Hobby Boss - P-47D - 1/48 (Steven)

[Steven000]

Thanks guys!
Did some work on the base (disk), I was planning to spray it brown and be done with it, but pilots like Francis Gabreski did fly extremely low during battles,

“...As he made a low strafing run across an enemy airfield near Bassenheim, Germany, the tips of his propeller blades hit the ground, causing a severe vibration. He put his Thunderbolt down on its belly, climbed out and ran to avoid being captured. He evaded the enemy for five days before he was caught. Gabreski was held as a Prisoner of War at Stalag Luft I until April 1945.”

The low flying gave me the idea to add a bit of groundwork to the base, something like a farmer’s field,


So I made a slurry by mixing wood-glue, white sand and MDF-dust, and smeared that onto the base,


I tried to sculpt a plowed field, with some rough terrain on the left side,



I’m still waiting for a new tube of black oil paint to start some weathering on the P-47…

Thanks for reading, cheers

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Looks the part from my chair Steve.

[scottie3158]

Steve, that looks great the furrows look good.

[flyjoe180]

That base is looking good already Steven

[adt70hk]

Steve

Sorry, got behind with this! That is coming on beautifully despite the challenges with the decals!

Keep up the good work!

Andrew

[Steven000]

Thanks guys! I added some grass tufts to the base with the bristles of a paintbrush, then sprayed it with black Vallejo primer…


In my enthusiasm I forgot to pre-shade with white (zenithal highlight), so I had a hard time adding lighter colors… Then it started to look too saturated,


Today I had a fresh look and sprayed a diluted gray tone as a filter. Also did some dry-brushing and painted some details. It's not that big as you can see.



Black oil paint arrived today… I started some weathering on the bottom,


And tried to be a little more subtle on the topside, I’ll have a fresh look tomorrow…


Still a few things to do but getting there…

Thanks for reading, cheers

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Great work on the base Steve and the weathering on the underside doesn't look too heavy to me. I really love this model, you are making a first class job of it.

[Jim R]

This is coming on a real treat. The weathering looks fine. Oils are effective and yet very forgiving. I like the base.

[scottie3158]

Steven, the weathering lots spot on to me and the base is a cracker to.

[Andy T]

Great work on the base and weathering Steven.

[flyjoe180]

A wonderful base Steven. Weathering is coming along nicely.

[Steven000]

Thanks for the kind words guys!
This week I did lots of small work on the P-47, so here's an update...

I forgot to improve the solid navigation lights on the wings, so I used a small file to remove the plastic, then based on a reference image I glued a small piece of stretched-sprue which somewhat resembles the light-bulb thing...


Left : The inside was painted silver, then the left-bulb 'red' and the right-bulb 'green'.
Right : 'Micro Kristal Klear' was used to simulate the Plexiglas.


This took about 3 layers because it shrinks a lot when drying clear, here you can see the result.


The plastic antenna mast seemed a bit flexible, so I made a new one from a thin aluminium sheet.


The mast was put in place with superglue, I removed the masking tape and to my horror it had a lot of dust particles on the inside!
I think these came from drilling the hole in the bottom for the stand... Nothing I can do about it now so I'll have to live with it.



Guns
In a previous post I removed the plastic guns, so now I used about 3 needles to make new ones...


I've cut them in pieces with a Dremel cutting disk, then scraped the inside to clean up the cut...


No less then 8 machine guns need to go into the wings of the P-47,
before cutting off the plastic guns I measured the barrel-lengths so I can glue the new ones accurately in place.


The tip of the plastic 'pitot tube' (to measure the indicated airspeed) was also cut off, and glued onto a needle...


I carefully glued all the machine guns in place with superglue and gave them some rough black dry-brushing,


(max 10 pictures, still typing lol)

[Steven000]

Spinning propeller
The kit comes with a nice propeller, but it's the wrong one...
The 'pitch' of the propeller blades changed during flight to compensate things like air-density, diving, climbing etc...

Left : The kit prop is a "Curtiss Electric", the pitch angle was changed with an electric motor.
Right : Francis Gabreski's plane had a "Hamilton Standard", the pitch angle was changed with pressure from the engine-oil.
(The oil-spinner is larger and I've already 3d printed the new spinner in a previous post.)


I want to try a 'spinning' propeller, because the model is flying.
A thin and flimsy plastic disk was cut with a compass cutter, and I've made a few angled cuts...


I looked at a few images of rotating propellers, tried to replicate the effect by airbrushing some black, by starting in the center and fading to the outside.
The steel-rod shaft went into the Dremel, and very slowly I've added some yellow to the tips...


The propeller was then put over the 3d printed spinner (center was not dry lol)...


And with the prop she's now finally finished!
I'm not really sure what to think about the prop, it looks a bit cheap if you focus on the prop, but I think in general it sort of works to make it fly? Haven't glued it in so I can still change it in the future. Some small things were added like the canopy-mirror and antenna wire (Mig 0.02mm)...




Hope you guys like it, I'll put some more images in the finished-section.
Thanks for all the support and have a nice day
Cheers, Steven

[scottie3158]

Steven, that is a beauty and the prop works for me.

[Jim R]

That is a superb result. Your skill and patience has paid off. The prop, the guns, the wing lights and everything - all make this model extra special.

[Andy T]

Lovely work, and a great write up and pictures to present it.