Trumpeter 1/32 P47D Thunderbolt - Razorback.

[BarryW]

My next build....


The aftermarket.


The insignia will be painted while I will use the Kits World decals for the rest. I see a lot of builds of Squirt II so I will be building the other one with the white tail, Miss Mutt. Great nose art from Kits World as usual. You might be able to see a seatbelt set from Fine Molds in the pic. I have several sets of these to use up but, in future, my first choice for these will be the 3D decal sets that are currently gaining popularity.

The surface detail seems a little heavy but not as bad as some. Under paint and varnish it should look perfectly OK.

There are no less than four props! I will need to be careful to find the right one.

Plenty of underwing stores too. My spares box is going to grow a lot!


The are some vinyl, etch and film components too.

All sprues labelled and bench set up ready....

 

[Jakko]

I always thought this is the better-looking version of this plane

 

[papa 695]

I like the box art camo, but a nice choice you've chosen anyway.

 

[BarryW]

I like the box art camo, but a nice choice you've chosen anyway.

The box art scheme looks a bit plain to me and imagine trying to use the Trumpeter decals!

 

[minitnkr]

Being familiar w/Lodi Ohio, I like that choice as well. PaulE

 

[BarryW]

I made a start on the cockpit and other internals. All very straight forward so far. The parts are a bit ‘burry’ and need a fair bit of clean up but I have seen a lot worse from Revell and Airfix.

I have applied liquid mask to the dials ready for airbrushing. A film fits behind to provide detail. Not the best of systems but OK.


Here are the cockpit parts ready for spraying. On reflection I will need to boil some water to soften the seatbelts and bend them into shape before spraying them. As you can see painting requirements really have reduced my options for sub assemblies.

 

[BarryW]

I removed the liquid mask, after painting the instrument panel, with some cellotape, it just pulls away. I then used Micro Crystal Clear to glue the film to the back but I am disappointed that after drying overnight it is not exactly ‘crystal clear’. Perhaps it will get better as the dials on the outer edges have dried clear.
Water based products do take a while to fully dry and cure and the humidity in the garage will not have helped. So there is still hope for the i.p. By the way, held up to the light you can see the difference.

I have sprayed the cockpit parts with Interior Bronze Green which was often used on P47’s rather than the normal interior green.

It is quite a nice colour and makes a change from the standard interior green.

 

[BarryW]

I have made a fair bit of progress.
This model was not exactly designed by Trumpeters A team. Not that it’s a bad model but it really is not up to their best.

Here is the engine

some tight fit and with ambiguous instructions of how elements line up. I ended up doing some surgery to the ‘collar’ that fits around the prop shaft to get it to fit the right way around. I cannot fit the rear pipes but it does not matter as it cannot be seen.

There is a lot of interior stuff that also won’t be seen. Usually I enjoy building up the interiors but the vague positioning does not help. Trumpeter are usually better than this.


I spent a fair bit of time dry fitting and working out how the bit above went together.

I have finished the pit. After detail painting I did a wash, Matt varnish and dry brushed metal powders.

 

[adt70hk]

Coming on nicely Barry.

ATB.

Andrew

 

[BarryW]

After some test fitting I decided to depart from the instructions to fit the interior to one side of the fuselage in sections and not construct it as one unit to sandwich in-between. It means leaving out some of the ‘unseen’ detail and doing some surgery but I do believe that the model will go together better.



i got a delivery of some Despae nippers, great service from John. My ZM ones dropped onto the co Crete floor in the garage and got bent out of shape.

They have a protective case -


And they are very small. Here they are against my Zuron nippers for size. They are actually a bit smaller than the ZM ones. Zuron are at the bottom.


Why both? I use the Zuron as ‘heavy duty’ for cutting the parts away from the sprue, leaving a sprue gate on the part, while the smaller ones I use for clean up to cut nib of sprue gate off right up close to the part. I find I have a lot less sanding to do and often just a quick rub with a fine sanding sponge is enough.

These are single blade nippers so you position the flat part against the model and ‘slide’ the cutting blade along the plastic for a clean cut. I have found it works brilliantly and Despae provide some instructions to help get the best out of them. These are not meant for thick plastic.


I thoroughly recommend them. My ZM double bladed ones were great for this but these are even better.

 

[adt70hk]

After some test fitting I decided to depart from the instructions to fit the interior to one side of the fuselage in sections and not construct it as one unit to sandwich in-between. It means leaving out some of the ‘unseen’ detail and doing some surgery but I do believe that the model will go together better.
View attachment 424687
View attachment 424688

i got a delivery of some Despae nippers, great service from John. My ZM ones dropped onto the co Crete floor in the garage and got bent out of shape.

They have a protective case -
View attachment 424689

And they are very small. Here they are against my Zuron nippers for size. They are actually a bit smaller than the ZM ones. Zuron are at the bottom.
View attachment 424691

Why both? I use the Zuron as ‘heavy duty’ for cutting the parts away from the sprue, leaving a sprue gate on the part, while the smaller ones I use for clean up to cut nib of sprue gate off right up close to the part. I find I have a lot less sanding to do and often just a quick rub with a fine sanding sponge is enough.

These are single blade nippers so you position the flat part against the model and ‘slide’ the cutting blade along the plastic for a clean cut. I have found it works brilliantly and Despae provide some instructions to help get the best out of them. These are not meant for thick plastic.
View attachment 424690

I thoroughly recommend them. My ZM double bladed ones were great for this but these are even better.

Thanks Barry for the info. seen very good reviews about these already but always useful to have a personal view.

ATB.

Andrew

 

[BarryW]

A couple of dry fits.


that gap behind the pit closes with only slight pressure. I did have to trim some of the internals but overall it is fine.

I also did a dry fit of the engine into the cowl. Again fine, there is some ducting to fit in the bottom so I decided to cement it in with the engine in place to make sure of correct fit.

I am not a fan of transparent fuselage parts like this. I will spray the inside with black primer and the interior green before cementing the engine into place.

 

[BarryW]

Here is the engine fitted. As so little can be seen I just sprayed it black and dry brushed Uschi Iron effect metal powder to bring out details and on the central ‘collar’ around the shaft steel effect metal powder to give contrast and a blueish grey metallic shade.
I know it would benefit from wiring being added but I have good reasons for wanting to get on and finish this build for good reasons about which all will be revealed in due course.

The fuselage halves went together well. I first applied Mr Surfacer 500 to the seams and, after sanding, I applied Mr Dissolved Putty where needed to finish off. I am waiting for the MDP to cure fully before what I hope will be a final sanding session.


This is a nice kit overall. The fit lacks the precision of a Tamiya kit and is not even quite up to the best Trumpeter kits but it is far better than most out there. It is another enjoyable build.

 

[BarryW]

I have finished treating the fuselage joins, attached the engine and started masking.



I then applied the black primer which revealed only a couple of areas needing treatment. I did have a couple of holes to fill in top of the fuselage that won’t be needed for the aircraft I am building.




teasing review it seems that the wings fit perfectly with no gap along the wing fuselage join. If that is the case when I dry fit I am planning to complete the model’s painting and markings before fitting the wings as part of ‘final fittings’.

we shall see!

I will work on the wings now to bring them up to being primed.

 

[adt70hk]

Coming on nicely Barry.

Andrew

 

[BarryW]

More progress pics

There are a lot of parts to the wing build up and it is taking a fair bit of time due to the amount of clean up needed. As usual I am not having any open panels and I will build with the flaps up to appreciate properly the lines of the aircraft.





Now a test fit of the wing/fuselage join…




Now that is sweet, it could not be better just as the reviews say. So it looks like I will be doing all the painting, markings and even most of the weathering before attaching the wings.

Anyway, now to get the starboard wing done.

 

[BarryW]

Here is an overview of where I am at.

All the elements of the build are in this picture.


I have just sprayed interior bronze green on the canopy and then side of the wheel well doors, in the latter case after a black primer.

I will next spray black primer on the canopy prior to the camo colour and on a few other parts that still need it.

The parts below are painted, there are decals for the prop and some weathering to do on them.


some elements that I am working on to get ready for a black primer.


The wings below have had the seams treated with Mr Surfacer 500 and tomorrow I will sand them and apply Mr Dossolved Putty needed with another sanding before spraying black primer.


Here is the fuselage. I found a few areas in need of some MDP and, after sanding, I will reapply black primer.


I tend to work in batches.I will complete the last of the subs and sanding before spraying the black primer everywhere I need to.

it won’t be long before it all comes together ready to lay down the base coats. A few days I expect.

 

[BarryW]

Painted the wheel wells. I will mask these today and start spraying the first base colour which will be white.

 

[BarryW]

There is a fair bit of white on this scheme, the tail, including the stabs and fin along with the leading edges of the wings. As usual when spraying white I start with a coat of MRP white primer. This covers really well, perhaps too well, I expect to find myself having to do a spot of post-shading.

I will overspray the white primer with Insignia White then decide on any post shading.

Before I mask off the white I will mask the tip of the fin to paint it red along with a small oblong section of the fin that needs to be painted olive drab where the aircraft serial number decal will go.

 

[BarryW]

After a spray of insignia white I masked up and sprayed the red fin tip.

I need a rectangle of OD of the right size on the fin onto which I will position the serial number decal.

On measuring I found the serial number height was exactly 6mm so a piece of 6mm masking tape was cut to two 2.25cm lengths.



I then positioned them each side of the fin in the right position



it was then simple enough to position more masking tape around it leaving a little space.



Once I removed the spacing tape and masked off the rest of the fin, I sprayed the black primer over the white in the rectangle and any overspray. This will give me a consistent black base for the OD.

But before the OD I will spray the Neutral Grey.