Academy 1/72 P-47 Thunderbolt
KIT #: | ? |
PRICE: | $9.90 |
DECALS: | ? |
REVIEWER: | Lewis Goh |
NOTES: |
HISTORY |
I’m not the expert in history and will let Wiki do the job. Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P-47_Thunderbolt
THE KIT |
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
2nd 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.
CONCLUSIONS |
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.
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