Hello everyone, the main assembly is just about finished, so I figured I should post the progress. The Aires wheel bays were slightly challenging to install, but not as bad as some of their other sets I have used on previous projects. I did have to grind down the inside top surface of the wings to get them to fit, but I didn’t have to resort to thinning them down to paper thinness. However, they do require removing the two wing spars that Tamiay uses to align the wings. Luckily, the Tamiya kit is so well engineered that the wings still fit at the correct dihedral angle. The main trick is to make sure that the top and bottom wing halves fit together without adding pressure. Otherwise, the wing profile will be too thick and it won’t align to the fuselage mating surface properly. I painted the gear wells after assembly, but I’ll go back and weather them later once all the other painting and decaling is complete. I guessed at the colors of the piping and hydraulic pistons, as photos show them various colors on restored planes.
The inside surfaces of the wingtip navigation lights were painted yellow to match my references. I also sanded and polished the outside to get them faired in with the wing surfaces.
I found a couple of wartime color photos that showed the co*ckpit sills painted yellow chromate, but heavily worn along the edges. I tried using the hairspray chipping technique to replicate this appearance, but I could never achieve satisfactory results. Instead, I painted the sills yellow chromate and brush painted the edges with Vallejo metal color chrome. I then went back and lightly scraped the edge of the Vallejo paint with a sharp Xacto blade to replicate the worn edge of the yellow chormate. The chrome replicates the worn look of this area, but it still looks too shiny. I’ll dull it down later with Gunze GX113. I also used the Vallejo chrome to replicate chipping on the front edge of the canopy.
I thinned down the edges of the intercooler exhaust doors.
Tamiya molded the navigation light behind the co*ckpit into the fuselage. Since I wanted it to be clear, I removed it and replicated a clear light with CA gel that I trimmed and sanded to shape. Before applying the glue, I painted the surface of the fuselage with Vallejo chrome to simulate the silver base of the light.
I also used this same technique on the light at the rear of the tail fin. I used a piece of stretched sprue at the jack point behind the tailwheel.
For the engine, my original plan to was to use the Vector resin R2800. But then I came across this masterpiece from Resin2Detail.
https://www.resin2detail.com/product-page/1-48-r-2800-fast-fix-engine-upgrade-early-model
Being 3D printed, it comes as one piece with all the ignition wiring included.
It’s a very delicate piece and one of the plumbing bits was broken out of the box, but it’s nothing a little CA can’t fix. The only downside to this engine is that it was too large to fit in the cowling. Compared to the engine in Tamiya’s kit, its 2-3mm wider. However, after spending some time grinding the inside of the cowling and sanding down the outer edge of the engine, I was able to squeeze it in. The fact that I earlier widened the front of the cowling to correct for the tapered profile also helped. I did have to remove more material from the outer edge of the engine than I wanted, but it won’t be visible once buried in the cowling.
Using styrene strip, I added the framing around the outer edge of the engine. If you study a few photograph of R2800’s in P-47’s, you’ll see that there were several different types of magnetos and prop governors used. It can be quite a research rabbit hole, but I stumbled across this excellent build of the Trumpeter 1/32 P-47 Razorback that helped immensely.
Since my model depicts a similar production block as this build, I copied many of the details in his build, including the engine. To get the right engine configuration, I modified the prop governor on my 3D printed engine and added the brush housing and junction box. The wiring harness for the prop governor and brush were replicated with 0.2mm diameter lead wire and bits of brass tubing from Albion Alloys. I also added the cabin heat/defrost intake at the bottom left corner of the engine. There’s a good photo of it at the link below for the Dakota Air Museum P-47 restoration. I rarely see it on restored planes, but I’ve seen this detail in several wartime photos.
https://www.aircorpsaviation.com/september-october-dakota-territory-air-museum-p-47-update-4/
I created it by chucking a bit of styrene rod in my Dremel tool and used it as a lathe to shape the rod into a horn profile to look like the intake. Since I’m going to position the cowl flaps open, I made a rough approximation of the exhaust headers from styrene rod that was heated over a flame and bent to shape. They’re just barely visible with the flaps open.
After an initial priming with Black Mr. Surfacer 1500, I sprayed the engine with Alcad Aluminum and the crankcase with Mr. Color 305 darkened slightly with a couple of drops of black paint. Ignition wiring was painted with Tamiya Flat Earth. I used a couple of decals from the Thundercals data decals sheet. I applied a wash of Ammo Black Night panel line wash over the engine. I also loaded by brush with some Ammo Deep Brown panel line wash and flicked it on the crankcase to replicate oil splatter. The exhaust headers were painted Aclad Steel. I applied a few coats of Rustall to make them look worn and rusty. They still look rough, but it’s good enough since they will only barely be visible with the cowling installed. Everything was sealed up with a coat of Guzne GX113 clear flat.
One other detail I found valuable from the Trumpeter build that I linked to above is that there should be a panel line along the two fuselage halves in front of the co*ckpit. I think the panel lines here are different on the bubbletop P-47’s so this may not apply to them.
At this point, I’m getting close to the painting stage. I just need to detail the landing gear and build the drop tanks, then I’ll be ready. Thanks for looking!
