I just caught up with this Joe and must say its up to your usual high level of skill as always! Looking forward to seeing the finish,keep up the great work,cheers Trey

Thank guys, life's been hectic lately.  I have gotten some modeling time in though.  I got HJ decaled.  I'm in the home stretch. My next post should be finished pics..  

 I

looking sweet!!

A cracking looking build so far Joe! I have to gets me a Jug to build for my US collection.

I look forward to seeing her all dressed up!

Cheers

Martin

You are a real artist with that airbrush.

Mike

Joe: Super cool! 

Pretty impressive painting you did there!

Thanks guys.  Your very kind.  

I sat down last night and tried to tackle the paint job.  Its my understanding that the upper colors were Ocean Grey with Dark Green.  I've read that the pattern was changed at one point too, which complicated things.  I started with XF-82 RAF Ocean Grey.  

 I added a touch of XF-2 and added some condensation streaks.

Then it got tricky.  As I said, my research showed that the RAF Dark Green pattern was changed at one point.  I've seen several period pics where it was different, particularly on the tail.  It was probably repainted post crash.  Instead of stressing over it, I used some of the said pics and tried to duplicate the patterns with XF-81 RAF Dark Green as best as I could.  The green "stripes" appeared to have been done in the field so I followed suit and did it free hand as well. I got in close with low pressure.  The starboard upper wing was an educated guess, but I'm happy with the overall results.  Since it wasn't feasible to fade and streak the green, I went another direction with some streaking using a diluted mixture of XF-64 Red Brown and and XF-69 NATO black.  Its subtle but I'm happy with it. I may do this more often when appropriate.   

I added a post shade here and there.....musta dirty up those invasion stripes...

Ohhhhh, those wings are gonna look really neat Joe, looking forward to the results. 

Well, I can tell the paint on this one is gonna be a step above your usual fair. Which is taking it from amazing to unbelievable. 

BK

Thanks guys....

I'm finally getting to the paint job.  Like most 56th planes Hairless Joe (HJ) is a controversial paint scheme.  On September 17th of 1944, Schilling was hit by flak and had to crash land HJ.  There was apparently a fire and the entire port wing had to be changed.  I chose to depict it after it the crash, perhaps around the time of his 5 kill sortie of December 23rd 1944.  This will be my interpretation of it, your mileage may vary.  

It seems that after the wing was replaced, the plane was re-camo'ed but the lower port wing was left unpainted.  I figured this would be cool looking and followed suit with Alclad Duraluminum.  I then painted different panels various shades of Alclad.  

I then added invasion stripes to the belly and the starboard wing per photographic reference.  I suppose I could have left them off the wing as they were at some point removed, but I chose not to....again, very cool looking.  These were then taped off for the underside color.  The 56th used RAF paint stock and HJ was reputed to be Dark Green and Ocean Grey over Light Grey.  I started with XF-19 to depict the light grey.  I then did a bit of postshade weathering.  It will get more later. 

HJ's upper camo pattern will be next.  

Awfully nice to see a Jug. Beautiful start as usual Joe. =]

Your detail work is splendidly sublime!  

Thanks for that info, Joe. Interesting stuff. I guess they wouldn't have had an online database to avoid duplicate aircraft names back then. :)

I do remember hearing of that interview with the Lennon's, but didn't realise it was Al Capp who conducted it. That is a fun fact, indeed!

Greg

I hesitate to advertise my lack of WWII history knowledge, but I have a dumb question. If Hairless Joe was a B-17 shot down over Italy, how can it also be a P47? Obviously, I know nothing about how WWII aircraft were named.

 

Thanks guys.

Greg, Hairless Joe is a caveman character from cartoonist Al Capp's "Lil Abner" which was popular at the time. I'm sure there were many pilots who were fond of the comic strip and named their machines as such.

Fun fact, you may remember Capp was the guy who interviewed John Lennon and Yoko Ono who were in their bed in 1969. He got Lennon all fired up. Anyways, no such thing as a dumb question. 

This is fun to watch. Thanks for showing us how you did the wiring, Joe. I'd sure like to try this, it adds a lot.

I hesitate to advertise my lack of WWII history knowledge, but I have a dumb question. If Hairless Joe was a B-17 shot down over Italy, how can it also be a P47? Obviously, I know nothing about how WWII aircraft were named.

Outstanding work,really love the office.I did one a few years ago,but mine looks like a toy.

Everything you did will pay off in dividend.  Great work sir!

Toshi

Thanks guys.  

I have a quick update.  Progress has been slow as I'm also building the Tamiya He 219 as well.  I'm spreading myself thin I suppose.  I'll make a slight edit to my previous claim.  The Tamiya "Razorback" is the greatest plastic kit ever.  The bubbletop?.......not so much.  I apparently forgot what a pain it is to add the rear upper fuselage on this kit. I remedied it on my previous M, but apparently forgot how I did it.   I just couldn't get it to line up right and it bowed slightly, like it was slightly too long.  I ended up gluing it with Tenax, sanding it flush, and rescribing the panel lines.  Why they couldn't just make an insert for the later version fillet that is added to the spine is beyond me.

Another rarity for a Tamiya kit was a wing root gap.  I needed a touch of putty on the starboard wingroot.  Nothing serious but enough to annoy me.  I'm sure this was operator error and me being careless.  

I checked the seams with primer.  I think I got them all.  I should be ready for some paint soon.

The tamiya P-47 is one of my favorite kits, absolute dream to build.  Will be watching yours with interest.

Oh, man, that is fantastic. I have to say thanks for the engine tutorial, as I have a Razorback kit I'll be building in the similar camo scheme with invasion stripes, and I'll be following this closely.

-BD-

Great job, lawdog! I built that same kit out of the box about 12 years ago, including kit decals, and it was a breeze to build and paint. The checkerboard nose decal went on without a hitch. Looking forward to seeing your completed build.

Awesome! 

I love P-47s. 

And I love your work Joe. 

You building a P-47... it's like a double-dipping of awesomeness!!! 

Thanks guys.  I hope you try it on your next radial.  

Greatmaker

Now that's what I call a high quality cockpit and engine!

"You ever been in a cockpit before"

"No sir, I've never been up in a plane before."

"You ever seen a grown man naked?"

 

Get that finger out of you ear! You don't know where it's been!

Now that's what I call a high quality cockpit and engine!

"You ever been in a cockpit before"

"No sir, I've never been up in a plane before."

"You ever seen a grown man naked?"