[Bf108]

Loving this!  It’s a joy to see a master at work 💯

[1:32 HK Lancaster "G. Gibsons' Lancaster prior to takeoff on Op. Chastise]

Just catching up on this - you’re giving a master class here 💯

this is a *gorgeous* build!

[HK Models 1:32 A-20G Test Sample - WIP]

I’ve been wanting a 1:32 A-20 for *years* to go alongside the B-25 strafer I have in the queue

I am looking very very much forward to this!!!

[1:1 Scale Percussion Rifle]

Ok, so this doesn’t *entirely* fit here, but it *is* very large scale, and some of the bits came as a kit😂

This was a project I built in a friend’s shop, paying rent by helping him finish a rifle of his own

so this is a Lehman-pattern half-stock percussion rifle in .50cal

it took just over a year, working Sunday afternoons in his shop

It’s fully functional, rifled for modern sabot shot rather than lead balls

ready for the ‘23 season 😎

 

[Trumpeter P-47D Razorback]

So not a whole lot of progress, as I took the weekend off (utterly worth it, though - Savannah is *awesome*)

bits of filing and sanding, and starting to work on landing gear hydraulics (yes, I’m putting off working on the gun bays out of sheer laziness 😂)

trying an experiment with .8mm braided line, wire, and some paint

I’m not thrilled with the results yet, but it’s got potential.  There’s only a few of these particular flexible lines that will be at all visible, which helps.

I'm going to keep fiddling about until they look right

[Trumpeter P-47D Razorback]

Haven’t gotten any new pics yet, but those will be forthcoming

i spent some time doing a bit of gap-filling on the seams on the leading edge of both wings.  There were a couple of spots where the edges gapped by .5mm, despite everything else lining up happily.  Once that’s all dried and smooth I’ll redo a couple of rivets that I managed to screw up in the process.

after that, I will turn my attention to the gun bays.

I have the Eduard gun bay set, and so far I’m happy with it.  I’m not entirely sure about their ammo feed chutes - I’m going back and forth between those and the ones from the kit.  They both have minor issues, based on photos I’ve seen, so I’ll go with whichever looks best.  I’ll also have to deal with the charging rods, which promise to be a right PITA, but that’s all part of the fun.

I’ll next have to decide whether to go with the PE ammo belts or the rubber ones from the kit - again, both have issues, and I’ll go with whichever looks more “right” after getting them painted up.  If I had the brains god gave a turnip, I’d just close up the gun bays and not worry about it.  We’ll see how badly I screw things up stuffing all the bits inside, and go from there 

once those are settled, there’s some hoses and such to add to the landing gear bays while they’re still easy to reach

wheee!  It’s good to be back 

[Trumpeter P-47D Razorback]

On 11/25/2022 at 9:02 AM, CrankyCrafstman said:

I'll be following this one I did this one a few years back, had a heck of a time with the cowl clearing the rocker covers, had to do some grinding to get it to fit, but it looked good when done.

Ron G 

I realized that I had to do a bit of trimming on the back of the engine - that’s where the problem came from.  It sits a bit too far forward out of the box

with that done, the rocker arms and engine mounts fit *perfectly*

I’ll get some pics of that later today

 

[1:32 HK Lancaster "G. Gibsons' Lancaster prior to takeoff on Op. Chastise]

I’m *loving* this!  Following happily 💯

[Trumpeter P-47D Razorback]

Just now, harv said:

Good to see you back !!....harv 

Good to *be* back!  I’ve missed y’all

[Trumpeter P-47D Razorback]

Sooo… Hi there!  It’s been a long minute.  First Covid and associated work-place hassles had me off the bench for a while, then I took a year to build a 1:1 scale fully functional muzzle-loading rifle (1850’s Lehman Half-stock, .50 percussion trade rifle)

I’ve dusted everything off, gotten the bench back in order and easing my way back into this.  

I’m starting back in with some little bits to get my hands working again - some Eduard PE on the wings and horizontal stabilizers, and finishing the cowl flap mod needed to take is back to the correct version for this bird

 

[Trumpeter P-47D Razorback]

Finally got the book, and yes I’ll need to do some repainting of the gun and landing gear bays.  The restored versions that I’ve seen in cockpit green are not correct.

Curtiss-produced versions were done in cockpit green, and some field depots also used this color.  But... since my bird was Republic-built and I can’t reasonably document field mods outside of the gunsight and prop, back to the factory finish it is

[Trumpeter P-47D Razorback]

59 minutes ago, leitch144 said:

I maybe wrong but I thought the gun bays and wheel wells on the P-47 were all Zinc Chromate Yellow?

Andy

 

 

You may be correct; I’d already started with interior green when I found the info on Zinc Chromate Yellow on another site. 

I’ve seen enough examples in Interior Green that I can at least make a case (the early photos I found were green, which is why I started in that direction).  
 

Since then, I’ve noticed that there seems to be about  50/50 mix between green and yellow, plus some gray/white examples just for fun.

The challenge is that these are all restorations; while I *hope* that they’d stay with original colors, there’s no guarantee.

I finally tracked down a copy of “P-47 in Detail and Scale”, which should help insofar as using the correct color for the correct factory on this bird

if need-be, after the book arrives tomorrow, I’ll repaint.

[converting the HK Models prototype Lancaster into a Manchester.]

This is just mind-blaring attention to detail and craftsmanship both

i’ve loved this since you started...

[1:32 scale - Port Victoria P.V.7 'Grain Kitten']

This build is *gorgeous*
 

particularly the cockpit - nice work!

[Japanese aircraft.]

That’s an awesome video!  I’ve seen other Japanese wartime videos here and there, but this one covered aircraft types I’d not seen in other contexts.

great find and thanks for sharing!

[Trumpeter P-47D Razorback]

So I took the plunge and went with bare aluminum for the flap hinge internals.  The surfaces that would be visible when the flaps are closed are painted to match the adjoining panels and life is good.

These things are beginning to look a bit more like wings...

I primed and painted the next batch of PE, and added a few necessary bits to the wheel wells, then turned my attention to the guns

Note to self: next time, prime and paint the brass barrels *before* attaching...  My go-to dark gray Vallejo primer just did not want to adhere to the brass at all, so I ended up stripping the barrels and re-priming with Alclad black primer instead.  This would have been much simpler had I not already primed and started finishing the receivers.  I had to decant the primer into a small jar and dip the bloody things...

Lesson learned.

I’ll use Uschi (steel) and Tamiya (Light Gun Metal) powders to do the final metal finish once the primer sets, then it’s time to finish the gun bay internals and move on.

 

[Quarantine Stress Relief - Eduard 1/48 SBD-5]

Not much done over the weekend, but did get the seatbelts in

 

[Quarantine Stress Relief - Eduard 1/48 SBD-5]

28 minutes ago, Bomber_County said:

Wow, didn’t even know they did Dauntless.........looking really neat and tidy build.........maybe tempted 

It’s a nice kit - got it at my LHS late last year, and it’s been a nice build so far.

excepting some PE bits that are too small for even my smallest tweezers to handle effectively!

[Quarantine Stress Relief - Eduard 1/48 SBD-5]

So I’ve loved the SBD Dauntless in all its iterations since I first read about the Battle of Midway...

Long-term, I want to build a 1/32 set of the various aircraft involved in the battle.

For now, though, I have the 1/48 Eduard SBD-5 Special Edition, which is kinda fun. It’s a later version than the SBD-3s from Midway but it at least gives me a fix and a break from daily Corona-news-itis 

I haven’t decided which specific aircraft  to build, but it will be one of the versions in the box.  There’s enough PE and resin in the kit already, so I decided to go strictly out-of-box

I have most of the interior done, over the span of a few odd hours here and there over the last two weeks.  Assembling the interior panels will be kinda tricky, so I’ll use mostly canopy cement to get things located then lock it down with CA where needed.

 

[This is just beyond cool!]

This is breathtaking!

Those elegant old birds taking off took me  into a whole other world for a while 

Thank you for posting this.

now - how the f**k did they get them in board in the first place? I’m guessing cranes?  Those old birds are too valuable to have risked an actual landing...?

[New News on WNW: 16 April 2020]

It’s an ironic and sad thing both

I’ve wanted a couple of specific WNW kits, but was putting them off because I don’t have a ton of room for a stash.

Now this happens.  I’d have assumed that SPJ would not let his “baby” die like this.  It seems now that the business side of things was far more complex and that WNW was simply “caught in the storm” of issues affecting all of those inter-related businesses

Its a true shame and I feel for those exquisite craftspeople now having to look elsewhere.

I hope that they land gently and with organizations that respect and make use of their skills.

And it seems that I am going to have to bite the bullet and pay extra to grab the kits while still available.

Bloody virus 

[A GOTHA]

This is utterly gorgeous!

its a joy to watch it come together

[Trumpeter P-47D Razorback]

So while I’m working on the flaps...  A question for those who may have trod this path before...

On all the color pics I’ve seen, the Outer/exposed part of the mechanical links are painted (or not) to match the surrounding wing.  Awesome and makes perfect sense.

The inner mechanical bits (that’s a valid technical term according to all of my ex-spouses...) are a bit less obvious.  Refurbished aircraft show them in both primer and bare metal.  I’ve not (yet) found a good color photo of the naked nethers of a P-47 during WWII.

any hints?

[Trumpeter P-47D Razorback]

39 minutes ago, Dekenba said:

CDC?

I've been told by a very, very high-up government source that I should be drinking or injecting myself with disinfectant, whilst grilling myself with UV light, in order to kill that darned virus. So, being a trusting sort, I'm planning on doing so this evening.

It was great knowing you all.

No flowers.

I got that same advice, and of course being a loyal Fed will be self-administering both IV and atomized Clorox while parked unprotected under a set of high-intensity UV lights for 24 hours

 

[Trumpeter P-47D Razorback]

Greetings all - been a somewhat crazy time this year, to say the least.  I work at CDC, and we’ve been a wee bit busy of late.

Even with all the madness, quarantine has finally proven to be useful.  I’ve been puttering around here and there with the P-47 - wonderful stress relief!

Sooooo... What’s been done?  I have the fuse joined up and some fiddly work done in getting some of the Eduard PE to fit properly.  Doesn’t look like much, but it involves a fair number of curses and I’m still not 100% happy, but it’s good enough to move forward.

I’m working the wings now.  I have the Eduard Gun Bay set, so these will be open.  I like their approach, and so far all the bits are fitting with no more than the usual amount of cursing and throwing things.  Getting the assembly and painting into the proper sequence was more of a challenge than I thought it would be, but it’s clicking along nicely.

Ailerons and flaps both have PE pieces on the exposed ends, which took some judicious filing and sanding to fit.  Plus, they had to be finished and mostly painted before I could join the wing halves and finish the interior of the gun bays.  That’s where I am now.

I have a nice set of turned brass barrels for the guns, which all also need some mods and PE additions.  I’ll finish these after I get the interior of the bays mostly done.

After painting the upper sides of the flaps and ailerons, I realized that the Tamiya Olive Green is a bit dark.  I’ll tone it down a bit with some light overcoats and washes - the color was a bit faded after these sat out in the sun, not to mention the occasional patch and such.  That’s where I plan to have a lot of fun.  Ditto the neutral gray for the underside; Tamiya Neutral Gray is a bit dark, so I’m starting with Royal Light Gray, and will fiddle around with it as I go as well.

All in all, once working through the utter insanity of the interior, this is coming along happily.

I will face something of a conundrum with the Ammo belts though.  The kit has some not-terrible flexible plastic belts, but they aren’t as long as they should be *and* may also not fit well inside the PE feed chutes. The Eduard PE belts are just... nasty.  They are two layers of PE, which look nothing so much as, well, two layers of PE... No link details, nothing rounded...  I’m going to likely end up using a bit of both.  PE to add some length and depth under the kit belts and also to fit inside the feed chutes if the kit belts don’t work.  It’s not going to be at all boring any time soon!