P-47 Thunderbolt 1/8th construction

[Guest]

P47 D Thunderbolt Construction 1/8th Scale

Well Gang, its been a sticky week!. The fibre glassing is now complete and its time for sanding the whole model before applying the flow coat. 60 grit first and then 220 grit. Days of this ahead of me. Its best to do a good job here or it will look like paint runs after i have applied a couple or so coats of primer. Now i am at this stage i think i can take a little rest and may go Clayshooting on Sunday. I havent been since i started the Jug and you need a break now and then. Soon be spraying guys.

Andy

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[Guest]

P47 Under Construction

Its time again to let you see a little more of the old Jug. Here are the next stages of the build process. Hopefully it will be more interesting when we get to the scale detail stage. As you can see folks the upper canopy is complete and its now time to progress onto the lower section. All of the ribs sit nicely into place and form the base for the connection of the lower ribs, The fuel tank roof sits directly behind the .90 Four stroke engine. The wing support crutched are next to go in along with the fire wall and fuel tank floor. This is a tricky build section as you have to dry fit several parts and try to align them and make sure they fit before glueing them together. A shot through the fire wall shows how pefect this model is manufactured and the quality of the parts are second to none, exactly what you would expect from a TopFlite Gold Edition Build Kit. The final stage here is to fit all of the stringers rear of the wing bay before applying the lower skins. The front area is left until the mid wing section is constructed along with the section of fuse below the wings, This is to enable a better contour by applying the skins in one and then using the razor saw to cut out the removable wing section. Stay tuned folks.Andy

Hi Andy,

I didn't appreciate this was your first model. Can't help but to be impressed. It looks great.

One quaestion - I notice you are using a green filler to cover those slight imperfections. Can you tell me what compound you are using.

Thanks

Peter

[Guest]

Hi Andy,I didn't appreciate this was your first model. Can't help but to be impressed. It looks great.

One quaestion - I notice you are using a green filler to cover those slight imperfections. Can you tell me what compound you are using.

Thanks

Peter

Hi Peter,

Thanks for the compliments. The Green filler is Squadren Green Putty, it also come in white and is made by Squadren. Most model shops sell it, it is fantastic... one swipe across the area, leave a couple of hours and it sands great. Comes in Oil paint like tubes. Hope you find some. Well worth having in your work shop. You can get it mail order if you cant find any from Models2U - Bringing Models To You

Cheers

Andy

[Guest]

P47 D Thunderbolt Construction 1/8th Scale

Hi gang,

Well this is where it starts to get interesting. The fibre glassing has been completed and now she is passed the delicate stage and can withstand any impeact that would have caused serious damage in the balsa stage. Sanding firstly with 60 grit and then 240 grit we remove all of the bits and scabs. Following this, what seemed to be endless procedure we applied the flow coat. This has left the plane as smooth as a babys... it is now that we can attach the rudder, flaps and ailerons. To make sure the hinges stay in place and to avoid glueing them up a hole is drilled and cocktail sticks are inserted through the structure, a quick wick with thin Zap and they are stuck in place. They are then trimmed with the Razor saw and sanded level. At this stage some would say that she is ready for painting and soon to be airborn... well, thats ok if you just want a plane to fly, in this case it is not so. There is about as much to do now as i have already done. The plane will now require all of its scale detail and many parts and peices have to be made and fitted before the first coat of primer is applied. And before that we have the dreaded job of moulding and cutting the landing gear doors. The major task ahead it to see if the plan worked regarding the landing gear and will they retract fully, you will remember i was a little concerned about the space in the wing for the struts and wheels. Stay tuned for some great scale detailing.

Andy

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[Guest]

P47 D Thunderbolt Construction 1/8th Scale

Hi gang,

A bonus upload today. After much pondering i have decided to get the landing gear dilemma out of the way. Firstly you can see the ailerons are attached now and trimmed with the razors saw.

To enable the landing gear doors to be exact i have traced the drawing and located it exactly ( i hope ) on the wing. This drawing doesnt allow for doors to be fitted to this model so this is another scale detail that i am adding. The copy is then transfered to the wing by running over the trace with a pencil, as this is traced on both sides it allows you to work a little like carbon paper. Before we can cut these out i have to lay up around 4 layers of fibre glass mat over the top of some momo cote. I will go throught this when i have the pics.

Andy

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[Guest]

P47 D Thunderbolt Construction 1/8th Scale

Hi Gang,

Here we go again. This is the continuation of the under carriage doors that i promised to show you. Firstly having marked out the location on the wing i lay down some iron on monocote to use as a parting agent, this is good because nothing sticks to monocote. Having done this and covered the work are, three layers of fibreglass are applied to obtain the required thickness of the doors. Doing it this way we will end up with doors that fit the profile of the wing exactly. At this point the doors that will eventally be three parts remain as one. Once dried a flow coat of finnishing resin is added and then sanded out.

Andy

[Guest]

P47 D Thunderbolt Construction 1/8th Scale

Oops sory forgot the pics.

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[Guest]

P47 D Thunderbolt Construction 1/8th Scale

Hi Gang,

A quick tip. When you are looking for a perfect finish to areas that require a decent sure. A good grade of traceing paper is a usefull peice of kit. Once satisfied just glue into place and paint. Here you will see that i have usesd it to finnish of the curves to the flap section on the wing.

Andy

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[Guest]

P47 D Thunderbolt Construction 1/8th Scale

Hi Gang,

Once the doors are cut from the fibre glass to the exact shape we can draw an outline around them and useing the dremell we can cut out the openings. Fibre glass is layed inside to provide a little more strength and for fuel proofing.

Andy

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[Guest]

P47 D Thunderbolt Construction 1/8th Scale

Having applied the fibre glass its time to start building the scale detailed interior of this section. Struts are fitted internally to provide a solid structure to fix the evergreen to. Once lined out the rivets are added to the detail before painting. When doing scale detail it is best to get it as imperfect as possible to obtain a true reality veiw.

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[Guest]

P47 D Thunderbolt Construction 1/8th Scale

Hi Gang,

This is a land mark in this construction. The first coat of paint to go anywhere on the model. Though we are on the home straight we still have far to go. Apart from addition pipes and tubes to be added here the wheel bay interior is finished. Once the additional bits are added a coat of fuel proffing mat will be applied and then we fit the doors and retract mechanisms.

Andy

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[Guest]

Fantastic build!

[Guest]

Fantastic build!

Thanks mate. I have a long way to go to be as good as you are. I dont think that i could ever build things as tiny as the parts you build. Each to his own i woud say. It is my first project so things should get better as i go along.

Andy

[Guest]

P47 D Thunderbolt Construction 1/8th Scale

Hi Gang,

Here we go, the continuing saga of the dreded under carriage doors. Well as you can see the final result was a good one. However, for a total beginner it was a nightmare. Many hours of head scratching and trial and error and i finally came up trumps.

The first part was easy, cut the doors into the 4 sections that are required. This was a walk in the park with the old badnsaw. Now came the hard bit. The Thunderbolt has a section that fixes solid to the wheel, not much room was available for fixing. A bracket was made out of brass shim stock to form a clamp around the strut and a little of 5 min appoxy finished the job. Next came the problem of travel. Because the section on the wheel is fixed and the strut is longer than the next section of door allowance has to be made for the door to pass over the whell door as the retracts opperate, some sort of device has to be made to lift the door as it rises, you can see a D clamp on the strut with a bent wire brace, this hinges as the strut lifts and cause the door to raise off the strut and provide the clearance for travel. I did intend to use a ball joint for this but as this model does not allow for doors, clearance was minimal and provided no room for these once the doors are closed. The next problem due to this non existant space factor was how to hinge the next section of the door at the retract unit. This was done by means of a sort of fibre material that you can buy for this exact job, fortunatly some came with the kit and was meant to be used for the ailerons and rudder hinges, where instead i used proper hinges. Glueing this to the fibre glass doors proved tricky and i wasnt 100% happy just incase the ripped of in mid flight, to overcome this i made some very tiny plates, again from shim stock and fixed them through the hinge material into the door with tiny CSK screws.

Once satisfied with the operation the last section of door was fitted, these have a bent peice of wire firbe glassed to the inside of the door. This comes into contact with the wheel as it is lifted and acts as a closing mechanism for this section.

Now the struts. As you can see in the first stages they are naked and i thought that i should add some realism, so i cut a slice out of some tube and clipped it round the struts a couple of peices are added in areas to form a collar look, a couple of trays are added and then some brake tubes. The final touch is to coat it all in some fuel proof resin ( matt ) this gives it a little bit of a weathered look also.

Stay tuned for some more scale building folks.

Andy

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[Guest]

P47 D Thunderbolt Construction 1/8th Scale

Well Gang,

Here is the latest installment of the P47 project. I'm trying to do as much scale as i can before painting, i think i'm waiting for the weather to pick up so i can spay outside of the work shop. Well this installment is a little tip that some of you might already know but those who dont here it is.

Panel joints:

Some use the techneque of laying down masking tape and building up the lines with layers of paint, i have found that if you lay about 3 layers of masking tape on top of each other and then smear some squadren filler over the line and then sand and remove the tape you get a lovely panel joint ( overlapping of course ) The same method can be applied for butting panels by the same method and then cutting a very thin strip about 1/8th wide and them smear each side of the tape.

Andy

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