Thunderbolt GB 2016

Quick Update:  Finally got a little metal sprayed last night.  Just working on the cowl first to see how it all goes.  I like the result, but my iPhone had a really hard time focusing on it.  Must be due to the reflective surface?  Took about a dozen pictures and this was the sharpest.  I'll have to sort out how to get better shots, since the whole plane will be like this.  hahaha.

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Cheers, Mark

BrandonK

Mark, painting the rudder definately did the job. I never did like the look of decals for that. I need to do more painting and less decals, but alas I find myself getting lazy when I get near the end of my builds. That needs to stop.

BK

Yeah, I think I want to try painting more markings.  Applying decals has been one aspect of modeling that's been really frustrating for me. 

Nice job on that rudder Mark, you made the right choice in painting that.

Mark, painting the rudder definately did the job. I never did like the look of decals for that. I need to do more painting and less decals, but alas I find myself getting lazy when I get near the end of my builds. That needs to stop.

BK

Mark the construction is coming along nicely. Painting the rudder was def the way to go. Looks very good! Looking forward to seeing the NMF go on!

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

Been a hectic week, so I really didn't get anything done until today.  I was going to start on the engine this week, but still haven't scrounged any wire I'm happy with in order to wire it up (following Lawdog's excellent tutorial).  I did get some NMF testing done, so I've dialed-in the settings I'll need for a good spray.

Anyway, here are some pics of my progress.  Got the wings and horiz stabilizers attached, built the flaps and masked off the cockpit opening.

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Also managed to get the rudder painted.  The AM decals included the striped rudder, but because of their size and the many raised features on the rudder, I thought they would probably be hard to apply.  So I challenged myself to paint it.  I think it came out okay, but needs some touch up.  My masking was not as good as it could have been.  In the pictures the rudder is temporarily dry-fitted to the plane.  I couldn't resist. 

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Going to scrounge around more for some suitable wire for the engine.  Hopefully get that sorted tomorrow.

Cheers, Mark

BrandonK

Mark, your Jug is coming along swimmingly.

BK

Thanks Brandon.  Man, that paint job of yours is beautiful!  

Cheers, Mark 

rooster513

Which shades of Alclad did you use?

I am nearly out of all my Alclad shades and this is the only one I have any amount of to paint an entire plane, Alcald Chrome. It's a tad light for a plane, I think thier aluminum variations are better, but it's what I have atm.

Thanks for the kind words gents.

BK

That paint job is fantastic BK!  That fuselage really shines. Which shades of Alclad did you use?

Looking really nice there BK, i like that blue. I have only used Alclad twice on an aircraft and both times had the same issues with lifting. But that was mainly when masking off panels to apply differant shades of metal. But think i will try the same approach as you next time.

Jeeze Louise, I'm so busy I just can't get to the bench like I would like to. I managed to get the paint work done on the -N. I painted the secondary colors first and then masked and laid down the alclad as I don't want to get the lifting issue I seem to always get with alclad so I reversed my painting order. It worked fine and now the kit is drying in the paint booth from the aqua gloss clear I just put on to prepair for decals. I'll post more as I can find time to get it worked on.

Mark, your Jug is coming along swimmingly.

BK

Looking forward to the start rocker! 

Well folks, after finishing up an me262 I'm finally getting around to building my P-47D! The Revell kit is nice, but I saved a few parts from an Academy T-bolt kit I put together last year to add to this build- basically just the 4.5 inch rocket tubes. After all, how can I let those things just sit around in my sprue stash? I washed off the sprues tonight and I'm hoping to jump into the build tomorrow after work.

Ah, that's a good idea.  Thanks.  I'll make that part of my testing process.

M

Mark, I had no problems with masking the Alclad. I used Tamiya masking tape and reduced the tackiness of it some by sticking it to my hand a couple of times. I would do the same with the AK Xtreme metals just to be on the safe side.

Thanks Andy.  I'll be super happy if it turns out even half as good as your build!

Question for you, did you have any masking trouble using that Alclad?  I was thinking of using Alclad, but read that some people have had issues with masks pulling it up.  So I ended up buying some AK Xtreme metals.  Going to start testing the AK on some scrap plastic later this week, but if I don't like it I might try the Alclad.  

Cheers, Mark

Mark that is coming together great! I agree that the engineering and fit of this kit is 2nd to none. Looking forward to seeing the paint go in!

Thanks Bish. 

Here's my latest update.  Painted the wheel wells and glued up the wings.  Man, the Tamiya engineering is great.  In the last picture I dry-fitted the wings to fuselage, and they fit perfectly.  Two for Tamiya!  Going to get started on the engine this week.

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Cheers, Mark

Looking good Mark.

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

Finally got the cockpit all squared away yesterday and today.  Of course, during the process of glueing the walls up, a large piece of PE broke off the floor and ended up on my bench.  Didn't notice it sitting there until I finished putting the pit together.  D'oh!  Took me a while to finesse it back into it's position on the floor. 

Anyway, here are some pics of the finished cockpit.

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Then it was time to buttom up the fuselage... and add the rear spine and vert stabilizer.

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Just have to sand and dress up the seams, then it's on to the wings! 

Cheers, Mark

Having to remove mollded detail from the kit PE is not uncommon. Though some PE sets don't have you use the kit part at all, other don't. I guess it depends on how much of the IP can be seen and if you need the depth.

Bish

 

 

MrStecks

 

 

Bish

Did you add the back of the dials to the IP, that looks really well done.

 

 

 

 

Do you mean on the reverse side of the panel?  Those are stock on the kit part.

 

 

 

 

Realkly, those are nicely done. Because you had the PE Instruments, i was thinking you had not used the kit parts, and i have not seen detail like that on the back of a kit IP before.

 

Yeah, I was surprised by it too when I saw them on the kit part.  For the PE I had to file/sand off the dial moldings on the front of the part.  Originally I toyed with the idea of running wires out of the back of the IP.  I might still try that, but I'm itching to move forward in the build so I probably won't. 

Hey all, could everyone who has a finished build photo on the main page that was originally posted through PB please upload a new pic from their new hosting site and I'll get them switched out. Thank you!

MrStecks

 

 

Bish

Did you add the back of the dials to the IP, that looks really well done.

 

 

 

 

Do you mean on the reverse side of the panel?  Those are stock on the kit part.

 

Realkly, those are nicely done. Because you had the PE Instruments, i was thinking you had not used the kit parts, and i have not seen detail like that on the back of a kit IP before.

Thanks Andy, and always a pleasure.l

Bish

Did you add the back of the dials to the IP, that looks really well done.

 

BK - Looks like you've made good progress on this. Looking forward to seeing some paint go on!

Bish - You've got another beauty there. Thanks very much for joing in on this one! I'll get the finished pic up shortly.

Mark - PE can be a pain to work with when first starting out but stick with it. That cockpit turned out beatutiful! Looking forward to seeing more of it come together!

I like that Mark, some nice chipping effects in there.

Did you add the back of the dials to the IP, that looks really well done.

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

Well, it's official... I hate working with PE parts.  Argh!  Lost a few more tiny parts to the carpet, including one of the buckles on the seatbelts that decided to break off, as well as a large part where the paint/print stripped off (see photo 2).  Again... Argh!  Below are some updated shots of the cockpit parts.  The two pics of the pit all put together is just dry fitted, not glued up yet.  Mostly pleased with the weathering, though I think I went a little nuts with the chipping in some areas.  I haven't finished the PE lap belts yet.  After all the problems with the shoulder belts, I needed to walk away for a while.

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Cheers, Mark

Thanks Mark, your pit is looking quite sharp as well.

BK