one.  There just doesn't seem to be many options available and I like that he had a 262 kill to his credit.  I'll probably just do his plane. 

Joe

I was wondering what the documentation for this two-tone blue paint scheme was, Joe?  I've seen all sorts of pictures and schemes of these birds in this color, but is there any documentation (pilot remembrance, ground crew report,  or similar) that states what paint was used?

Just for discussion, I've seen color pictures of these aircraft, but I don't exactly trust old photos completely.  They tend to color shift over time.  Take a look at this one.

If this is dark blue, then it has the same hue as the national insignia on the side.  You would think the propeller would be black, until you look at the top blade... which has a "bluish" tint to it.

Also, it appears to my eyes that this may be a "3 color scheme", with dark blue, light blue and grey underside.  It's hard to tell in shadow, but looking back towards the tail wheel it does appear as if the underside might be grey ( or just muddy).

Was hoping you might have more concrete proof of colors here. 

Thanks!

Gary

PS>  I notice the inside of the cowl doesn't seem to be painted.  They were usually natural anodized aluminum.

PPS> Odd, I could have sworn that picture was there when I posted.  Oh, well.

This one is looking dang nice, Joe. I hope you're feeling better. The stomach flu ravaged our entire house a couple of months back and it wasn't fun at all.

Boy I really hope Tamiya does a 1/32 Jug soon. Just up-scaling this one would beat the two that are already available in that scale.

Just a FYI Joe. While getting info from Joe Potts (WWII P-47 Pilot) on his plane, he said that the inside of his cowl was painted Interior Green. This might have been specific to just his Sqdn. or Ftr. Grp.

Jim 

Joe, another fantastic build coming together. =]  Sorry I can't contribute much here.  These aren't the jugs I'm most familiar with ;)  That engine looks great!  I'll definitely have to keep my eyes out for this kit. Can't wait to see how it turns out.

Joe,

This is looking great! It's making me all itchy to build my P-47D now... Of course I've got to wrap up my La-7 (not too bad) and my B-25 (that's been WIP for almost 3 years now) first. When I built this kit, I found decals for 1st Lt. Eugene Andermatt's "Miss June", who also shot down an Me-262. The instructions call out for Insignia Blue and Azure Blue upper surfaces with a Medium Blue rudder (I think I used Ford Engine Blue).

Anyway, just figured I'd give you another option since you didn't seem so sure.