**** DONE: GB-56 1/72 XP-72 - Thunderbolts and Lightnings (1 Viewer)

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In my XP-47J thread George (Fubar) pointed out to me something strange he noticed in one of the pictures I posted. The landing gear drag links were pointing inward instead of forward as they do on every other Thunderbolt. A closer look at photos showed that the gear doors as well as the gear well opening had been reshaped because of this. I had a closer look at photos of the XP-72 and sure enough they were the same.
Moving the drag links and reshaping the doors won't be a problem, but material will have to be added to the gear wells and the fact that the wings are already assembled and attached to the fuselage makes that more difficult.
And I thought I was ready for paint........

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A well spotted change and a bit of a challenge, but you have the skills for it Glenn. I also see the lack of access pane and riveting detail on the door, again a simple fix. :D
 
Glenn, I am very sorry to hear about the problems you had with the resin bubbles. I made that conversion set (aka fastrodney) and with the resins I use (without a vacuum system), I do get a lot of bubbles below the surface. I wish you had contacted me about your problems, because at least one of them I could have easily solved.
That drawing that you were using as a reference is totally wrong. I also ran across it when researching this project. I believe it is from one of those Eastern European publications, which are usually pretty good, but if you take a close look at photos of the actual aircraft, it is clear that the cowling is NOT circular in cross section.
It is circular at the front but much deeper towards the back. If you superimpose a R-4360 onto a side view photo, this will be very clear.
Trying to modify the parts to match that bad drawing would certainly cause a lot of unnecessary problems. The resin parts should only need some light scuffing with 800 grit for priming, which wouldn't bring any bubbles to the surface. Using that bad drawing would also put the ventral intake too high up.
Here are a couple of photos that shows how the model should end up.
Here's also a drawing of the special landing gear design that applies to the XP-72 and XP-47J.
Probably too late now, but I can make you a vacuform ventral tunnel if that helps!
I did a LOT of research in creating this conversion set, but there is plenty of bad information out there on the web :( and it takes a lot of work to separate the bad from the good!
Way back in my college days I was taught to always go to primary sources (such as wartime photos and factory drawings) when possible and be wary of secondary sources (much of the stuff you find on the internet)
BTW, that Koster 1/48 conversion is apparently based on that same bad drawing. The 3-view drawing in William Green's "Fighters, Vol 3" from 1961 is far more accurate.
A bit long-winded, perhaps, but as a general rule, if it matches actual photos
it's a good model!
- Eric
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Glenn, I am very sorry to hear about the problems you had with the resin bubbles. I made that conversion set (aka fastrodney) and with the resins I use (without a vacuum system), I do get a lot of bubbles below the surface. I wish you had contacted me about your problems, because at least one of them I could have easily solved.
That drawing that you were using as a reference is totally wrong. I also ran across it when researching this project. I believe it is from one of those Eastern European publications, which are usually pretty good, but if you take a close look at photos of the actual aircraft, it is clear that the cowling is NOT circular in cross section.
It is circular at the front but much deeper towards the back. If you superimpose a R-4360 onto a side view photo, this will be very clear.
Trying to modify the parts to match that bad drawing would certainly cause a lot of unnecessary problems. The resin parts should only need some light scuffing with 800 grit for priming, which wouldn't bring any bubbles to the surface. Using that bad drawing would also put the ventral intake too high up.
Here are a couple of photos that shows how the model should end up.
Here's also a drawing of the special landing gear design that applies to the XP-72 and XP-47J.
Probably too late now, but I can make you a vacuform ventral tunnel if that helps!
I did a LOT of research in creating this conversion set, but there is plenty of bad information out there on the web :( and it takes a lot of work to separate the bad from the good!
Way back in my college days I was taught to always go to primary sources (such as wartime photos and factory drawings) when possible and be wary of secondary sources (much of the stuff you find on the internet)
BTW, that Koster 1/48 conversion is apparently based on that same bad drawing. The 3-view drawing in William Green's "Fighters, Vol 3" from 1961 is far more accurate.
A bit long-winded, perhaps, but as a general rule, if it matches actual photos
it's a good model!
- Eric

Thanks for posting Eric, You are right about that profile being incorrect, I realized that after I started reshaping the cowl. I believe it is still too deep when compared to the picture of the actual aircraft, but not nearly at much as the profile, just enough to open up those bubbles when I reshaped it to match the photo.

It was also slightly too wide when mated to the Revell fuselage and that's why I thinned the sides down opening up even more bubbles. On hindsight It would have been better to spread the fuselage halves a bit to match the cowl, but I had already joined them together at that point.

Thanks for that landing gear picture, it confirms what both George and I were seeing in the pictures.

I've started on the XP-47J with your conversion kit in this group build and am sure it will go much smoother.

I've done a lot of kit bashing over the years but up until now my experience with resin has mostly been confined to cockpit sets,. so I'm sure a lot the difficulties were part of the learning curve.
 
I re-shaped the landing gear wells and covers to match the picture above. The picture of the gear cover is my second attempt after having to add plastic sheet because I took too much off the first time.
I also put on the horizontal tail fins.
It's now ready for paint. \\:D/

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