**** DONE: GB-56 1/48 P-47D "Bubbletop" - Thunderbolts and Lightnings

[Gnomey]

Nice work so far!

 

[le_steph40]

Hello,

Fuselage closed

 

[fubar57]

Beauty

 

[Wurger]

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Almost done then.

 

[N4521U]

A milestone! Most of the tuff work is done.!!!!!

 

[Airframes]

Taking shape nicely Steph.

 

[Gnomey]

Good work so far!

 

[le_steph40]

Hello,
Fuselage done (or almost done, nose is missing )


I modified the tail for a resin rudder.


Work on the nose, I used Vector resin parts for the cowl flaps and air intake.


Nose almost done.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Gnomey]

Nice work so far!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Loving it.

 

[Jock Tamson]

Good progress Steph

 

[le_steph40]

Hello,

Nothing new today but just a question regarding structure lines on the back of the fuselage

or

?

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Good question, the second one would sure help with the kits two halves glue line.

 

[Crimea_River]

There would have to be at least one seam somewhere. That said, given that the drawings appear to be identical I wonder if the second one has some kind of artifact on it that looks like a seam.

 

[Wayne Little]

progress is good Steph.

 

[le_steph40]

There would have to be at least one seam somewhere. That said, given that the drawings appear to be identical I wonder if the second one has some kind of artifact on it that looks like a seam.

Yes Andy, there is a structure line between the the bubble canopy and the tail on the second drawing. For me, like you, I think there would be have to be one somewhere... I found the 2 versions in my docs, drawings with this seam and drawings without it...

 

[Wurger]

I have checked on a couple of pics with P-47D at the assembling lines. And there is no trace of the panel line. It looks like the first diagram is correct. The P-47D fuselage consited of two halves but split into the top and bottom halves. As a result the assembling together wasn't run at the vertical plane but the horizontal one (on the sides) . The structure of the top half had longerons at the top that seems to be covered with one long sheet metal riveted to them smoothly or ( what is likely either) three strips of sheet metal like in the diagram below. This way would be quite logical and fitting the fuselage structure there. Also it would be easier for keeping the fuselage curvature with its skinning/riveting. But none of the images reveals that way.

the source: P-47 - Technical drawings

the source: the net.

 

[Wurger]

However the enlarged shot presents something that looks like the panel line at the top.

But the one doesn't show the line there ...