GB-56 1/48 P-47D-30RA - Thunderbolts and Lightnings.

Some big improvements with those after-market parts. Should look great.

Agreed. Just had the nose on full flow for the last two days and is now subsiding

Nice work so far Terry!

Great add-ons Terry.

Nothing much to show just yet, still filing, sanding and cutting.

Made some good progress preparing the cockpit, with the kit instrument panel filed down and the "Yahu" panel attached, the oxygen regulator, trim wheel, landing gear lever and fuel selector made and added to the cockpit walls, and the floor plated over, using very thin plastic sheet. The heating duct and fuel cocks have also been added to the floor, using plastic rod and stretched sprue.
The "Yahu" panel was attached using PVA, in order to allow time for adjustment. Once set, the attachment was reinforced with a thin bead of CA along the edges of the panel, on the rear side. The locating slots in the side walls needed to be enlarged slightly, to allow for the extra thickness of the kit part combined with the metal of the "Yahu" panel.
I'm still totally stunned by the incredible detail on the "Yahu" panel - the wording on the placards, and the figures on the instrument dials, can actually be read with the use of a magnifying glass !!

As mentioned earlier, the "Quickboost" resin seat needs some minor alteration before the frame can be attached and this assembly fitted to the floor.
Although the seat harness is nicely moulded, and the attachment to the release cable on the rear of the seat is correct, the shoulder straps are moulded as running over the top of the seat. These should, in fact, go over the top tube of the seat frame, and then connect to the release cable.
A little work with a scalpel and file should enable this to be corrected, and then extend the shoulder straps by adding strips of wine bottle foil and looping these over the top of the seat frame, before attaching to the back of the seat. The back area won't be seen anyway, once the seat and rear bulkhead are in place.

Pics below show the progress to date, and I hope to get the various cockpit parts painted, the final parts added, and the cockpit assembled later today.
Thanks for looking in, and I'll be back soon(ish).

Amazing detail Terry.

Vic Balshaw said:

Amazing detail Terry.

Click to expand...

+1

Thanks, Vic, Steph and Wojtek.

I have to say that the amazing detail is all the work of "Yahu", not me.
(Note that this instrument panel is designed for use with the Tamiya kit, and therefore there are some slight size discrepancies, particularly along the bottom edge, with the sub panels at right and left, more noticeable now that the kit rudder pedals are in place. However, this will hopefully not be too apparent once the cockpit is all assembled and installed, and is a small price to pay for such incredible, accurate detail.)

The rudder pedals have yet to receive some light scuffing, and I have deliberately included a (slightly out of focus) shot of the panel showing the reflections from the instrument dial glazing, all part of the "package" from "Yahu" - just bl**dy amazing !

The next step involved sorting the resin seat, kit seat frame and the harness shoulder straps. As mentioned, the latter needed to go over the top of the frame, not over the seat back.
After removing the rather substantial casting block and sanding flat the underside of the seat, the moulded shoulder straps were carefully shaved and filed where they crossed over the seat back.
The kit seat frame was then compared to the resin seat, and its relative position in relation to the cockpit floor. Although presumably an accurate size, the frame would be slightly too long (in height) if used as provided, even acknowledging the fact that the real seat could slide up / down the tubular frame, as the resin seat would need to be attached directly to the mount on the floor, using CA. Consequently, the frame was shortened on the lower edge, and then glued directly to the seat back, using CA adhesive.
Once the frame had fully set, strips of wine bottle foil were cut to match the width of the moulded straps, and fixed in place with CA - but they refused to adhere, even after three attempts with new foil strips, which I thought strange !
So, on to Plan D, and new straps were made, this time using copier paper, again being attached with CA, which worked this time. When these are fully set, the seat, seat frame, and all harness straps and buckles will be painted, and then the shoulder straps will be folded over the frame and firmly attached to the back of the seat, with this area then being out of sight once the rear bulkhead is in place.

The final job so far entailed painting the floor, walls and bulkhead in the base colour, Dull Dark Green, mixed using Humbrol No.25 Blue enamel, and Revell RLM 71 Dunkelgrun enamel. Photos of these areas will be posted once all the details have been painted, and the pics below show the progress to date.
I'm quite enjoying this build so far, despite some discomfort and lots of fiddling due to stiff and rather painful hands and fingers, and once the cockpit is completed and installed, I'm hoping that the rest of the build will go smoothly, as there's not much more scratch work to do.
Thanks again to all for your interest and comments, and I hope to be back soon ....................

Excellent !

Thanks my friend.

That Yahu instrument panel is very impressive Terry. I found them listed on eBay this morning and they were very reasonably priced. I will be getting some for future builds.
Very strange that the CA didn't work on the wine foil. Did you use accelerator?

Very nice Terry. I have found that sanding with coarse paper the smooth metal surfaces of parts to be CA glued alway works.

Nice Terry and 'Yes" those Yahu panels are amazing. I thing Eduards are getting a run for their money.

Thanks chaps, glad you like it so far.
I've used a few of the "Yahu" panels so far, and each time I open the pack, I'm more amazed than the previous time. As Glenn mentioned, they're reasonably priced, up to half the cost of alternative products in most cases, and there's no assembly required, just attach to the required surface.
Even the close-up shots I've posted don't do full justice, as the detail, when viewed with a magnifier, is just stunning.

Glenn and Andy - I didn't use accelerator, but I did lightly abrade the contact areas on the resin, as usual. I had previously noted that, in a couple of cases, the CA was slow to "take", and a part could move around for some time before it set-off and hardened. The bottle in use is now probably two year old, perhaps older, so maybe it's going off - I'll break out a new bottle and see what happens.

I didn't get anymore done yesterday. It seems that lately, after around ten to twelve hours of being "up and about", I'm stiffening up and feeling some very uncomfortable pain, so I went for a lie down to try to relax a bit, fell asleep eventually, and didn't wake up until 08.00 hrs this morning !
I think my body has rejected me !!!
However, I'm not too bad at the moment, just about 40% stiff, so I hope to make some good progress later today.

Keep it coming Terry, your doing good.

Thanks Vic - made lots of progress tonight, with the cockpit completed, although I'm now really aching, but almost ready to start on the main assembly.

The seat harness has been sorted, and the seat and harness painted, along with the rest of the cockpit parts, and all parts assembled (except the gun sight, to be fitted near the end of the build).
I dislodged the seat when fitting the rear bulkhead, so I had to pull things apart and start over, but got there in the end.
Note that the top and rear of the instrument panel has yet to be painted matt black.
The kit part for the throttle quadrant only has two levers, and there should be three - throttle, pitch and mixture - so the extra lever was made using stretched sprue with a blob of PVA for the grip, and likewise for the landing gear lever.
As with the Arii razorback kit, I felt that the edges of the intercooler doors and the supercharger exhaust fairing were slightly thick, so these have been thinned down to present a more realistic appearance.
My apologies for the poor pics, I was struggling to position the lighting due to stiff arms, but I'll try to get some better pics tomorrow.

Great stuff Terry, what is it, just after 2am (02:00 hrs to you). Time for a shot of whisky and some kip maybe.

I could really sink a Talisker or The Macallan right now Vic, but I'm out of stock !
Been up a lot later than I anticipated, due to all the fiddling needed to assemble the cockpit - darned stiff fingers - so off to bed now.