P-47 Thunderbolt GB

Tom, yours is coming along great, problems do come up, but you will overcome them

Mike and Jeff, great looking builds

here the next instalment...decals on and sealed...weathering and matt coat next

Wow Mike. That is wonderful! Really, really nice job.

Leon

gpjohn and Jeff.... good lokkinh stuff up there.

Tom... Hang in the baby...if it were easy..er...well.. it would be easy

Mike...worth saying twice for sure, a real beauty.

Tom that's some hard luck you are having on that build.  Don't you just love those little things that jump up and bight you when you think you're in the home stretch?

Mike, that's a fantastic looking build and the invasion stripes look great, nice job .

Cheers

Bravo, Mike! Bravo!

Leon - getting it smooth wasn't a huge effort actually, I started with light wet sanding with 2000 grit sandpaper, once any rough texture was gone I switched to those nail polishing board from Wal Mart, there's a shpaing board, a cleaning board and a polishing board... Ithe shaping board is the roughest grit and still comes in a higher grit than 2000 grit sandpaper, and they get smoother until you get to the polishing board and that has no rough feel at all to it but will get the plastic looking like it had been futured.

I washed the area next and lightly futured it, then followed up with a tad heavier coat once it dired and I saw the area was looking ok.

I almost cried on this one... especially since I am presenting it to a class at a local school.  I am debating going out and getting another one, reusing the cockpit from this one (since that is what took the longest to do) and see if I can still get it done by the end of May... I'll see what the Alclad on top of that bad spot looks like first, if it goes down ok I'll just leave it.

Either you're feeling the urge to build a P-47 or senility is setting in early?  haha 

Thanks for the confidence though, I think I will be able to straighten it out today... it really didn't do anything significant to the Alclad, the acrylic OD might be harder to blend though..

JG - looking good!!!  like the NMF!  The stars and bars are usually on the starboard lower wing, port upper wing. 

Well some progress here, with a small step back...

first the progress, I've got the second fuselage stripe painted, here's a pic with the cowl, canopy and rudder just resting on the model (that's the source of the gaps)

Well... the step back... as I was measuring the stripes for masking I realized that the particular pipettes I use for my paint have the markings on them so that I could use them to approximate spacing.. as I measured one spot I put the pipette down, and picked up another one by mistake, with lacquer thinner (like 1 drop) in the tip and it leaked on the paint..  Here's a shot of the OTHER side of that plane:

I wet sanded it with 2000 grit paper and had just futured it before I shot this pic. Then I will attempt to cover it up... a bit got on the O.D. antiglare and I will mask it and fix it after I get the Alclad done as well... it seemed to be going so well... of course that's what happens when ya get too much confidence going! 

ok heres next batch of pictures... just about to start the task of decaling now...think I will need to get out the magnifier for this one ....I am getting to old for 1:72. Anyway heres the results so far. NMF on and antiglare stip done along with the red nose, wing tips and tail markings. I am going for a coat of finish before decaling out of habit more than anything else but any advice on the mat coat? should i just mat coat the antiglare stip??? i think i will shade the plannel lines then seal with finish before thinking about the mat coat. Also the under decal instructions show the star and bar decal on the starboard lower wing is this correct?????? I thought it is on the port (ie if looking from underneath with nose pointing up then decal is on left wing???) help please !!!!!!

I am soooo frustrated with myself right now!  I have been a masking demon trying to get the theater stripes down on this bird before adding the detail parts... then right in the middle of this I realize I am modeling 2 planes at once!  The one I started modeling had no stripes and a white nose... one from the same unit but a later date had the stripes with the white nose also... soooo...  long story short, I am racing against the clock here, trying to get this done for a class at a local school before May 26th or so .. and I took the long road.  Normally this wouldn't bother me but I would have liked to get this done sooner versus later!  Especially because since it is in a school room it HAS to have a glass or plexiglass case that is glued shut to keep the little hands out!!! Hopefully I can find that soon... as in tomorrow!

Anyway... I have tomorrow and Sun to try to get the rest of the stripes on... after that decalling and such will take the rest of the time.  (have to gloss the stripes as the stars and bars and Mexican insignia cross over them, then remask the stripes and area over the insignia to dullcoat the areas that would have been dull....)

Jabbe wrote:

Also, about the only rule to the build is that you can't use the badge until after posting a finished picture. http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b102/jabbe/P-47GBbadge.jpg Joshua

Wow, you guys have been busy, 2 pages since my last post! Maybe I'm being a slacker. Thanks for the encouragement everyone.

tho9900: thanks for the Alclad advice, and the movie link.
MikeV: you've got a nice build comming along, looks good with that paint scheme. I'll be looking forward to the final product.
grandadjohn: looks good so far.

It seems sonemone asked about the badge, but I don't remember who it was (and couldn't find the post). Here is a link to the badge. Be sure to save the pic to your personal photo-website (don't link off mine please). Also, about the only rule to the build is that you can't use the badge until after posting a finished picture.

http://i18.photobucket.com/albums/b102/jabbe/P-47GBbadge.jpg


Joshua

Thanks to all of you who gave advice / tips on fighting the dry - tip problem. I'll play around and see what I can come up with.

John, looks good. I'm looking forward to more.

Leon

Got it primed today, will check the seams, etc tomorrow and fix if needed, and will let the primer cure for a few days befors appling the gloss base for the Alclad. After that I will do the detailing and decaling

darson wrote:

Thanks Mike, I was hoping that you were going to jump in on this one. Btw how's your son going in the Marines, do you get in touch with him often? Cheers

Leon - one thing that will help some with tip dry is an acrylic retarder.  You can get them at any art store (Michaels, Hobby Lobby, AC Moore etc..)  They're under names like Liquitex Acrylic Retarder, Goldens Airbrush medium etc.. just look for something on the label that says 'to slow the drying time of acrylics'  a drop or two in the paint will do the trick!  It won't get rid of it, but it will slow it down...

Progress:  got the Alclad on the body tonight and made a little boo boo on one wing and part of the fuselage... I think I sprayed it on a little thick in small places there and it is a darker color... I plan to let it dry overnight then re-future it and do a light mist coat of alclad on it to cover... this happened on an F3F I was doing and the alclad/future/aclad thing did the trick... Then I need to let is sit a bit while I get some of the fiddly bits I got painted put together and ready to install... after that, masking and the OD antiglare panels and I'll be almost done!

I did some research today and I'll be doing a fair bit of masking to get the theater bands on the plane.. it had two wide black stripes on the fuselage and two on either wing... then will come the decals and hopefully the home stretch!  I hope to have pics by tomorrow if the future thing works out right...

Thanks Mike, I was hoping that you were going to jump in on this one.

Btw how's your son going in the Marines, do you get in touch with him often?

Cheers