And where do I find these two items you speak of?

ww2psycho

Has anyone in this GB used PE seat belts before? Id like to try the tape method but I cant find just the buckle parts, How hard are they to use? My decal tore when trying to apply it.

I've used PE. Not bad, but they're just not very good at twisting and laying weird the way a real belt would.

I'd STRONGLY, STRONGLY recommend picking up some microtextile belts instead. I'm using some HGW 1/32 US belts for my B-25 and finally got to playing with them last night. Love, love, love. The belts themselves come on this fabric-paper type material and you cut them out. The instructions say to wad them up, roll them around your fingers and basically get them all beat-looking, which works great actually. The buckles are Eduard PE.

Never going back to PE belts again, at least not in 1/32. 

Has anyone in this GB used PE seat belts before? Id like to try the tape method but I cant find just the buckle parts, How hard are they to use? My decal tore when trying to apply it.

A P-47N painted like a Wolf Pack P-47M? Interesting. Way too shiny though. 

only problem with revellogram N is the wing root. it's one major pain. 

47N from the ghost squadron. i definitely want info on this bird. 

VanceCrozier

Gamera:

I've got the black stripes on the tail done, again I wish I'd bought the kit the decals were designed for and saved myself a good bit of work. I applied the cheesecake nose art last night and am slowly making my way though the other decals.

 

mmmmmmmm - I love cheesecake!

Actually '2 Big and Too Heavy' has cheesecake on BOTH sides of her cowling. Web search for sometime, some of the most awesomest nose art ever.

Gamera

I've got the black stripes on the tail done, again I wish I'd bought the kit the decals were designed for and saved myself a good bit of work. I applied the cheesecake nose art last night and am slowly making my way though the other decals.

mmmmmmmm - I love cheesecake!

I've got the black stripes on the tail done, again I wish I'd bought the kit the decals were designed for and saved myself a good bit of work. I applied the cheesecake nose art last night and am slowly making my way though the other decals.

Well.. I have cracked Vacu-form for my build.. but Life has been busy.. Town Meeting is tonight to fight for my Fire Dept budget.. after this.. I hope it quiets down and I can get building...

Indeed cml it has been rather quiet here as of late.

Sounds like your making some decent progress. Hope the buffing turns out to your satisfaction. Good Luck.

Amongst my whirlwind of life activity I've been getting in some bursts of Jug time. Mostly short airbrushing bits on the cowling, nearly done, bombs and external fuel tanks and prepping to shoot the flaps with a coat of  Alclad Duraluminum. It certainly adds though to some headway.

                                                     Joe

Looks like not too many updates in here recently.

I've finally made  a bit more progress on my 1/48 Tamiya Jug.

Got a gloss coat of black down over the weekend, and last night sprayed a coat of Humbrol Metal Cote Polished Aluminium.  It's a buffing metalizer - and something i've never worked with before.

Will try and give it a buff over the next day or so and then aim to put up some pics.

Regards,

hasegawa kit is nice. didn't give me any problems. wing root was an awesome fit. i been meaning to start on my tam 47M but school had me busy last week. hopefully this week i'll get a start. 

Folks, heading out for vacation/holiday tomorrow (Sat.) Hopefully when I get back in a week and a half my batteries will be charged enough to finish off the stripes on '2 Big and Too Heavy'.

Cliff

Wabashwheels

Gamera, Isn't that somewhere in chapter 6 of Murphy's Law?

 

I have issues with Murphy....

I'm thinking now of scraping the pollen off my car and mixing it with my yellow paint...

Gamera, Isn't that somewhere in chapter 6 of Murphy's Law?

Well, as I said I haven't actually built the Academy kit so everything I'm saying I'm prefacing with 'I've read' or 'I've heard' so please take it all with a grain of salt.

BTW: Was thinking on the way back home from work last night, 'if it's so hard to get yellow paint to cover anything then why does yellow pollen show up so vividly on my black car!?!?!'

I agree with Rick...my Academy Bubbletop went together almost flawlessly (mayyybe a gap on the underside at the wing roots?). Again, that was a D, not an N, and I certainly can't speak for their accuracy versus Tamiya or Hasegawa.

I was quite pleased with my Academy -N, as I stated in my posts.  The decals seemed old and brittle, but I usually like to use aftermarket decals anyhow.  Great fits all around, very little need for putty.  Academy needs to bow to no one.  Rick

I'd been told the Promodeler P-47N is marginally better than the Academy one. Then again people tell you all kinds of stuff so I can't be sure. When I build another P-47N I'm going to give the Academy one a try.

Personally I'd rate 'em:

Promodeler P-47N: 6.5-7

Hasegawa P-47D:   9 

Tamiya P-47D:         10

dupes

Gamera/Doogs - I'm somewhat surprised that the Academy N has such a bad rep...unless it's a considerably different mold than their D? Finished one a couple of years ago now already (yikes) and it came out really well. Just looked through my photobucket album, guess I never posted finished pics.

Is it accuracy issues with the Academy?

Well, it has to be substantially different given the design of the -N - all-new wings and, due to the outboarding of the gear bays, I believe they're new fuselage halves as well. 

Trying to recall the issues - believe the big one was the wing root, maybe the gun fairings. I started messing with mine a few months back and didn't find it awful at all. No match for Tamiya's Jugs, and honestly the fit wasn't as assured as Monogram's Razorback, but definitely buildable.

Gamera/Doogs - I'm somewhat surprised that the Academy N has such a bad rep...unless it's a considerably different mold than their D? Finished one a couple of years ago now already (yikes) and it came out really well. Just looked through my photobucket album, guess I never posted finished pics.

Is it accuracy issues with the Academy?

Nervous Energy- You are off to a great start with this kit! I love the details on it, should be a real beauty.

WW2P: Sounds great, looking forward to photos!

Dupes: Yeah the N had some of the best nose art but the Revell Promodeler has some rough edges and I've heard the Academy kit is pretty similar in quality. Still will love to see what you come up with.

NE: Wow, that's amazing! Some beautiful detailing and work there

Doogs: Thanks, I'll see about picking up some Gunze. Unfortunately the decals for the Tamiya P-47D I picked up have yellow accents too! 

I've been working on the decals most of the weekend. '2 Big and Too Heavy' has broad black stripes on the tail surfaces. Well, the decals were made for the Academy P-47N and I've having to cut and piece them to fit the Promodeler kit. It's not too hard, just sorta annoying, guess I should have picked up the Academy kit in the first place

Excellent work going on here, guys!

Dupes - have to say, I'm shocked how popular the -N has been so far in this GB, especially with the Academy and Revell offerings both having some, err, rocky reputations. Definitely eager for more, but let me know if you want to switch it up.

Gamera - yellow is the worst! In the future, you may want to try Gunze for yellow. Their yellows and whites cover better than any others I've used. 

Nervous - heck yeah! About time a TrumpyJug finally breaks cover!

I know I haven't posted in the GB since I signed up for it near the beginning, but I've been putting in a bit of work here and there.  Definitely having symptoms of Slow Modeler Syndrom.  It doesn't help that the Trumpeter kit gives you endless rabbit trails you can cheerfully waste hours on for details that will never be seen.  It was mentally tough not to paint and detail the rear bulkhead support structures behind the firewall, and I wasn't able to resist spending a TON of time on the engine model.  The ignition wiring wasn't the best job, but the paint came out pretty good though the camera flash seems to completely drown out all the weathering.

I cheated on the pit... got the excellent Zoom set from Eduard.  Lot of time to put it all together and get it just right, but soooo easy to work with.  It really does feel like cheating.

It's actually gone together very well.  Test fits on the fuselage halves show a near perfect alignment around the firewall and pit.  It's got the typical Trumpeter cleanup requirements... lots of flash and mould seams, but the fit of most everything is very nice.  It's really too bad they make it tough to display the detail forward of the pit, because they did a nice job on it.  Not so much the supercharger assemblies in the back... it would take a lot of putty / surfacer to get rid of the very rough join seams there.  I doubt they spent much time in QC for that portion given that so few modelers are going to go through the extra work required to display it.

I'm enjoying it quite a bit.  The nearly 100 parts in the engine got a bit tedious, but it looked great when it went together. 

Painting it is going to give me a panic attack. 

Gamera- I agree, yellow can be a P.I.T.A. but you are doing a great job with it. I think we could start our own fighter group with all of these yellow tails!

Man, some GREAT finished builds guys! Cranking out a Spitfire now...going to hop on a Jug right after. Leaning toward an Academy N. Or at least I was until I saw the ones on the first page!

Gamera - Agreed on painting yellow yet, it appears your efforts paid off handsomely. You've done an absolutely sweet job on the paint scheme.

                                                                         Joe

I have my cockpit complete except the seat belt decal broke when trying to put it on, just need to make new seat belts before closing everything up. It will be a first so I want to get it right.

Slowly making progress:

Have I mentioned lately how much I hate painting friggin' yellow

Started decaling last night.