RAF markings...I like. got the finishing bits for my tam 47m. will start working on it either tonight or tomorrow. pics as always. 

Can you put me down for a Revellogram 1:48 P-47D razorback.

Hey guys!  Haven't posted yet on this GB due to finishing the PzIII GB.  But since that's now complete, I'll have a chance to get started on this one. 

Haven't made much progress as of yet since our second son was born on March 9th and spent 18 days in the NICU due to breathing issues.  He finally came home on the 28th and I may get some build time in.

All I've accomplished so far is assembling the wings, horizontal stabilizers, and have cleaned up the engine.  I have one sidewall of the cockpit installed as well as the rear bulkhead.  I will add some detail to it, but won't go overboard.

Here's the progress so far

Not much done yet but will try and keep plugging away slowly at it.

Comments and criticisms are always welcome!

AceHawkDriver- Glad to hear your son is home with you now. Good luck with your build.

Hello gents, a final update on Ms. Second Front. She has been done for a week now, but I had the flu and didn't feel like doing anything but sleeping. I used Tamiya paints and Zotz decals on this build. I hope you like it!

I really enjoyed building this one with all of the unusual theater markings and such. It's no Tamiya, but it builds up really nice and you can't beat the price. I think I paid under $10 after my coupon at Michael's. Thanks for checking it out! I think I have one more Jug I would like to do before this GB ends, I will let you know.

Ace & Baron: Welcome, looking forward to more photos guys!

Ed: Wow, great job there! Nice job overall and love the spiffy nose art

Gamera

Ace & Baron: Welcome, looking forward to more photos guys!

Ed: Wow, great job there! Nice job overall and love the spiffy nose art

Looks really nice! Well done.

Ed - Superb work there indeed. Thanks for sharing your skills.

                     Joe

Baron - got you added to the roster! Looking forward to another Revellogram Razorback! 

Ed - lovely work on the Revellogram! That's FOUR for this GB now - man you're on fire!

Looks like I've got a bit longer to wait on the HK B-25 (PCM just got back saying looks like their shipment will come in around the end of the month...so I've got at least two weeks. Seriously pondering getting another Jug off the ground since the PV-1 is about to go into paint and I'm still waiting on stuff for both my Bishop and USS Laffey.

Ed: really great build!  I think the cowl looks terrific.  Nice to see some colour on the standard OD over NG scheme.

DoogsATX: go on!  I bet you could churn out another before the B-25 arrives!

Brian - good to hear your son is home with the family.........now, get crackin' on that Jug!

Ed - very nice work there. I love these Jugs when they're armed to the hilt. Awesome!

Doogs, if it's cool with you, I need to put my 1/72 Jug on hold. The reason is simple.........my 1/48 Tamiya Razorback Jug is here! Man, what a kit! You sure weren't kiddin' about this guy. This is going to be a fun build. Got the Eduard PE set as well (it's for the Has. kit, but I'll make it work here), and on the way but yet to arrive are some AM decals and those PE blast tubes from the Ultracast site. Definitely looking forward to having a good time with this one!

ruddratt

Doogs, if it's cool with you, I need to put my 1/72 Jug on hold. The reason is simple.........my 1/48 Tamiya Razorback Jug is here! Man, what a kit! You sure weren't kiddin' about this guy. This is going to be a fun build. Got the Eduard PE set as well (it's for the Has. kit, but I'll make it work here), and on the way but yet to arrive are some AM decals and those PE blast tubes from the Ultracast site. Definitely looking forward to having a good time with this one!

Told ya! One of the best kits to ever find its way into a box, especially in 1/48 scale. Once you've built a Tamiya Jug, it's hard to go for another, unless it's a radical swing back to the simplicity of the Revellogram.

I'm honestly worried I'll be let down by the Hasegawa if I decide to swing at it next...

Thanks for all the great comments guys, I truly appreciate it! These four builds have been fantastic, they have really taught me alot about technique and processes. And hey, hanging out with this crew doesn't hurt either! Thanks again!

Von Sisco

Thanks for all the great comments guys, I truly appreciate it! These four builds have been fantastic, they have really taught me alot about technique and processes. And hey, hanging out with this crew doesn't hurt either! Thanks again!

Well, Ed. All 4 of them look very nice. Sure you don't have an assembly line going there? Who else is in on it? You're pretty much inspiring me to temporarily abandon my 109 build and get back into the P-47 fold!

Tom- No assembly line here sir, just yours truly and my Lab Sierra scanning the floor for flying pieces! I have a 109 to do for that GB as well, but I have that on the back burner while I work on the bomber for your GB as well as projects for the Grumman Iron Works and Special Wing Dings GBs. I've got too much to do! I know you will knock out another great P-47 if you choose to do so!

 Alrighty, I've got the Aclad Aircraft Aluminum on. Rather pleased with how my first go with Alclad turned out, although there is more to learn using this stuff. I've encountered a couple of things that maybe some of you "Clad Masters might have suggestions for. During testing on my stunt model I masked and sprayed a patch of Humbrol enamel French Blue to see how masking and painting on Alclad would be. When I removed the mask a bit of the aluminum "particles" came off with it leaving a distinct mark where the tape had been. I'm using Tamiya tape. The next thing I discovered is I taped over the blue patch I had painted on and when I lifted the tape off off came the blue slick as can be. So, I'm figuring progressive coats of Alclad gloss over the initial aluminum then again when i paint the blue cowling, anti glare panel and other select panels for contrast. If you all have some alternative thoughts or suggestions please share them as I certainly would be interested in any alternative methods. Maybe I should have painted the cowling and anti glare first and then masked them of prior to the Alclad coat. Here is a few pics of my current status,

                                                                      Joe

Looks great Joe! Mighty shiny.

I had the same issues with alclad on my build. For me, the saving grace was it went back on smoothly with no issues (couldn't tell any of it had ever "flaked" off). Also, when handling, along the leading/trailing edge, it would come off.  I think it just goes on so thinly, that it is more prone to flaking?

Sealing works well (alclad clear). I learned that later in the build. Next time, I will do that before going with any conventional paints or other masking for further alclad shades. I didn't want to try Future over the alclad, thinking it may take some of the sheen away? Also, the areas where I had sanded the primer more, with 3200, did not flake. Just some ideas...

Joe: Beyond Tom's good advice I'm not sure what to tell you. I've had excellent luck with Alclad but once in awhile it does peel up, not sure what I did wrong, maybe I didn't clean it enough.

I've tried masking the Alclad first and after and I've had better luck overall doing the Alclad first and then doing the trim and anti-glare panels afterward.

Excellent work Joe! it is coming along very nicely!

 Thanks Mucho Fellas. I am glad to hear that my plan of action seems viable as I was holding up until I got some feedback.

                                            Joe

Slowly making progress:

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

Started decaling last night.

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.

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

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- 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!

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. 

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!

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

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

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?