1/48 Revell P-47D Razorback - Speed Build attempt

[Jonay]

Hi,

attempting to get rid of some of a stash that grew exponentially over the festive break - both my own purchases and gifts from family (you mention you're into a new hobby and they all jump at the chance of a fresh gift idea!)

This was one of them, the old mould P-47D - date on the mouldings are 1967!



Box art + Sprues



I quickly took off the parts needed to get the tub together



And after the panel decal and the basic tub details picked out and painted. 







Then it was onto putting the horizontal stabilisers and the wings on - they kindly moulded the tailplanes as single pieces - but covered in ejector pin marks and even more mould marking - at least it was on the bottom surface  these were quickly sanded off. Lost some panel lines but I'm not fussed - you'll not notice.




Wing halves together and a quick dry fit before stopping for the evening, I've sanded the seam lines along the fuselage and one wing - the other still to do before gluing in place.



Total time spend on this so far - 45mins. 
 

This evening I managed to get another hour into this.

first off getting all the parts needed for the landing gear



Then I brush painted them, dry brushed lightly, and then washed them.



Then I had about 15mins left at the end so I made a start on the armament; cut, glued and sanded.




I should have done the inboard doors as well so that I can blue tack both into the wheel wells during spraying - but it's alright - will only take 10-15mins to get them done later! 

Total time spent : 1hr 45min. 

Next task will be working on the engine and the nose cowling. 

 

[Col.]

There's a nice level of detail there for such an old kit. You're making good and fast work of it as well. Did you say you were new to this hobby?

[Crossofiron1971]

There is an awful lot going in 45 mins there!

Nice work!

[Jonay]

17 minutes ago, Col. said:

There's a nice level of detail there for such an old kit. You're making good and fast work of it as well. Did you say you were new to this hobby?

 

I've done 2 complete builds since returning to the hobby a month or two ago from a 15year hiatus (I'm 26 now - last models I built when I was 11) 

 

I've just been watching a lot of YouTube and picking up techniques from other build threads. 

 

My Stuka was the first model I built in November - first time using an airbrush too. Inspection thread here - 

 

[Jonay]

2 minutes ago, Crossofiron1971 said:

There is an awful lot going in 45 mins there!

Nice work!

Thanks - the first half was 45misn for the cockpit and the inital fitting of the wings - the actual fitment of the wings and the landing gear and the build up of the armament was done in an hour last night. 

[Crossofiron1971]

It takes me an hour to get the fuselage halves off the sprue, now wonder I don't get anything finished...

[Jonay]

Got more done last night - not as much in the amount of time spent - but most of it was trying to think of the best way I'll get the nose cowling and the engine in. In hindsight I should have just put the engine in and then masked it up afterwards - but I was too lazy for that - we'll soon see how it comes to bite me in the bum later! 

Time spent on this tonight - 1hr 30mins. 

First off - painting the inboard landing gear doors that I missed from the last night's work.



I used the Yellow Green XF-4 as with the outboard doors. It's a weird colour, esp when the cockpit is the more familiar interior/cockpit green - but reference photos and other build have this colour everywhere internal that isn't the cockpit.

Whilst they were drying before drybrushing and washing - I started on the engine and cowling. 



These were also painted with the Yellow Green colour where applicable. You'll also notice that I took the liberty to open up the scoop for the supercharger under the engine mount - I figured that although there's no detail behind - having a dark hole would be better than a painted black/grey plate. Internal of the cowling was also painted YellowGreen.



Engine detail was painted in the colours shown, dry brushed lightly and then washed - same with the doors. I painted the area behind the scoop black to help keep the area dark to hide the non-existent detail. 



Engine closeup - not the neatest of jobs - but it is a speed build! 



Engine cowling was then masked up inside to protect the Yellow Green from external spray, and then I spent about 30mins figuring out if it were worth it to put the engine in now and mask - or put the nose on and then drop the engine in later. I decided on the latter - but the prop shaft would stop this happening - so I cut the shaft at the shoulder, placed the wide end in behind the engine piece and blue tacked that in situ - the thinner piece of the shaft that protrudes out to the prop will be glued in later once the engine is in. Lets see how this goes when it comes to crunch time! More on that later. 

This is where we're at - you can see the small shaft between the fuel tank and the engine - thats the piece that will attach to the rest of the shaft inside the engine and out to the prop. 



Then I had about 15mins - so I cut the clear parts - the plate on the right is an additional piece of glass between the sights and the windscreen - bulletproof glass maybe? The edges of this was painted cockpit green and glued in its slot on the shroud - sorry no pics of this but there will be when I come to the next step putting on the main glass. 

I then moved onto masking the rest of canopy - before I gave up and called it a night. 



total time: 3hr 15min

[Jonay]

Right, an update of progress over the weekend - I was mostly focusing on my Harrier that I want to just get done (ever get that feeling? It's been a pig throughout the whole build)

So here's that odd extra glass at the front, between the windscreen and the gunsight - I guess armoured glass due to the shape of the windscreen?



I then finished the masking - the one job I really do hate at the moment until I get more practice. The front section was glued in, and the rear section nicely clipped into place - no need for tacking it. 



now its ready for priming! 



And once that dried fairly quickly - I did some pre-shading



That was Friday nights progress - 30mins for all of this! Great what you can do when you just focus and get it done. 

total time: 3hr 45mins

Saturday


Wasnt really in the mood to progress with this after my Harrier had sucked all the life out of me. 

Had 10mins to spare whilst waiting for dinner (you'll see a trend appearing here) so I masked up the wings and the nose section (to be painted white later)




total time: 3hr 55mins

Sunday

I had 20mins to get this next bit done whilst I waited for the over to start beeping at me, so I cracked on and got the Olive Drab down on the upper surfaces and the rocketpods/bombs.



total time: 4hr 15mins

Next up will be the neutral grey on the undersides after masking the upper surfaces. Then hopefully onto decalling!

[Mr B]

Looking good

 

Used to be a weekend builder myself  Friday n done on Sunday before supper but...just can't stick long hours at the bench nowadays........

 

rgds n hope to see it done up soon

 

 

[rob85]

Quick is right, really nice work especially for just over 4 hours!

 

Rob

 

 

[Jonay]

Hi all, 

Managed to get another 45mins on this last night - my least favourite job is masking - but its rewarding when you take it off at the end - until you notice you masked wrong and/or you get bleed through. 

So to continue where we left off - we masked the top side this time ready to spray on the neutral grey. I tacked in the main gear doors and sprayed the inner doors and the tailwheel door separately.





Then it was time to take off the mask for the nose and reverse it ready to spray the white.



The masking was removed - on a whole a good job 



EXCEPT for a small amount of bleed through  I can touch this up at a later date.



and I noticed that the step under the tailplane wasn't steep enough - too gentle - this may need to be remasked and sorted. And I see the wing root mask was too high - this should be an easier fix.



and thats as far as I got.

Next up will be sorting these blemishes and mistakes - and then gloss coating it all ready for decaling  

Getting there!

Total Time: 5hrs Right, an update of progress over the weekend - I was mostly focusing on my Harrier that I want to just get done (ever get that feeling? It's been a pig throughout the whole build)

So here's that odd extra glass at the front, between the windscreen and the gunsight - I guess armoured glass due to the shape of the windscreen?



I then finished the masking - the one job I really do hate at the moment until I get more practice. The front section was glued in, and the rear section nicely clipped into place - no need for tacking it. 



now its ready for priming! 



And once that dried fairly quickly - I did some pre-shading



That was Friday nights progress - 30mins for all of this! Great what you can do when you just focus and get it done. 

total time: 3hr 45mins

Saturday


Wasnt really in the mood to progress with this after my Harrier had sucked all the life out of me. 

Had 10mins to spare whilst waiting for dinner (you'll see a trend appearing here) so I masked up the wings and the nose section (to be painted white later)




total time: 3hr 55mins

Sunday

I had 20mins to get this next bit done whilst I waited for the over to start beeping at me, so I cracked on and got the Olive Drab down on the upper surfaces and the rocketpods/bombs.



total time: 4hr 15mins

Next up will be the neutral grey on the undersides after masking the upper surfaces. Then hopefully onto decalling!

[Jonay]

getting a bit careless/complacent in my haste.

[Jonay]

Right - I got this finished on Saturday! 

I hand painted the mishaps from the previous post around the cowl - Olive Drab on the top and Neutral Gray on the bottom - easy.

I then placed a noodle of rolled up blu tac to sort out the green/gray transistion and shapes around the tail plane - sorry dont have pics of this but  you'll see the result in the many pics to follow:

First job thereafter was gloss coating the airframe ready for decalling



I then hand painted the wheel wells in that funny yellow green colour. 



And picked out the details with flat alu.



I had almost forgotten about the tail wheel assembly - nothing much to it - just a door and the tail wheel unit itself - so I quickly hand painted this and stuck it onto the fuselage. 



Now it was the tense moment I tried to wriggle the engine into the already attached cowl - and it worked - first time as well! quickly cemented that into place before it moved and let it rest for 5mins on the nose to let gravity help seal it in.



Then it was ready to decal!



I then quickly hand painted the guns - before they it was all sealed in with semi-gloss clear. 



Now whilst that was drying - I picked off the last small pieces that I needed to sort out - the prop, tailwheel, gear door rams, and I also tackled the drop tank.



sprayed these all flat aluminium.



and the prop semi-gloss black ( i later hand painted the tips lemon yellow and the hub flat aluminium.)

whilst they were drying I decided to open up the rocket tubes -the blanks didnt really appeal - glad I did.



everything ready for weathering and final assembly - almost there! 



the clear coat dried - so it was time to apply the wash and rub it off.



Then to apply some streaking with some oils.



now I'm getting close - this is the best canopy that I've ever done - no bleed through - shame about the scoring from a poor previous attempt to mask it earlier. 



everything attached! 



just the canopy left! 



DONE! 



Time taken - 4 hours

TOTAL TIME - 9 hours! 

I'll post pictures shortly in the final reveal thread. 

[rob85]

A 9 hours very well spent! She looks beautifully aggressive, as all p-47's should!

 

well done

 

Rob

[BushBrit66]

Love the old Monogram P-47's. great job.