**** DONE: 1/48 Republic P-47D - Mediterranean Theater of Operations

As do I. That's a great idea.

Cool John like the cast iron bomb effect always wonder how that might be achieved.

Good work John!

Thanks guys! There are probably better materials to replicate the rough finish than Mr Surfacer 1000 since it is so thin but I just worked with what I had.

Looking at my kit and the reference pictures, I've noticed that the drop tanks used by the 57th FG seem to be the smaller, tear-drop shaped 75 gallon tanks and not the cylindrical paper 108 gallon tanks that the kit provides.



Does anyone know of a source for an aftermarket 75 gallon drop tank in 1/48 scale? Or does anyone have a spare 75 gallon tank from an old Thunderbolt or Mustang kit that they'd be willing to sell/trade?

great work

Looks great so far!

Your detailing and painting is topps mate...... reallly nice.

John I have a big 1/24 scale Trump box full of spares will have a look this evening

Lovely work on the "accessories" there. I like your idea of the cast effect using Mr Surfacer. I have tried the same idea on exhausts on a 109 and a Spit. I get an initial coat of gunmetal on. I then mix some rust and gunmetal up and let the 1st coat dry to some extent. I then use a clipped brush to dry brush on the rust/gunmetal mix on the almost dried first coat. That lets me get a rough, cast finish that is hard to see in pictures.
The landing gear looks awesome.

Thanks guys! This is build is going a bit slower than my usual pace but I'm it's coming along... I find I'm doing things twice, three times when initial efforts aren't satisfactory.

Here's few shots of the Jug with the wings and tail stabs on...



I have worked primarily to get the bombs done this week. The initial cast iron finish had to be scrubbed when I unsuccessfully tried to use the hairspray method to contrast two shades of olive drab. A case where simpler (dry brushing) would've been better. So I redid the textured finish with Mr surfacer and repainted the bombs. This time I dry brushed a lighter shade of olive drab to give the bombs a messy, in-the-desert look to them.


The bombs were given a gloss coat for decal application. The decals didn't come off as good as I had hoped. Tamiya THICK and not very receptive to multiple shots of Microset/Microsol. The uneven surface also resulted in a bit of silvering, especially on the edges of yellow stripes near the tail of the bombs. The racks were painted yellow and weathered. I elected to keep the molded sway brace in place and not use the PE alternative. I painted the brace gray.


Prior to adding wiring to the bombs, I used my magnifying glass and trimmed the clear edges of the yellow stripe decal as best as I could... it was really bugging me! The wiring was simply strands of household electrical wiring attached with CA glue. The rear propeller thing was from the Eduard PE kit mounted on a piece of stretch sprue attached to the end of the bomb body. I shot the whole assembly with clear flat to remove the shiny finish of the wires.



Mixed in with the bomb work, I finished the prop. The paint chipping was done using the hairspray method. I expended major time on that little red prop cone. The first effort resulted in too much chipping. So I wiped it clean using iso alcohol, re-applied the gloss black base, sprayed the Alclad metallic, let that dry, put a hairspray coat over the metal, put on the red and tried chipping it again using water and a small brush. Except the red would not chip away. Not even with a toothpick. Did I forget the hairspray??? Frustrated, I just wiped it again and painted it up a third time. Got a decent result and quickly sprayed with a clear coat to preserve the work.

Amazing and beautiful detail John.

Yep, agree with that.

Nice job on the spinner and prop. One concern I have is that prop looks like it is a "cuffed" type. If so the cuffs were usually a hard rubber material that would not show metallic paint chipping on them. I'm not positive on the P-47 props but I'm pretty sure the P-51 props were like that. Maybe someone else here can confirm that. If so, its probably not to late to touch them up.

Real nice man...

Nice work so far.
The drop-tank in your B&W pic appears to be the early, steel tank, similar to that used on P-40's. At a pinch, a P-51 type' tear drop' tank would work.
The arm at the rear of the stores pylon was designed to prevent the larger, 108 gallon paper or steel drop tanks from floating up and hitting the wing, or worse, the elevators, when jettisoned. It was spring-loaded, and retracted back, semi flush with the rear of the pylon once the tank was dropped. The end in contact with the tank was forked, in a shallow, open 'U' shape. These were not employed when bombs were carried.
Here's a couple of pics of the arm, taken at Duxford earlier this year.

Excellent reference pics Terry and your explanation is a welcome clarification to what I said a few posts ago. Though I was aware of the purpose of the braces, I was not aware that they retracted back into the pylon.

chris brown said:

Nice job on the spinner and prop. One concern I have is that prop looks like it is a "cuffed" type. If so the cuffs were usually a hard rubber material that would not show metallic paint chipping on them. I'm not positive on the P-47 props but I'm pretty sure the P-51 props were like that. Maybe someone else here can confirm that. If so, its probably not to late to touch them up.

Click to expand...

I would be very interested in verifying this. I based the chipping on the cuffs on some of the pics I've seen of the 57th FG planes...




I may spray the cuffs with flat to deaden the shine.

And thank you for those great pictures of the wing rack/strut Terry! They are retracted (for use with bombs) and painted gray on my build. Interesting to see the stencil on the rack... I'll have to look at the decal sheet if they are provided. Tamiya includes a LOT of stencils so I wouldn't be surprised if I missed it.

Ok... creeping along towards painting. I'm going to something a little different there so I'm not rushing into it. I picked up a few new tools over the past few weeks. Got a nice punch/die set by RP Toolz... a little pricey but I really liked the little hammer that came with it.


My first use of the punch/die was to punch little discs to be placed at the back end of the rocket tubes to simulate loaded rockets.



I have not been successful in finding a spare 75 gallon drop tank so I'm making provisions to use the 108 gallon tank that came with the kit. Yes, there is a thin wire coming out from the rear access point but I'm not too clear on how the fuel line(s) connect with the fuselage when the tank is center mounted.


The Eduard masks have been applied. They fit very well and the adhesive is much better than the Montex masks but some of the masks leave a gap in the middle to be filled with liquid mask. I don't have much experience with liquid mask so I just used bits of tape and masking material.


The folks at Eduard were courteous enough to include masks for the wing lights which makes painting much easier.


My flaps will be shown in the down position. They were neat little assemblies unto themselves with each flap comprised of five parts plus PE endcaps by Eduard. I decided to paint and weather these as a preview to the color scheme I will be using. I found that I had two jars of Olive Drab (Tamiya and Gunze Sangyo). The Tamiya looks too green IMO and the Gunze is really brown. As a test, I used a mixture (about 50/50) of the two shades for the flaps.


I'm going to paint chip this plane. The archive pictures show the 57th FG planes in relatively good condition so the chipping will be light and hopefully realistically subtle. I tested chipping the conventional way using dabs of Testors Acryl Silver on a super fine brush.


I think I'm almost done with most of the fiddly bits and ready to get on to main painting. Everything is masked and ready to go!



I may forgo the primer coat on this one since I am going to attempt multi-layer chipping on this one based on the archive pictures showing chromate green and metal underneath the olive drab. I am trusting the excellent fit of the Tamiya kit to reduce to seam imperfections to a minimum but we can always touch up as necessary.