Nervous - Absolutely Gorgeous!!! Not only is your overall build simply excellent but Kudos especially to your application of the Alclad and to your masking abilities. You should indee be proud of the work you've done there. Also, Thank You for sharing your process. I too was over all pleased with my Kit World dacals. Althuogh the nose art decal had a tendency to lift on me. At least it didn't tear and I got it to lay down with some heavy overcoat. My attempts to correct my damaged Alclad still are not going to satisfaction although I am still working on it. It may end up that I simply will have to bite the bullet and remask along th fuselage panel lines around the affected area and live with off shade panels.

                                                             Joe

NE: WOW!!! Dunno what to say, just great job all around!

[I inadvertently posted in the wrong thread.]

Here are some of the sub-assemblies, now that I've finally gotten moving on this.  First model in over 30 years, and I'm having a blast.  I'm still waiting for some paints to come in in order to pick out some detail in the cockpit.  And I had forgotten about decaling.

[I don't know why the picture didn't post in the above post]

G-J: The photos kinda small for my weak old eyes but what I see looks good! 

Finished!  Here she is in 4th fighter group markings, specifically Don Gentile's "Donny Boy" 336th FS mount from March of 1944.  I do love the early razorback Thunderbolts and what a euphoric experience the Tamiya Jug has been.  The kit is completely out of the box, except for Eduard seat belts and I did go with the Ultracast wheels.  This is my first experience with Ultracast wheels and must say they are nice.  They cost a few bucks more than the True Details version but since these come pre-drilled, this alone is worth it to me.  Just paint then super glue them to the leg and your done.  No finicky drilling.  I find Olive Drab over Neutral Grey schemes somewhat boring, so I used my trusty streaking technique to liven it up.  For those not familiar with it, I paint the plane with a 60/40 mix of Tamiya OD and Khaki. This looks right to my eye since I prefer a brownish OD hue.  I then light this with Tamiya Buff and streak across the chord of the wings very fast at low pressure, about 10 psi or so.  To my eye, it looks more realistic than the norm of fading the center of wing panels. I go a little overboard on application because the effect tends to diminish once its been clear coated, decaled and panel line washed. 

Thank you for letting me participate in this fabulous group build and enjoy the pics.  Comments are always welcome. 

Joe

Absolutely sweet build!

I like the panel lines over the nose art.

Very nice.

Joe: What can I say- WOW! 

Great job on he fighter and the base and figure don't look too shabby either! 

Between you and Nervous Energy you guys are setting the bar so high I'm almost afraid to post my P-47 

G-J - First, Welcome back to the hobby!! From all appearances you still have a knack for it. Really nice work on the office there.

Joe - Simply Masterful P-47 you have turned out. Your work really is exquisite. No doubt about the quality of the Tamiya P-47s and Ultracast wheels.

                                        Joe

Well Gents after repeated distisfaction with trying to repair my mistake I've decided to just bite the bullet and get real with this. I ordered a new set of decals and will strip the old decals off the fuselage and repaint the whole thing, fuslelage that is, and then redecal. It's the only way I'm going to get this right. Indeed it is a PIA but in the end I will be happier with the results. So, until the mail arrives I'll keep working on my Tiger I for the Steel Cats GB.

Go for it Joe. Sucks having to undo all of that work but its for the greater good. It's going to turn out great with that kind of determination.

Sorry to hear that Joe, when I get problems like that I tend to box the thing and start something new. Guess that's one reason I have about thirty half-built stalled-out models lying around...

Good luck!

Well a crazy idea got in my head to wire the engine, so I did.  Definitely won't be doing this anytime soon!

Before:

After:

Guess I got the idea while waiting for this to finish drying:

But in the end, this helped dramatically with the correct dihedral and gap filling.  Just proves that you need to dry fit to find things like this before glue.

In the end it came out really good:

B17 - Right nice work there. Your engine looks excellent. Indeed, it may be tedious and frustrating to wire a radial but the results are worth it in my opinion. Joe

B17: Really nice job wiring the mill there! Nice work!

After a long 10 months working on my dual build/dio 109 GB project, I finally get to move on to my p-47d gabreski kit!! I've only got a few months so this on is going to be straight out of the box. The paint job is going to be the make or break of this this one... Updates soon!

Hey all.  Sorry it's been awhile since I posted anything.  Been busier than expected with work and the family and although I've been faithfully plugging away, I haven't been taking in pictures. 

I'm gonna call this one done.  In the process of finishing, I had forgotten to add the invasion stripes along the fuselage.  Of course I didn't remember to paint them until after I had applied the decals.  For the sake of my own sanity, I added the decals from the Gabreski kit and will replace them with the appropriate ones at a later date. 

Here she is. 

Not sure why these other pics didn't post but here we go again. . .

Overall this was a pretty enjoyable build.  I have definitely learned a lot along the way on this one with it being my first time using Alcad.

Geof:  I'll give you a heads up if you haven't built one of the Gabreski kits before.  Really dry fit the gun fairings and the wings.  The fit of both was so poor that I ended up having to re-scribe them. 

Thanks to Doogs for hosting this one and letting me join in!

As always, comments and criticisms are always welcome!

Brian, looks great! Nice, subtle but very effective weathering! Thanks for heads up on the Gabreski kit. Looks like some foul weather this weekend so, can't think of a better time to break the box!

Ace - Absolutely Gorgeous Jug!! You did a superb job, especially with the Alclad finish.

Geof - Looking forward to your build.

 Well. I simply had to up and take a hard step in order to get everything corrected. Called Tamiya to order a new decal set in order get the stencils. They were unfortunately out of stock of both decal sets and kits that they could get a set out of. 8-12 week minimum wait to get new stock from Japan. Thus after searching around through outlets and other spots I purchased a whole new kit off ebay for $34.00. When Tamiya gets a new stock in I'll get a replacement decal set for this kit. God knows I have a slew of AM decals for for another P-47. So. in the meanwhile I'll get the fuselage all repainted then redecaled and hopefully finish by the end of the month.

Brian: Wow, she looks fantastic!!! Great job and the weathering just looks stunning!

Awesome pictures AceHawkDriver!

What I love about everyone's closeup pictures is that it helps me with stumbling blocks.

Which reminds me, I need to post some WIP pictures......

Geof:  Thanks!  No problem on the heads up.  It started to give me fits to the point where I had to walk away for a couple of days. 

JOE RIX:  Thanks! 

Gamera:  Thanks!

G-J:  Thanks!  Photography isn't a strong ability of mine.  We're still working on finding a better camera than the point and shoot my wife has. 

Guys - apologies for being so lax of late - hoping to get the front page pics updated soon with all the excellent work that's been going on here.

Additionally...I should be staring another P-47 soon. This one'll be a Frenchie!

Well Gents, I finally got over the hmming and hahing over the challenge I faced to redo my mistake. Masked off the wings and tail and shot a coat of Tamiya gray primer over entire fuselage. Really, the only thing I'm bemoaning is having to redecal the bugger. Hopefully I can get 'er into full swing here and finish by deadline.

Nice work Joe, glad to see you salvaged her and are once again making progress!

Gee whiz, I went back and checked the front page, I'd forgotten about the deadline! I've been working on and off on this Revell Promodeler P-47N for almost a year now! I knew I was slow but geee whiz! I'll try to finish her before the deadline. The Tamiya P-47D I pulled out again about a week ago and she's pretty much assembled as of last night. Doubt I'll ever get her done for the deadline though.

Here's a WIP.  I've just attached the landing gear.

I'm having a devil of a time keeping them straight, and (relatively) perpendicular to the landing gear housing (if that makes sense.)

DoogsATX

Guys - apologies for being so lax of late - hoping to get the front page pics updated soon with all the excellent work that's been going on here.

Additionally...I should be staring another P-47 soon. This one'll be a Frenchie!

Hey Doogs,

Can I get in on this GB with the Academy 1/48 Gabreski Jug? My mom's favorite plane and favorite pilot. She worked in Republic's plant in Evansville, Ind., during the war and I've always had a soft spot for these brutes. Hope I can get this one done by year-end, as life has gotten much busier of late.

Off topic: Has anyone else here noticed that trying to post something with "rich formatting" from an iPad basically doesn't work, or is it me?

stoutfella

Hey Doogs,

Can I get in on this GB with the Academy 1/48 Gabreski Jug? My mom's favorite plane and favorite pilot. She worked in Republic's plant in Evansville, Ind., during the war and I've always had a soft spot for these brutes. Hope I can get this one done by year-end, as life has gotten much busier of late.

You're in!

I've also updated the build photos on the frontpage - if I've missed anybody, my apologies, go ahead and yell at me and I'll get you up there.

Also almost ready to get cracking on my next Jug, a 1/32 Hasegawa done up in the markings of C9*I of Groupe de Chasse I/5 "Champagne" of the Free French Air Force.

This profile gets most of it right - the yellow flash on the bottom of the rudder isn't right, and I'm 90% certain the front cowl ring on the real plane was red and just hidden by the lighting (there's a distinct step down where it's against the neutral gray), but gives a sense of how colorful this one'll be.

I'm in the home stretch with my under the radar build, and should be starting on this guy sometime next week.

Well Compadres, I'm afraid I'm going to have to have to throw my arms up on this one. My attempt to reprime and repaint the fuselage ended in a dismal failure. Same Tamiya gray primer and same Alclad Airframe Aluminum, 2 completely different results:

 I am rather uncertain exactly how this occured all I know is that well, it did. Thus, my current option is to break out the Polly S ELO paint stripper and strip her down and start over. Yes, indeed it is disappointing and frustrating but I am not about to toss it out when, with a some time and effort, I can revive the patient. The issue is that in order to do that there is no way that I will finish by the deadline. I would be setting myself up to be unable to complete my other GBs should I direct my full attention to the Jug. I would rather not be able to complete the GB than try and hurry it through the holidays. I cannot say enough about how enjoyable this has been and I'll still be monitoring the GB to its completion. Now, if I can figure out how to delete the badge under the new format. Thanks guys and keep cranking those beauties out.

                                 Regards, Joe

P.S. I will post my recovery efforts on the forum as I progress.