WIP - 1/32 Trumpy P-47D-25, Free French GC I/5

[doogsatx]

Update!

Fuselage is together...



And I've started work on the wings. Frustratingly, the flanges on the blast tubes mean I have to install them before I fully close the wings. Weak. The fit of the guns was a bit janky, too, so I used the blast tubes and fairings to locate them before welding them in place.





I've also decided to build this one closed up...too bad the access doors sit too deep. Rather than shimming them, I used a piece of styrene taped to the top to keep it flush with the rest of the wing surface while I welded it down. Rinse and repeat with all the other panels.

[doogsatx]

Been awhile...time for an update!

I'm starting to hit the point in test-fittings where she's really starting to look Juggish:



Got the gear bays painted up (Tamiya XF-4 Yellow Green over XF-1 Black):



Got the Master blast tubes glued into the .50s. It's unfortunate that their flanges mean I have to install them before I close the wings. But I figure I can use my punch set to mask the fairings and Alclad them near the end of the build.



The gun doors. Decided to do them closed since I'm lazy. Managed to get them more or less flush, but I'm going to have to do some restoration work on the panel lines and rivets.





The fuselage spine is a mess. Another instance of Trumpeter's tooling tolerances not being up to their engineering ambitions. Oh well, that's what I've got MDC's rivet maker for.



Another bit of fussiness. Think I need to shave a bit off the bottom of the front mounting spars to clear up this clearance issue. But there's also a lot of microflash that can muck things up. Think I got all of the offending areas, but will doublecheck. I always hate trying to clean up areas right along the wingroot and gear bays with putty and sanding, so if I can clear it up beforehand, awesome!



Lastly...this is exactly why I spent so much effort on the instrument panel back and the gunsight assembly. They're very visible through the windscreen.

[fightnjoe]

the overall looks pretty dang good. really like the way the barrels look.



joe