Jug-gernaut P47D in NMF

[DocRob]

Hola lovers of the flying heavy metal,

certain members in this place made my mouth watering with their inspiring builds of P-47's recently. I always liked the brutish shape of a Jug combined with a certain kind of elegance, which to my eye is the result of a well engineered design, not to mention the shiny appearance of the natural metal finish.

After my stalled build of the captured Me-163 Comet, I had to choose a subject where the fuselage was not a matter of thousand parts to align, it had to be a KIS a keep it simple design a halved fuselage. That's how the Eduard P-47D limited edition ended it's shelf live.

I will not bore you with an in deep WIP, but will just show bigger steps and wanted or necessary modifications to the kit and will emphasis the natural metal finish, which is a first to me, at least in 1/32.

First steps were to cut and sand all the parts needed for the cockpit, engine, wheels, flaps and test fit and plan the build. Construction started with the cockpit which is nicely rendered in plastic, added with a hefty dose of PE. It's a simple construction and is done in a whiff. For enhancement, I drilled out the visible back  side of the instruments with a 0,4 mm drill and added lead wire with a diameter of 0,3 mm into the holes and fixed everything with a tiny drop of CA. I never wired a kit before and because it is easily done I will do more of this in other builds and possibly with the engine too, where PE ignition wires are provided, which I may substitute with lead wires.

I also added some small styrene strips to the front firewall of the cockpit to represent the corrugated metal, which was used there.

 

After test-fitting the fuselage and cowlings, I didn't like the representation of the lower shape between these parts. There was a visible step which does not correspondent with the real thing.

 

 

After sanding the lower part of the fuselage and rescribing two panel lines I was satisfied with the result. It's a ten minute fix and worth it.

 

Now everything looks a little bit more like a real Jug.

 

While watching this photo, I think I might sharpen the edges of the movable cooling flaps a little, if it doesn't give to much insight into the nothing of the backside of the engine.

 

Cheers Rob

 

[GusMac]

Nice start. Funny how almost every Jug kit seems to have issues with the height of the cowl at the top and bottom. Just too many curves coming together I suspect.

[JohnB]

I look forward to seeing your progress as you go along Rob.

[DocRob]

Thanks Gus, and you are probably right about the amount of shape issues when there are different complex 3D curved objects involved. It must be a not so easy job to get everything right, but at least the Hasegawa plastic looks like a Jug with only some minor issues to my uneducated eye.

Thanks John, after the struggles which kept me from finishing the Me-163, this is a real pleasure build. Everything is relaxed and easy, fit is good and the engineering is as well. Sometimes it just feels great to enjoy building a kit, instead of a permanent fight while doing so. The last word about the Komet is not spoken yet, because I hate to quit. It just doesn't feel good to be beaten by a chunk of plastic .

Cheers Rob 

[Martinnfb]

I will follow with interest, great start Rob !

[harv]

26 minutes ago, Martinnfb said:

I will follow with interest, great start Rob !

Me too !!.......harv

[Bill_S]

I agree with the others...

The mount for the cowl flaps and engine is about 1mm too high on this kit. Sawing it off and lowering is easy and requires no sanding and/or rescribing.

[DocRob]

Thank you gentlemen,

by the way, looking for the right color for the inside of the cowlings, I watched some pictures and found a great variety of colors. Some are natural metal /aluminum, some light grey and others interior yellow. Which could be probably right for the Dottie Mae?  Studying the pictures, I tend to NMF.

9 hours ago, Bill_S said:

The mount for the cowl flaps and engine is about 1mm too high on this kit. Sawing it off and lowering is easy and requires no sanding and/or rescribing.

@ Bill, I read about that method too and considered it, but the upper shape of the cowling fuselage joint seems correct to my eye and by lowering the engine mount / cowlings by a millimeter the gap between the cooling flaps of the cowling and the fuselage doesn't look right, the space between these flaps and the fuselage will get uneven. This upper joint is very visible and to me had priority to maintain. And my method of reshaping the bottom of the fuselage by grinding a little and rescribe these two panel lines took ten minutes and what was more important to me corrected the right part, the fuselage, as I think the engine / cowlings are more or less right. It's hard to tell but I think on your second photo, the lower fuselage looks a little flat to me, there should be a little 'belly', like on the photo of the original Jug. 

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Bill, terrific technique for the cowl fix. I've save the photo for an easy fix/ reference.

Peter

[Guest DannyVM]

Rob, very nice fix mate, looking forward to your progress.

[DocRob]

The front office is done, some minor touch-ups here and there and it will be stowed in the fuselage.

Everything worked to plan with the cockpit. There are lots of PE-parts to apply, but nothing too complicated. The red headed levers are PE too, but I touched them up with a dot of CA-glue at the top for the round knobs.
Weathering is minimal and done with a pencil, some metal pigments and a fiber brush for little abrasions. As interior color I used Mig's zinc chromate green (A-MIG 220) which has a little more olive tint and looks right to my eye. For black detailing I used Tamiya Nato black, because I never use real black on flat subjects. After painting I love to apply minimal steel pigments to the near black surface (from Uschi) like you can see on the IP holder.
After assembling the various PE parts for the dashboard, I dipped some Future into the dials with a toothpick, twice. You may not see it on the pictures, but it looks like reflecting glass and gives the flat PE board a little depth.

Cheers Rob

 

 

[Bomber_County]

Cockpit looks great Rob, I was struggle with painting the IP to make it look flat black, yours is perfect....

[Grunhertz]

That's awesome 

[DocRob]

28 minutes ago, Bomber_County said:

Cockpit looks great Rob, I was struggle with painting the IP to make it look flat black, yours is perfect....

Thanks Phil, that Tamiya Nato black is dead flat in finish. I use either this or one of the blacks of the Camouflage Set LifeColor CS27 BLACK Rubber Shades & Co., which are also great but used mostly to paint tires.

I never use black blacks 

32 minutes ago, Grunhertz said:

That's awesome

Thanks Grunhertz

[GazzaS]

Awesome office!!

[harv]

.......harv

[Martinnfb]

 Beautiful detail Rob.

I know it is too late, but I am going to hang this picture here for  future reference . the backside of the D-15 instrument panel.

[DocRob]

Thanx Gentlemen, to achieve this was made easy by the great kit and fitting PE.

43 minutes ago, Martinnfb said:

I know it is too late, but I am going to hang this picture here for  future reference . the backside of the D-15 instrument panel.

@Martin, the little I missed out has to be assumed the 'scale effect' .

Cheers Rob

[DocRob]

Done lots of the little things lately, like sanding, priming and preparing for construction and finally closed the fuselage. Fit was not perfect but acceptable. The wings are prepared with readily painted and weathered wheel wells. It looks like putty can be left in the shelf for joining the wings (on the picture they are only joined loosely).

For the landing and the formation lights I used Uschis chrome pigments as a background which are really shiny rubbed onto a primed surface.

The radiators and wheel struts where rubbed with Uschis steel pigments and I think they look the thing, heavy metal. I have to admit, that I absolutely love these Pigments from Uschi van der Rosten. They are finer than every other pigments I know and give a perfect finish when polished out. It's a pity that there are none for Aluminium and other non FE-metals.

I started to airbrush some parts like the inner side of the cowlings and the cylinders with AK's dark Aluminium and it sprays very fine and has a nice sheen, maybe a tad to bright for my liking, but that might be gone with a wash and some pigments.

I will try different Aluminium shades of the AK-Extreme Metal range for the NMF, always a little daunting, because there are so many risky bits involved, like how does the color take a wash, is masking possible, how well do the decals adhere.
So far everything looks promising, but lets wait and see….

Cheers Rob

[JohnB]

Looking good!

[Grunhertz]

Nice! 

[GazzaS]

Muy bien!

[DocRob]

Muchas gracias Senhores, to get a thumbs up from you is really encouraging.

Cheers Rob

[Guest DannyVM]

Rob, nice progress mate, look's like you will have a kick ass 'JUG' soon in your display case.

[DocRob]

18 minutes ago, DannyVM said:

Rob, nice progress mate, look's like you will have a kick ass 'JUG' soon in your display case.

Thanks Danny, I hope so the NMF is frighten me a little, but if I master it half as good as yours I'm satisfied. The other bad thing, I have no display case , I'm building for the pure fun of the building process, afterwards I mostly use interest in the kit, except it's a real gem.

Cheers Rob