Tbolt

Like Tomas says the majority of photos show them up, but there's plenty of photos that show them down so go with whatever you want.

Mine are not. There's a fair bit of distortion and I've got three cold shuts in the windscreen section and a small black dot moulded in the main canopy, with some strange marks on the top of the canopy. Also some areas don't seem to have been fully polished right up to the framing. It nice to see the variation in rivets.Though the rivets on the panels either side of the cockpit are rather large, but they looked the same size as the panel underneath on the CAD render. I think I'll fill and redo them since they are only small panels. The panel lines and rivet are nice on the upper wing surface but compare them to the lower surface where its all a bit heavier, so might benefit from a light sanding. Notice the 165 Gal, P-38 tank has the ignitor on the rear end to make it a naplam fire bomb, but it's missing the one on the filler cap. The rear one was optional but the forward one needs to be there if you want to make an accurate fire bomb.

Here's a few of my photos. https://www.flickr.com/gp/124194494@N02/3FSSK66G04 https://www.flickr.com/gp/124194494@N02/7K4v7B56j8 https://www.flickr.com/gp/124194494@N02/55N729pM18

Sorry I though you were reffering to the previous comment.

Here's the blanking plate when the magneto isn't fitted. This is what your engine should look like, though this doesn't have the prop governer fitted on the forward pad. Notice this has a flat blank plate compared to the slightly domed one above. I dont know if either of these are -59's but I just normally add a flat plate. Notice the ignition harness and the way each ignition lead comes out separately from it, which is correct for the GE igntion system. Unfortunately MiniArt have modelled the wrong ignition harness for this version where the ignition leads come out in pairs. I think k that's because they initially incorrect modelled the -21 and didn't correct everything one it was pointed out to them.

That is correct. I mentioned this to MiniArt when they showed their CAD renders but it didn't get fix, so it just needs removing and the blanking plate added.

Probably not, I've got so many Thunderbolt decals, maybe something from the 365th FG.

It's a nice build, fit is very good.

Thanks. I'm getting Thunderbolt withdrawal since I haven't touched one this year. I'll be rectifying that shortly though when the MiniArt P-47 turns up.

You could do. Probably best to run the thin wire all the way along the thick wire before coating so it looks even and coat it after they are in place otherwise it might crack whatever you use. Maybe a thinned PVA? Like MiG-Mech mentioned maybe nice if Clear Prop! would do them in their AM range.

Yes it looks like the skis without the fairings on.

This Academy's 1/72nd Scale Il-2 Shturmovik, which is a scaled down version of the 1/48th scale Accurate Miniatures kit, which never got released by them before they disappeared. I finished this back at the start of January, but I've only just got around to taking some photos. All the decals options I could identify from the kit had a metal fuselage, but the kit come as a wooden fuselage, so all the panel lines on the aft fuselage were filled and the strap added at the join. The canopy aft shroud was very square on the aft end so that was rounded off and the two missing frames on the top of the sliding section of the canopy were added with some plasticard. I felt the prop was a little too skinny so I added some plastic strip and re-profiled it. I scratch built a landing light for the left hand wing and added some filler it to the top of the cowl behind the intake and re-profiled it as it's a bit flat here. The fat kit spinner was slimmed down and the trim tab actuators had the rods and some bit replaced to look more to scale. The lapped panels on the tailplanex were sanded down and rescribed. The exhausts are from Quickboost and the outlet behind the exhausts were thinned down. The model was finished with Colourcoats enamels. Thankyou very much to @BushBrit66 for giving me the decal for the right hand side of the fin. Click on the images 3 times if you want to see larger versions.

Making the ski wires is going to be fun, joining thin wire to slightly thicker wire 🫣 es

A Defiant would be too risky for such a new company, it just wouldn't sell in enough numbers. I would think it needs to be something that will sell good World wide for them to make a reasonable profit in a fairly short time.

The kit number is 009, that's the same as MiniArts P-47, so a Thunderbolt it is! 🤪

I'm away from my references at the moment to check, but the only thing I recall seeing under the wings of P-47M's is 150 gallon drop tanks and chemical dispenser tanks ( for smoke ) on one aircraft.

Thanks I didn't realise they started doing this, I've yet to pick up one of their 1/72nd 109's. As 109 fan pointed out they have started supplying spares pitot probes so this keeps everyone happy. Maybe I'm a bit heavy handed, but I'm impressed by any modeller who can build, paint and weather a model with a moulded on pitot probe without breaking the probe off at some point.

Looks nice, but why do Eduard keep on moulding pitot probes as part of the wing?

I will do, but till then here's some photo's from the last 21 shows at Telford - https://www.flickr.com/photos/124194494@N02/collections/72157712445098288/

Looking good. There's not to much in the gear bays, some hydraulic lines to the retract and gear door actutor. There are some electrical conduits but the P-47B didn't have the lower radio antenna ( by the landing light ) so nothing to go there. There's crank handle in the right wheel well and an adapter in the left ( IIRC! ), but I haven't found any information yet as to whether the P-47B had these fitted or not.

I don't understand what Tamiya has done here, the M disappeared a while ago then recently they bought out the P-47D boxing with the Jeep, but have not re-released the P-47M boxing, even though the D boxing is available and the M isn't. If you ignore the floor issue in the D kit, you can only build a D-25 to D-28 without the fin fillet. Whereas with the M kit you can build any D-25 to D-40 and the P-47M. It's like Tamiya thought the P-47M wasn't as popular so they discontinued it ignoring the fact that a lot of people want it to build a D. But hey the MiniArt D-30 should be out next year.

The floors are similar in the two sets because like most manufacturers they probably started with the Tamiya floor, then modify and cast it. I have messaged a couple of companies about doing a smooth floor for the MiniArt kit.

So if I'm reading that right ( or Google Len is! ) , p-40E first in the second half of 2024.

Advanced boxing build. https://www.facebook.com/100064726330902/posts/pfbid02PPkFroChcQdUtPgBY9nAw7Rr7XVxCTok1SYd9fvRF5UKiYeCikF2F5V96MXPqzK6l/

Yes think they don't sell from their website as I've not seen "buy" on any of their kits.