crazypoet

Last of the plain PE installed, primed, swore at, touched up, primed again... layer of Tamiya flat aluminum for wear and light chipping, then a slightly darkened cockpit green (matching some surviving examples from before they shifted to a darker internal green) and a slight start to some fading and detail. when I get home, it will be time for the seatbelts, Eduard colored PE, details, washes and general internal mayhem to bang things up a bit and make it look appropriately lived-in Meanwhile, it’s time to stop and watch the sunset, with a nice gin-n-tonic...

Almost all of the base cockpit PE done and took a stab at wiring the IP - all while hanging at the lake house. there are far worse workbenches than this... priming tomorrow - but now, it’s time for a drink and a sunset

Beautiful job on this! i love some of these early jets - the evolution in design that happens from the ‘40s through the late ‘60s led to some unique and interesting aircraft. Love these!

Cockpit PE is proceeding... veeeery sloooowly i need more than a few minutes at a time to do this - hoping for some solid blocks of time over an extended weekend up in the mountains... with just the slightest amount of luck, i’ll have this all at least assembled and primered by the time I head back to the office next Wednesday

The Eduard instructions have me doing a bit of trimming on the IP - I suspect that's to account for your first point. On the second - thanks for the heads-up! Worst case, I can cut a notch or three in the piping to make room

That's what tipped the scale for me!

So I'm still working through the cockpit details... Mostly research and cross-indexing, which proved to be a bit more challenging than I'd anticipated (Achievement: FIRST DOUBLE SCOTCH AWARDED) First, the gunsight... The P-47D-6-RE came from the factory with the US N3 gunsight with a Republic-designed sight head. Most of these were swapped out for the British MkII in short order. Sadly, there's not a good photo of the cockpit interior of my bird, so I have to roll the dice and hope. The decision was simplified a bit since neither the kit nor the Eduard Interior PE set has the N3/Republic sight - only the British MkII and (later) MkVIII sights. So.... MkII it is. Crossing my fingers and hoping that I don't find a new reference a week from now that shows the factory sight installation... Next, rudder pedals. I've seen two variants, both included in the Eduard PE, but no documentation as to which goes with which variant. Soooooo… I flipped a coin and went with the version that I like better. There is at least one good reference that shows this ship with a field-modded rear-view mirror, so I know which one to use. First pic: US N3 w/Republic Head Second: British MkII Third and fourth: rudder pedals galore!

Looking sweet!

Figured it was at least worth asking...

These are beautiful shots! Quick question - do you have any pics looking up from behind/below? I'm thinking of the outlet for the supercharger here And any cockpit internals?

I didn’t get as much bench time as i’d hoped over the weekend, but I at least got started with cockpit surgery and the Eduard internal set

Thank ya - i’m always happy to learn from watching over someone else’s shoulders!

I am just now getting caught up on this build... Four words suffice to document the reaction: Holy. Mother. Of. God. This is a master class on scratchbuilding, taken to levels that us mere mortals can only hope to faintly echo...

I’m planning to do enough of the internal structures to provide proper fit, and to not leave any puzzling gaps (I may also take the opportunity to use it to practice up my mad NMF painting skilz) this is shaping up to be a fun build!

I agree here - for some reason the Bubbletop Jug never did look right to me.

I did a bit of checking and it seems that the spacing between the cylinder banks make be at least partially to blame for the fit issue. That is something that can be adjusted. The main thing for me is that I don’t want to mess with the spacing between the front of the engine and the front of the cowl. big book o’ measurements is ordered and enroute...! Meanwhile, I was able to at least determine the correct gunsight and rear-view mirror out of the options in the kit. I do wish that the good folk at Trumpeter would provide context when providing options... one of these times, I may just pick some of the options at random and see who notices!

That's unfortunate, since the correct rocker covers for the AC I'm building are the "taller" of the two (for the 2800-21 engine). I'm wondering if they have the engine sitting too far forward? If so, I can shorten it a bit back by the firewall as that area won't be visible when completed. Hmmm. Gotta love a good challenge!

That’s priceless!

Thanks! I have the Eduard interior set - I'll be cross-checking each part as I go to see which works best. I'm doing a bit of reading now to see if I can determine which version of the gunsight was installed, along with which rear-view mirror.

Ok, i’m hitting the go-button on this. the kit has some interesting quirks (a clear cowl? For Gawds sake why?!?!) and i’ve heard of some fit issues here and there, along with the whole internal-mechanics-that-will-never-be-seen thing. but ya know, I need a good excuse for a drink every now and then! so - box is open, and i’m digging through and making notes... Doog did a later version of the kit and i’ll lean heavily on his experiences and notes as i work through my own process. i’m building this as Wicked Wacker Weegie, as it existed the morning of May 12, 1944. On that day, Lt “Shorty” Rankin downed five ME-109 air-to-air in a single mission - the first ace-in-a-day with the P-47 Since the 12th is my birthday, the choice of topics was made very simple! i have a shitton of AM stuff - i’ll be fun to see how far I can take it

I'd heard that myself in the past. When I did a bit of digging, what I found was that they could get to about Mach 0.8, and then would go into a compressibility stall. There's an outside chance that some aircraft could have gotten closer than .8, but they'd have been killed in the process as they'd not have been able to pull out of their dives... In compressibility, they'd experience a loss of lift at the forward edge of the wing. This would cause the nose to pitch down, the angle of dive would steepen, the speed would increase, the dead portion of the wing would move further back, the nose would pitch even farther, etc. As this progressed, it became harder to pull out. Given that the P-47 was particularly rugged, you could make a case that the airframe would survive this - but only until it became one with Mother Earth and transformed into a large-ish crater

Sorry to have missed you there - some amazing work in all sorts of media was represented in the contest and display areas. i’d love to see your build! Post some pics - there’s always something to learn from someone else’s approach and it’s fun just to be able to compare notes, triumphs and tragedies!

That is gorgeous, and a perfect approach to this unique bird

Yes. just...yes

I agree! The P-47 got a bad early rap strictly because of size. But she was indeed elegant and surprisingly light on her feet. With a simple change in propeller, she could suddenly out*climb* as well as out dive pretty much anything in the ETO - until the Merlin-engined P-51 came along in 1944