Tamiya 1/48 P-47D Thunderbolt x 2

[oortiz10]

So, I usually like to have two projects going at once. It gives me a chance to work on something while glue and/or paint dries on another. After hearing and reading nothing but superlatives about Tamiya's Jug, it's time I built one...er...two. 

As it turns out, I pulled a groin in my hockey game last night, so it turns out that I'll have a lot more bench time than I expected. I'm not jumping into these just yet, but I will be starting them soon.





I'll be working on these along side another salvage project, so I won't be just playing with this pair of Jugs (he he he). I'll be working to salvage that pair of Testors 1/48 SR-71s that the wife scrounged for me.

Anyway, as usual, comments, questions and criticisms are welcome. Feel free to drop your two cents into the bucket on your way out.


Stay tuned!
-O

[deafpanzer]

Ouch! It sounds painful and I hope you feel better soon. You definitely have my attention too!

[kyledehart5]

Sorry about the injury!! Looking forward to seeing these Jugs though. I’ve also heard nothing but great things about this kit. Very cool

[keavdog]

Cool - pair of big beautiful jugs 🙃
I'm thinking of getting another bubble top as I was given a set of Brazilian AF markings. So far I've built two bubbletops, 1 razorback and have another razorback in the stash - great kits.
Should be fun to watch.

[handiabled]

I'm on board for these!

[project510]

Looks like a fun build! Did you end up with two by chance? Or was this intentional? Building two different variations?

[oortiz10]

Thanks for the well wishes regarding the injury, gang. It happened last Sunday, and as of today, it doesn't feel as bad as I expected. Hopefully, it's not as serious as I originally feared.



Anyway, I'm looking forward to these, albeit with a bit of trepidation. As good as these kits are and as well as they build up, I know I'm bound to screw something up, somehow. (Let's hope not...)

To quickly answer James' question, I actually have three of these. With all the great things I've heard about these kits, I've made an effort to snatch one up when the price couldn't be passed on. I also have a Hasegawa boxing in the stash, too. I have a few markings that I've been saving for these P-47s. With these two, I'm finally getting around to them.

Since we're talking about markings, and since I was asked, I already know what final schemes these will wear. In honor of my late father, one will be built as an airframe from the 201st FS of the Mexican Air Force that fought as part of the Mexican Expeditionary Air Force alongside the Americans in the PTO. The other will be Major R. Hendricks' "Kwitcherbitchin," in honor of my wife. 

Thanks for stopping by. Be sure to keep an eye out for updates!

Cheers,
-O

[oortiz10]

I've had some time to work on my Thunderbolts, and I made a little progress.

I got the cockpit parts, minus the seats, painted up. I also used the kit's decals for the instrument panel. It worked out OK. It's not great, but it's better than I could have done with paint.





I ordered a pair of resin seats, but they won't be arriving for a few days. Once they're here, I'll get everything assembled. 

I was able to get the engines built up. I decided to add some details using fine wire. If you don't mind, I'd like to share how I wired up my radial engines.

I started by drilling some holes in the cylinders and at the base of the cylinder housing.





I took a length of fine copper wire and folded it in half, effectively making two wires.





Using a blob of CA, I glued the wires into the hole drilled into the bases of the cylinders.





After that, it was a simple as threading the wire ends through the cylinders. In the photo below, the engine on the left has both rows of cylinders "wired," while the one on the right only has the forward set of cylinders done.





And I ended up with these:





So, that's all for now. I'll share photos of the completed cockpit once the seats have been installed. I think I'll turn my attention to the wings and landing gear next. As usual, comments, questions and criticisms are welcome. Feel free to drop your two cents into the bucket on your way out.


Thanks for stopping by!

-O

[406 Silverado]

I really enjoy a well-built interior/ pit as well as engines and you've done some good work going on with both areas. Some good shadowing and detailing in that pit. That's going to look sweet when it's all buttoned up and the beauty about these pits is the fact that they are so big so the onlooker should be able to see a lot of the details fairly easily.

[TJ]

Great idea with the wiring of the engines

[kyledehart5]

Nice work on the cockpit bits!! And I really love the engine details with the wire! That looks fantastic

[handiabled]

Your moving right along with both of these! The cockpits and engines are looking wonderful so far

[handiabled]

Your moving right along with both of these! The cockpits and engines are looking wonderful so far

[oortiz10]

SON OF A...!

More on that in a minute.

So, let me start by saying that all the great things people have said about the Tamiya Jug are true. I found myself grinning while putting these birds together. I've always been leary of inserts included in plastic kits, but I was delighted by how well the Tamiya parts went together. I had been waiting to get some resin seats to finish my cockpit, and while I did, I got the wings built up. They look worse in the photos than they really are. All in all, the assemblies went together beautifully.





While I was working on the wings, the barrels I bought arrived. A nice little surprise was that the barrels' set comes with a ring and bead sight. So, I built up gunsights after the wings.










I'll install them toward the end of the build in order to protect them when I mask the cockpit for painting. They're not perfect, but they'll look good enough from 3-feet.

I also noticed that one of the airframes I'm going to build is a later -D with the tail fillet installed. The Tamiya -D does not include the parts to add the fillet. It turns out that I built a couple of Hasegawa Jugs as gifts some time ago. I usually keep all the parts from a build that I don't use, and I kept the Hase parts for the fillet and pulled 'em out to use.





With a little fiddling, the parts fit well enough to pass muster.





Finally, the seats I had been waiting for arrived. They're from a company called RESIN2detail and found them on...that auction site. They're beautifully printed and detailed. Unfortunately, they're not a direct drop-in replacement for the Tamiya parts.


The resin seats have the top cross-member printed as part of the piece...





...whereas the Tamiya parts have the crossmember molded onto the armor plate.





If I was going to use the resin seat, I'd either have to alter the resin seats or the kits' parts because the resin seat wouldn't sit well if I left the kit parts alone.





I went with the latter. I used some Tamiya Extra Thin to soften their joints, then carefully removed the headrests to avoid damaging them.





Then using a hobby knife and some needle files, I carefully removed the kit detail.





After a repaint, things looked pretty good.





But I found that the seats still needed more attention in order to work. The resin seats didn't have any mounting supports, so I had to cut the "feet" off of the kits' parts...





...and install them onto the bottom of the resin seats.





After some tweaking, I was able to get the seats to work with the kit plastic.





So, here's where the @#$%&! moment happened...

I was excited to finally get the cockpit completed so that I could close up the fuselage. I must've had target fixation and mad a very significant mistake. Can you see it?





If it's not readily obvious to you, let me tell you what I did. I closed up the fuselages without installing the wing spar assemblies!

ARE YOU FREAKIN' KIDDING ME!?

Luckily I noticed while the joint's plastic was still soft. Using some more Extra Thin and a lot of curse words, I was able to melt and soften the joint enough to pry the fuselage halves apart...





...install the spars, and close up the fuselages. Again.





I have no idea if I will be able to save these builds. I noticed that when I rejoined the halves, the plastic was very soft and easily squeezed through the seam lines. I'm hoping that the extra soft plastic will harden up and help fill the seams. I'm sure it'll be a few days before things set up enough for me to check. I'll keep working on the subassemblies in hopes that the fuselages can be used and the builds can be saved. I'll let you know. Do me a favor and keep you fingers crossed. I can use all the good modeling juju I can get. In the meantime, I'll work on the Blackbirds.

Anyway, as usual, comments, questions and criticisms are welcome. Feel free to drop your two cents into the bucket on your way out.


Cheers!
-O

[buddho]

Famtabulous work here, from the interiors to the engines. Love the gunsights.

[keavdog]

Coming along O. Not sure if you have your decals yet, but Aztec decals is a great source for Mexican/central/south American country planes

[handiabled]

Great save with the wing spars. The mods you made to make the resin seats work look seamless!

[TJ]

I'm pretty sure you'll the save them. I think the glue joint will harden with a little extra time

[kyledehart5]

Jul 12, 2024 4:09:43 GMT -5 TJ said:

I'm pretty sure you'll the save them. I think the glue joint will harden with a little extra time

I agree. I think you’ll get away with this ok. 

fantastic work on everything though. The gun sights, the seats. Everything looks great

[oortiz10]

Jul 11, 2024 21:45:15 GMT -5 keavdog said:

Coming along O. Not sure if you have your decals yet, but Aztec decals is a great source for Mexican/central/south American country planes

Hey John, you mean like these?  





My plan is to build this airframe (or something close to it)...





...which happens to be included on the sheet.


As it turns out, after three days of sanding, filling, scribing, riveting, cursing, crying, drinking, sighing, meditating, venting, stressing, rinsing, repeating...did I mention cursing and drinking...I was able to get the airframes and my ham-fistedness repaired.





There was one issue with a ventral seam on the airframe that will be Kwitcherbitchin that caused the most stress. The seam, no matter how much I filled and sanded, kept coming back. Even after three days! It was one of those eerie ghost seams. I eventually just used a razor saw and reopened the seam. I scraped out enough material to accept a strip of styrene. I used that and a fair amount of CA to replace the affected plastic. That finally did the trick.

Here are the two airframes finally primed. 





Still a ways to go, but I'm happy to report that I was able to save the project. I appreciate all the feedback and well wishes.

As I always say, comments, questions and criticisms are welcome. Feel free to drop your two cents into the bucket on your way out.

Cheers!
-O

[jeaton01]

I just saw the sadness beforewith.... 

Good recovery!

[handiabled]

Awesome you are able to get these back on track again!

[kyledehart5]

Headed back the right direction now!! Great job.

[stikpusher]

[keavdog]

Those are the decals O. Nice save - looking forward to the NMF

[TJ]

Here we go...now the fun starts

[oortiz10]

Jul 16, 2024 4:48:52 GMT -5 TJ said:

Here we go...now the fun starts

Uh...I don't know if the last few days have been fun, but they have been productive.

I got both airframes painted up in Alclad Aluminum.





I picked out a few panels in different shades of Alclad. The variations will be more obvious when things start to go together. Speaking of which, I got some paint splattered on the Escuadron 201 airframe. 

I call this, "Stripes - Part 1."








Next I'll do the chevron on the nose. After than, I'll be doing more stripes. Kwitcherbitchin has invasion stripes on the underside of the wings and fuselage. I'm not really looking forward to that.

Anyway, here's where I'm at. Anyway, as usual, comments, questions and criticisms are welcome. Feel free to drop your two cents into the bucket on your way out. Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers,
-O

[keavdog]

Man the NMF looks great.

[kyledehart5]

Agreed. NMF looks awesome for sure.

[oortiz10]

I'm calling this one, "Stripes - The Return"

So, I got more stripes done. No, I haven't tackled the invasion stripes yet. I just got a few details stripes applied. Most were paint, some were decals.

I got the QIM and unit stripes painted on Kwitcher's nose and tail. I also got the chevron painted onto the Escuadron 201 plane's nose, and added its rudder markings and the chevron's piping.








So far, I have to say that I'm not impressed with Aztec's decals. They are thick and brittle. The rudder stripe broke up on my during application, specifically the white stripe. I was able to get it applied, but it had multiple cracks and fissures in it. I had to go back to mask and paint the white stripe. Luckily, Testors little square bottles of red and green are almost a perfect match. Despite multiple efforts, I couldn't get them to settle down into the rudder's details. The white chevron on the nose is painted, but the piping is Aztec's decal. It, too, broke up into various pieces. With the help of a few cuss words, I was able to (mostly) salvage it. Also, the plane's number on the nose, 18, is not included on the sheet. I had to dig up some numbers from my decal spares.

I'm sure you can also see that I have Kwitcher's OD anti-glare sprayed on, too. Next are her invasion stripes...which I'm not looking forward to.

You all know the drill. Comments, questions and criticisms are welcome. Feel free to drop your two cents into the bucket on your way out.


Stay tuned!

-O