Tbolt

I've just tried the fit of this cowl and yes it is a 1mm too long, to make it fit you would end up loosing the fasteners which like you say defeats the point of this part. I can't really see a problem with the width though, once it's shortened the width should be fine. I don't like this cowl at all, not only is the length way off but they have added the rivets to the Dzus fasteners, which while accurate doesn't match the fasteners on their own kit. I prefer the Barracudacast cowl, it's more expensive but the length is correct and the Dzus fasteners match the kit and the intake scoop has the front hollowed out. Best place for the Eduard one is the bin.

Beautiful looking Hellcat.

I agree that a Matt finish looks good on a lot of models, but not a dead matt one. You talk about a grainy effect, I've noticed that on models with stain finishes - with makes it look unrealistic to me.

Agree, though sometimes when I want a new tooled kit it's nice if it was done by a certain manufacturer. I would love a 1/32 scale P-47D Razorback, and going by Tamiya's latest 1/32 scale kits I would rather see them do it than anyone else.

Welcome Paul to the best modelling forum on the internet! That's one fine looking Fury there, which combined with the other pictures posted here makes me want this kit even more.

You should feel bad - go buy some more kits!

I don't need a bad fitting kit to have a challenge - that I get from improving accuracy and adding detail. But I will buy the most accurate kit of a subject, no matter what the fit is like. If that happens to be the best fitting kit as well I won't go but something else just for a challenge - there's plenty of rarer types modelled by companies that don't worry about things like good fit for that!

I don't really think of having a favourite model company as all companies have got kits that vary in accurate and subject matter. The accuracy of the newer Tamiya kits is very good, but as they are not very quick releasing aircraft it means they still have plenty of less accurate kits in their line up. I've got a lot of Tamiya kits in the stash, but that's not really surprising as the P-47 is my favourite subject. As nice as their P-47 kit is it does suffer from over engineering, such as the locator tabs for the intercooler outlet door, which just don't need to be there but can be seen in the finished model unless you do something about it. Also it's not quite as nice as their Corsair, which has things like the exhaust manifold.

I believe early P-47's had zinc chromate (yellow) cockpits, which changed at some point to tinted zinc chromate (possibly around D-4 or D-5) which then change to DDG ( could be D-25 or later?) Not sure exactly when the changes happened.

Very nice. Lovely painting and weathering.

Fantastic bit of work, looks really good.

Thanks a lot for that Andrew, it's got good clarity and certainly will not be a problem with a closed canopy. If having the canopy open, maybe a little thinning right at the edges just to give the "frame" a thinner look might be in order.

Great P-400 with impressive weathering.

Is the canopy as thick as it appears in the photo's?

Really beautiful 109. When I grow up I want to be able to finish models this good