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.

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

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 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.

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!?!?!'

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

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...

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

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. 

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,

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

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...

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.

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!

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.

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. 

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

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.

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. 

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

Whilst this won't compare to the AM belts Doogs refers to, check out this link if you feel like attempting to create your own:

/forums/p/146343/1558125.aspx#1558125

It's a post by another dude on here called Valjed.  I think his scratch belts look terrific and will definitely give it a try for a future build (as i'm a real tight wad).

Admittedly, his are 1/72.  At 1/32, it might not look as good.

Psycho - Oh Yeah, I've used PE belts. They do indeed vastly improve the appearance of the cockpit. But, as Doogs pointed out, they don't lay down in the haphazard manner of real belts. My next step was the Ultracast seat w/ molded in harness that I'm using on this here Jug. Given a steady hand and some technique they are an improvement over PE IMHO. I've acquired a few more for some select kits in my stash. I have also obtained a couple of sets, 1/48 USN & USAAF, of the fabric seatbelts that Doogs mentioned. Haven't used them yet but upon opening the package I am duely impressed. I ordered mine from Hannants.

                                                                             Joe

ww2psycho

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

http://stores.ebay.com/HGW-Models

No new pictures yet (In Vegas this week for a conference... I can tell I'm getting old... I'd rather be back home working at my hobby), but the wings are on, and ready for some gap correction.  The wings themselves had a pretty good fit... a little Surfacer required in the leading edge seam near the root on the port wing, but perfect other than that.  Fitting the gun bay panels closed was a bit of a chore, as that took a bit more surfacer and some shimming.

The wing roots once fitted are nearly perfect on the top, only gapping some at the front.  The bottoms are a bit more problematic, with a significant step that needs to be filed down and filled.  I do like how the spars force perfect dihedral, though, and an absolutely solid connection. 

Question on the gun barrels... what do you typically paint them?  Current color photos are all over the place, either painted the same as the camo scheme when the plane isn't bare metal, or polished to a sheen that does credit to the museum floor, but probably isn't too realistic for the field.

I've got alclad gunmetal, but that may be too dark.  I'll use it if there aren't any other suggestions.  The barrels are Master turned brass, and I'm not even sure if that needs priming for alclad or other laquers.

Nervousenergy,

Good question, it really depends on the actual plane you want to model and its wear and tear. I have seen multiple examples of blast tubes right out of the factory looking like pristine light metal shiny tubes. To me personally a more blackened gunmetalled up kind of colour looks more real for wartime conditions. I guess it really depends on your opinion and taste in this...

Bare metal aftermarket tubes i guess should be primed with the primer of your choice. Your average acrylic paint wont bite in the metal thats why.

just my two cents...

Richard

The P-47's blast tubes were made (I believe) of aluminum. They were also one of the items that was undoubtedly subjected to some pretty loving maintenance - probably at least wiped down after every flight, ends retaped, and the entire tubes removed whenever the guns were cleaned. They also contained most of the muzzle flash, so, like the Brits' Hispano 20mm cannons, you don't see much if any staining on them.

I've always kept them pretty clean on my Jugs...I imagine they could be painted over, but if you look at aircraft where that would've made sense - with D-Day invasion stripes or yellow bands on the wings, etc - the tubes are always left metal.

I'd stick with aluminum of some kind, though, unless I had direct photo references indicating otherwise.

Here...you can see the tubes pretty well in this shot of Arlie Blood's ride:

Even on a wartime aircraft, the metal is clean and shiny.

DoogsATX

The P-47's blast tubes were made (I believe) of aluminum. They were also one of the items that was undoubtedly subjected to some pretty loving maintenance - probably at least wiped down after every flight, ends retaped, and the entire tubes removed whenever the guns were cleaned. They also contained most of the muzzle flash, so, like the Brits' Hispano 20mm cannons, you don't see much if any staining on them.

(snip)

Even on a wartime aircraft, the metal is clean and shiny.

Ahh... there's the bit I didn't know.  I've got Robert Peczkowski's awesome P-47 reference book and I've stared at it till I've got it near memorized, but the majority of his color photos are, of course, from contemporary restored planes.  I'm building this one with little weathering, wanting to make a 'cleaned up ride', but certainly not to museum shiny, and the tubes in the museum shots can double as shaving mirrors.  I have a hard time telling color from B/W photos... for example, in the picture above those tubes look pretty dark to me.  ;-)

If they were well-maintained, though, then I'll certainly use dura or dark aluminum instead of gunmetal.  Can you spray alclad directly onto brass, or does the brass need to get surf 1200 like the plastic?  I'm not much of a chemist, but it wouldn't seem the surfacer would be any better at bonding to the brass than the straight lacquer would...

 This is excellent info. as I too was wondering about the exact color of the the gun sheaths. A bit of heads up concerning painting the metal gun barrels. I initially painted mine with Tamiya gray primer then Taniya aluminum. The problem that arose was that with the double coat, it made the barrel to thick to slide into the wing. Thus, I scrapped all the paint and primer off and will repaint with Aclad Duraluminum sans the primer and also only paint the part of the barrel that will be exposed. Just the voice of experience.

                                                        Joe

Ordered some of them seat belts so I just need to wait for them to come in before starting on it again.

 Followed through with my gun barrel painting plan last night. Sprayed only the portion of each barrel that would be exposed with Alclad Duraluminum and no primer. Turned out fabulously. The Alclad adheres to the brass no problem.

 NervousEnergy - Hope this be helpful to ya.

 Curious though, what methods have some of you all used for gluing the barrels in without making a mess or prematurely sticking before you get them slid all the way in?

                                                             Joe