The Lady from the Lake P-47 'Dottie Mae'

[DocRob]

Hola Señhoras y Senhores, after centuries in an Austrian lake Dottie Mae surfaced again some years ago and underwent restauration and now after all these years is able to get in her natural element again.

When Eduard announced their version of the Hasegawa kit, it was instantly clear to me, that I have to build one and it turned out to be a pure pleasure experience. The addition of PE and some Brassin wheels is great and enhances the kit by far, specially in the cockpit. The only aftermarket used, where Master gun barrels and 0,3mm lead wire for the ignition of the engine and wiring in the cockpit.

All in all it took me a little bit more than two month to complete Dottie and this is pretty fast by my standards. I added some plastic strips on the fire wall in the cockpit to get a look of corrugated metal and wired the Instrument panel. Both is nearly invisible after finishing the kit, but it was fun. Same goes for the wiring of the engine. I used lead wire for that task and wouldn't miss the experience.

The lady was painted mainly with AK's Xtreme Metal Colours, like polished, pale and dark Aluminium on Tamiya rattlecan primer and Alclad gloss black primer with a heavy dose of sanding to get rid of imperfections in between coats.
The metal Colours behaved well, with a little to much grain for my liking, but that might have been my fault. Shininess is great as you can see and these Colours are very durable with masking and are sealable with future. You have to be careful with removing of panel liner. I nearly ruined my build while removing access panel liner.
The other Colours used where from AK, Tamiya and my beloved Livecolour set of blacks.

Right, I bored you enough with the details, its showtime!

Cheers Rob

 

 

 

[harv]

Beautiful  work ! Love it.......harv 

[JohnB]

Great looking Jug. Nice work.

[Wumm]

A sound build and strong fundamentals provides a canvas for an outstanding finish. Well done Doc!

[DocRob]

Thank you Senhores, some kits make it easier to achieve a good result and Dottie is definitely one of them.

Cheers Rob

[BlrwestSiR]

Really nice P-47 Rob!  I like the NMF, something I find challenging. 

Carl

[DocRob]

4 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

I like the NMF, something I find challenging.

Thank you Carl, these Xtreme metal Colours make life a little easier with NMF. The durability is a clear plus against Alclads. As I'm not prepared to foil a kit at the moment, it has to be airbrush and Colour. To make a well worn NMF is not a big deal, but a high shine reflective one is hard to achieve. I will do further testing in the future and may try it on a P-38.

Cheers Rob

[GusMac]

Great NMF as everyone has said Rob. I do like the durability of the Metal Colours but as you say the grain is a little prominent with some colours. However they don't stink like Alclad so that's a massive plus for me.

Really like the effect with the photos on the mirror. 

[joeg]

A pretty clean ac, well done!

[DocRob]

1 hour ago, GusMac said:

the grain is a little prominent with some colours

Thanks Gus,

grain (or better no visible grain) is always a key to a new looking NMF. I believe that is almost possible with these Xtreme metal Colours, but I have to find a way to get a better result. While working with those Colours sometimes the grain seem to be less prominent than in the end, that leads me to the conclusion, that it is all about the way you apply. I will perform some test if the tendency is more about 'flooding' the surface or better work in very thin layers. I believe here is the key to a ungrainy NMF.

1 hour ago, joeg said:

A pretty clean ac, well done!

Thanks Joeg, but please enlighten me, what is an 'ac'

Cheers Rob

[GusMac]

Will be very interested to see how your experiments go with the Xtreme metals. 

[joeg]

AC = Aircraft

[DocRob]

2 hours ago, GusMac said:

Will be very interested to see how your experiments go with the Xtreme metals. 

A little pause with Xtreme metal in the moment, Gus. There is a French heavyweight occupying my bench time. Today I painted the tracks, another bare metal theme, but It turned out, that I forgot to buy Gun Metal from AK, instead I had to use Tamiya stuff, but that's another story, written in another chapter.

Cheers Rob 

[Guest DannyVM]

Very nice work Rob.

[DocRob]

Thank you Danny, we can do a little 'then and now' dio with our Dotties of different times .

Cheers Rob

[coolboxx]

Another top build Rob very neatly done. The fine details paid off. 

[DocRob]

Thanks Darren, the quality of the kit and included AM makes it an easy build. No real need for a lot of scratching. A real fun ride after some recent quirky builds.

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Rob

Absolutely stunning work! Enjoyed following your progress from day one and the results are first class - just love the NMF.

Peter

[DocRob]

Thanks Peter, very kind of you, it was an all out fun project and the only rollercoaster ride was the NMF, but in the end it turned out ok, but still with a lot of room to improve, but that's a future chapter.

Cheers Rob

[Mikester]

Looks great, Rob!  Really like the pics on the mirror.

[DocRob]

Thanks Mike, I like the mirror effect too, you are able to show some detail on the underside without flipping the coin and the NMF comes to shine under the bright sunlight even more.

Cheers Rob