I’m not the expert in history and will let Wiki do the job. Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-47_Thunderbolt

This is a standard kit from Academy and overall the fitting is fine. The kit can be assembled without major operations. Nothing special is to be expected here. Like all Academy kits, the new ones are relatively cheap and simple to assemble. The kit comes with 2 external fuel tanks, 2 rocket launchers, and 2 bombs.

CONSTRUCTION

The 1/72 scale kits are always a breeze to assemble. There are not many parts for assembly and the parts will stick quite well with Tamiya cement. The usual process is cockpit, fuselage, wings, tails and under wing assembly after the painting. This is to prevent me from breaking the under wing assemblies in the process. It also helps the painting process and add all the details to the under wing.  Lastly the antennas and cockpit will go on last.

COLORS & MARKINGS

For this build, I have recently purchased an air brush. So this is my first build with the air brush. I hope to achieve pre-shading with the air brush. Since the fuselage is aluminum, I wanted to try the multiple tones of metal effect on the plane. This will give me the necessary experience I need for the next 2 MIG that I have. I have used Tamiya acrylic paint for this plane.  The last effect I wish to achieve was oil washing the panel lines. I also have a little idea what to do with the wheels with oil wash.

I started with pre-shading the black lines on the plane and outline all the major panels. I soon realized that the air brush does not have a fine spray head and the lines were thick. This didn’t work out very well for the tail fins. After that, I sprayed a layer of flat aluminum on the body and carelessly over sprayed some of the panel lines. Hence the pre-shading effect was minimum on the fuselage and the tail. The best effect was still on the top of the wings.  Even the under wing was ruined... Next I masked out specific areas for different tone of metal effect. I took some aluminum paint and added a little gun metal and a little black and sprayed over the target area. I chose 4 panels on the wing and 2 panels on the side fuselage. The reason is because the model is a little small and I don’t wish to overcomplicate a small model. The effect came up fine but the pre-shading was obscured by the 2^nd layer of paint. I will have to think of a more effective way for the next plane.

The next is the spraying of the anti-glare (olive drab) and the red lines and nose of the paint. I have to do extensive masking for the 2 different colors. Due to the masking, some of the paint came off and I used a brush to patch it back.

After the painting, I applied a layer of Tamiya X22 clear paint on the plane. It didn’t work out too well and I felt that the surface was rough and I’m not sure what has caused this but I will revert to the spray cans for the clear coat for now. This clear coat is to protect the underlying paint from the oil wash.

Next was the oil wash, the rough edges from the X22 coat was horrible. The oil wash smudge everywhere and was a disaster. I took a rag and wiped up the smudge and strangely... it took away the X22 uneven surface and left the black oil in the lines. I applied the decals and fixed the under wing assemblies. The oil wash smudges helped to highlight the pre-shading that was missing on the panels with different tones.

Finally I applied the decals and attached the antenna, canopy and propeller and sprayed a final layer of semi gloss clear. Take note... the clear canopy cannot come in contact with the spray otherwise it will be hazy.

This is an easy kit and I would recommend to anyone who is interested in modeling to try. In fact I used this kit as a guinea pig so that I can apply the skills to the 1/48 scales planes that I’m making next.

 Lewis Goh

May 2009