Thunderbolt GB 2016

Looking good Rocker!  It's always a nice moment when you get them up on their feet for the first time isn't it? 

Cheers, Mark

Nice fix rocker! She's looking really good with the paint on!

Brandon and Mark: Thanks guys! And Mark at least you found that PE part - somewhere in the basement of my parent's house there's a .30 cal machine gun for a 1:72 Airacobra lurking around!

Well, I finally put the first coat of paint on my jug. I'll be touching up spots that need more later tonight. The landing gear, prop and rocket tubes are attached as well. It was a bit of a challenge putting the rocket tubes on. Obviously Revell didn't design this kit to have the tubes, so when i went to test fit them they rubbed up against the landing gear. I studied the gear for about three minutes and realized what I could do. The rectangular section of the gear doors rests up against an attachment point on the gear strut. All I did was pop the rectangular section off with a #11 blade, and then snipped away a small portion of the attachment point with a pair of sprue cutters. I re-attached the rectangular piece and it gave the tubes enough room.

And here's a photo of my jug, standing upright!

rocker286

....would you believe it if I told you that I found the original one tonight? The darn thing was hiding underneath my cutting mat!!

LOL.  Yeah, it amazes me how these parts just end up in the weirdest places.  I was applying some CA glue to a PE part the other day and of course it flew out of my tweazers and disappeared.  I was on my hands and knees for half an hour scouring the carpet but never found it.  That night when I took off my shoes, I discovered the part firmly glued to the top of my right shoe.  hahaha....

I love the red trim against the NMF of your jug.  It's looking sweet!

Cheers, Mark

Rocker286, that's a pretty cool paint scheme and I like the multitone look you've given it. That's gonna look sick with the decals. 

BK

Rooster and Mark: Thanks for the kudos on the cylinder replacement.....would you believe it if I told you that I found the original one tonight? The darn thing was hiding underneath my cutting mat!! Oh well. Excellent job on your jug, Mark!

Brandon: That really stinks about those decals! Glad to hear you've got replacements though!

I've had a busy summer between work, reenacting, and wedding planning. But i've managed to chip away at my Thunderbolt some more. I've since primed it, and begun to paint it.

I'm using model master aluminum, steel and chrome silver on this bird to make it look a bit more realistic. It's a bit tedious, but in my opinion it's worth it....but maybe the next plane I build will be all one color though! haha.

Hey Brandon, that Jug is looking fantastic.  Glad the decal problems didn't set you back too much.  Love the NMF.

Cheers, Mark

Looking very nice there BK despite the decal issues. Always handy to have a healthy dcal stash.

Mark, lovely job there, really nice how you have done the well used finish. And the work on the nose really paid off.

Very big well done.

Mark, your Jug turned out awesome. The overall look and weathering is spot on. Well done.

As for my Jug, I've been so busy with other things I haven't spent more than an hour at the bench over the last several weeks. I finally managed to get the decals on and that was a bit of a fight. You see, this kit is an older Promodeler and the decals were no longer willing to cooperate and the larger ones cracked while I waited for the glue to release. I was forced to use a set of decals from another Jug I had in my spares. I was able to mostly make those work. I will need to do some tough ups in a couple of places where the decals didn't quite fit right. 

Furtunately I was able to get the nose art and few other decals to pull off and go down corrrectly. Just the no step and stars and bars needed to be replaced. All in all I was lucky I had a spare set or I would have been forced to order more and I didn't want to do that. Anyhow, this is where it sits for now until I can get more time to finish it up. 

BK

Thanks Andy.  I am proud of this one, mostly because it's my first NMF.  The hobby has changed so much since I was a kid, when a natural metal finish for me meant brushing a bunch of silver paint all over the place.  lol. 

Going to take a short break before starting the Eduard 1/32 Jug.  I think that one will take me a couple months...  just dealing with the PE!  

Cheers, Mark

Mark, you should be really proud of that build. It turned out AWESOME! I love the weathering you did on the strips and all around really. Thanks for joining and turning out a beautiful build! You are of course welcome to build another...maybe something in a 1/32 Eduard... Thanks again and I'll get you added to the front page shortly.

(COMPLETED)- Tamiya P-47 Bubbletop / Passionate Patsy

Hey all, I've finally put the final touches to Passionate Patsy (um... wait that sounds a bit wrong...hahaha) and I am happy to share some final pics.

I really like how she came out, though of course there are about a thousand little things I'd like to "fix" or "undo," but I feel good about it now, so why push my luck?  lol

It's been fun to be a part of a group build (my first) and to make a WIP thread (another first) showing the whole build. Thanks to everyone for help and encouragement along the way!  I look forward to following the other Thunderbolt builds still going on!

I don't really have a good lighting setup for pictures, so these were just taken with the plane on some poster board and a couple of room lamps.  Maybe have to invest in a better photo setup.

Cheers, Mark

Yes, Patsy IS hot!  One of the reasons I picked this color scheme.     Thanks Brandon.

Cheers, Mark

Wow, she turned out very very well done. I am loving the look of Patsy, she's hot. Excellent build.

BK

Thanks Rocker.  Thankfully I didn't have any broken cylinders on this build.  If it does happen in the future I know who to go to for help. 

Cheers, Mark

Mark,  that Jug is a work of art! Excellent job!

Thanks Andy. 

Cheers, Mark

Man Mark that is OUTSTANDING!! That has really come together nicely!

My Latest WIP pictures of my Thunderbolt, the Tamiya 1/48 Bubbletop.

Well, it's been really slow progress over the last week or so.  Lots of distractions/issues, but now the construction/painting phase is essentially complete. 

Did some chipping on the prop and made a first pass with oils for weathering.  I like how the oils look.  The long set-up time is nice in that it gives you a chance to fix things you don't like, but it's also agravating just to maneuver the plane without smudging anything.  Once the oil weathering is done I'll finish with some light chipping of the painted areas, shoot it with a light dull-coat, permanently afix the canopy and call it comlete. 

Cheers, Mark

Great job on that cylinder fix!  I think I would've chucked the whole thing in the trash, lol.  Your build is looking awesome. 

Cheers, Mark

Looking really good rocker and good save with the cylinder!

Mark, your T-bolt is really coming together! Excellent job on that paint.

I spent the better part of this weekend getting caught up on my P-47. I attached the engine, cowling, wings and stabilizers. It was when I was installing the cowling that I found a flaw in the kit. The Cowling wouldn't fit over the engine, and after several attempts to get it to fit better, I broke one of the cylinders off! I was ticked off for sure, but I managed to construct a new one out of a piece of sprue. I also took my dremel and sanded the living daylights out of the inside of the cowling. The combination of sanding/plastic surgery did the trick!

After the engine/cowling debacle, I attached the wings and stabilizers. It's starting to look more and more like an airplane with each passing day! I also took a pair of 4.5 inch rocket launchers from the Academy P-47 kit and constructed them to attach to this kit. I drilled out holes for them this morning.

rooster513

This is really coming together nicely Mark! That cowling looks awesome!

 

Thanks Andy.  For a while there this build was feeling like, 80% cowling...  and then the rest of the plane.  I'm glad to reach a point where the plane is nearly whole.

Bish

Thats looking lovely Mark. Good to see her on her legs and coming together.

 

Thanks Bish.  Adding the gear is such a milestone.  Really brings it to life. 

Cheers, Mark

Thats looking lovely Mark. Good to see her on her legs and coming together.

This is really coming together nicely Mark! That cowling looks awesome!

Latest WIP pictures of Tamiya's 1/48 P-47 Bubbletop - Passionate Patsy.

A lot of things came together this weekend, so the plane is finally starting to look like... a plane.

Engine, ducting and cowling got assembled...

...and finally mated to the fuselage! 

Got most of the major decals down.  Still have to do the bulk of the small stuff, but it sure is nice to see markings on her now.

Started initial weathering, starting with the wheel wells.  I'll be using a combination of washes and oils for the weathering.

Have a few things to fix.  Have to add the yellow tips to the prop blades.  (Thanks to Lawdog for spoting that).  I forgot to paint the aft half of the tail-wheel doors white, to match the tail paint.  That should be an interesting masking experiment at this stage.  And I'm still working on the bombs.  Have tried the kit-supplied decals for the yellow stripes, but not happy with them.  Super tough to mask and paint though, due to the compount curves.  Still pondering a solution.

That's it for now.  The finish line is in sight. 

Cheers, Mark

Thanks Bish.  Yeah, I'm not gonna sweat the small flaws in the nose art.  I think it's one of those things that nobody but me would ever notice. 

Cheers, Mark

Loking great there Mark. Really nice job on the nose art, can't make out the tears. And a great idea for the tires.

Latest WIP pictures of Tamiya's 1/48 P-47 Bubbletop - Passionate Patsy.

A few pics from Friday.  I got a lot done yesterday, so I'll post those pics sometime this evening.  Have to do chores today.

Applied decals to prop and main gear struts.

Applied nose-art decals to cowling.  This was a tough one.  It was three different decals, so it took me a while to get the alignment "right."  Fairly happy with it, but there is a small tear in her leg.  Later, after using Solveset, another small tear appeared in her hair.

I used small amounts of Blu-Tack to temporarily attach the struts to the wings and the wheels to the struts.  Then applied small strips of tape on the wheels to mark the alignment of the flat part of the wheel. 

This worked really well when it came time to glue the wheels to the struts.

That's it for now.  Cheers, Mark