DannyB

Just like buses, you wait for someone to finally do a modern tooling 1/48 tomcat and 2 come along at once! Can't wait to see the AMK version if their Mig is anything to go by.

A bit out on left field it's also worth checking out 'clear binding covers'. They are just 140gsm clear acetate sheets and should be pretty easy to get your hands on from a good local stationers or staples

Thanks for your kind comments guys

Thanks guys, I really appreciate everyone's comments, I was genuinely nervous of posting this up! Go for it! It's a lovely kit that I really enjoyed putting together, and trust me there is enough meat in there for anyone to improve on what's in the box!

Cheers guys

Thanks guys Nope, all RG moldings. The general fit and feel of the kit is a nicer than the hasegawa without the ridiculous price ticket. I picked this one up from my LHS for roughly half the price of the hasegawa offering. The only thing that lates it down is a couple of real school boy errors from revell, which is a big shame!

Thanks guys One word of advice to anyone that does take it on, or any daco decals for that matter, I'd highly recommend his own solutions. I've tried several different decal solutions over the last few years and nothing comes close to touching it, the medium strength stuff will settle most makes and if that doesn't work the strong solution will batter even the thickest decals into submission.

Immaculate finish 'stix! You should be very very proud. I love the mud on the gear bay doors and underneath, fantastic bit of realism.

Cheers guys Your praise is very much appreciated!

Hiya chaps. Hope you all like this one. I finished this one a couple of weeks ago and only just getting round to plucking up the spuds to post it for inspection. This offering from Revell is overall a real cracker, and imho better than what's available elsewhere. The fit is good and the engineering ensures a pretty easy build in most places. My only real criticism is though Revell absolutely nailed it in 90% of places, unfortunately where they slip up they slip up bad! The nose wheels are terrible, off scale and look nothing like the real thing (I had a set floating around from a hasegawa 18E that failed before it was finished). The only bit of bad fit on the whole fuselage is at the back, just behind the wings, this is a tricky area though and no one else really nails it here either. The one area that imho they really dropped the ball, is the panel lines, they are all over the places. Beautifully molded in some places, completely missing in others and bears no resemblance to what's on the decal guide! All this aside though, the one thing that really stands this kit out is the stunning decals, designed by Daco and printed in Italy. You'd pay close to the price of the kit for them alone from any of the major decal suppliers, which makes the plastic a bargain. Haha, think of it as more of a decal sheet that comes with matching plastic instead of kit that comes with decals and you won't be disappointed! Anyway, enough of my ramblings, on to the pictures. Hope you like them. Cheers Dan

Fantastic work Nigel! Very well done, you should be proud of that NMF

Incredible work 'stix!! I'd be envious of a finish like that with an airbrush, let alone with a hairy stick!!

I've recently found these Pro-Arte White nylon brushes at my local art shop, I know a lot of artists turn their noses up at nylon brushes preferring natural sable ones but I've found they hold their shape a lot better with acrylic paints and don't fan or split. They're not overly expensive so worth a shot if you can find them.

Cracking finish Rich!! That looks perfectly brutal!

Hey Wimbledon and everyone else in the GB, I'm sorry this reply is so late! (I keep a daily eye on 'new posts' but always forget to check my own content!) Thinks have not progressed very far on this one. The fuselage is now buttoned up and the PE details behind the seat are finished but it was beating me up so bad I decided to put it to one side for moment. Once I started getting the cockpit together the fit was terrible and that was before I even started trying to wrestle it in the fuselage. I'm not sure if it was my lack of experience with resin or something else but nothing would line up or sit square. But, eventually I got everything together and ended up using white-tak to hold the cockpit in place when I closed up the fuselage, it gave me a tiny bit of wiggle room to make sure it was sitting centered while the glue was drying. I will pick this one back up before the end of the GB though, I've motored through a lovely little revell f/a-18 (literally fell together, such as nice break!) and once that's done this ol' cock will be getting finished, whether it likes it or not!

Really nice work the cockpit! Well done on the harness, how did you get it fold so well!? Mine bloomin' fell apart as soon as I even looked at folding it!

Great work Arnold, those master barrels look really nice, I was thinking of some for my build to replace the kit parts at 1/48. Nice work taming that step too! Bet you thought that sanding was never gonna stop, worth it in the end!

Stunning work as usual Would love to see you build process in a 'work in progress'!

Very useful Mal, cheers for the link. I've only got a little way down but this picture already helps. Can see from the landing gear door that it actually had the pretty standard invasion stripes that didn't reach the wing root. Interesting that it also doesn't seem to have any wing pylons fitted either. But then I guess they could of been quite mission specific.

Starting that etch is a really daunting task!! My best tip is to use a micro-drill and add some very tiny holes where you want the handles to go, it really helps keep them in place and makes gluing so much easier! I think I used a 0.4mm or 0.35mm drill bit in a pin vice.

First off the bat I owe you all an apology! I promised I was going to get these pictures up sooner and I had planned to have moved things on a lot further, but I got hugely distracted last weekend and spent close to 12 hours on Fallout 4 without even realising what was going on! So I've got that off my chest so on with the pictures. Starting off, after the coat of mr surfacer all of the cockpit parts received a coat of nato black undercoat. Then it was on to a coat of XF5 - flat green. I like this for the interior colour, but after everything I've read about the P-47, unless you know for certain, it really is down to modellers preference. I tried not to go too heavy with the green, trying to keep the shadows in there to add some depth. Then I turned my attentions to the sidewalls with a bit of detail painting before moving on to the photo-etch. Then a light dry brush and wash with a GW green wash. Finally ending with the amazingly detailed etch from eduard. Really pleased with how these came out, now I just need to get on with the rest of the cockpit and give everything a coat of matt before sticking it all together and getting it in the fuselage! Also, decided that I'm going to stick to the 'Ol' Cock' scheme, but in pre-winter camo without the white. This has, of course, opened a whole can of worms which I'm hoping I can get some help with! Anyone got a copy what the camouflage pattern looks without the white?! Having a hunt around Aeromaster and Hasegawa have covered the scheme but I can find any pictures of either instructions. I've found is this nugget in Brett Green's - Modelling the P-47 Thunderbolt Eduard reference the underneath as 'medium sea grey' yet, again in Brett Green's book; I fear this is opening a huge can of worms but, any help would be very gratefully received!

Well, things have been progressing slowly this week. I've spent a bit more time de-spruing parts that'll I'll need further on in the build, which is always a brain-numbing task! Though I have made some pretty good headway in the cockpit area, all of the green is down and the sidewalls have been detailed and received their photo-etch. Which looks amazing! All testament to eduard, the detail is superb! I did make one cock-up though, I started bending the etch seat belts last night to position them on the seat and the lovely printed details just cracked and flaked off. I'm toying with the idea at the moment of either, working the photoetch anyway and just trying to repaint it or getting some of the new fancy fabric ones from either Eduard or HGW. Any one out there used these yet?! The eduard one looks pretty simple, no fiddly photo-etch, just glue in to position but look a bit '2D', whereas the HGW ones look really nice, lots of etch for the buckles but also fiddlier than making fishing flys! PS. I promise I'll get some pictures up over the weekend, once I've got them off the camera! lol

Very nice work Ettore, lovely detail work and loving the action shots too!

Exactly my thoughts when I was looking at it last night, I'm actually tempted to trim the wires from the ring and fit them each separately but that would be a lot of fiddly work! Oh there is plenty of fun to be had in the cockpit, the detail is incredible! The gun sight actually looks a lot better now it's had a coat of primer, just got to figure out how to get the tiny sight glass on the top.

Stunning Mike! That has really come together well and considering it's size quite quickly too! Loving the detail work around the front, very cool.