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Tamiya 1/48 Republic P-47D Thunderbolt "Bubbletop" - Lt.Col. Benjamin Mayo - Finished and in the Gallery!


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Hi Giemme and thank you. Don't let on.............but the seat belts are actually the seat belts decal that comes with the kit. I didn't fancy spending time with masking tape and wire to make some so I decided to carefully cut out the decal and backing paper before giving it an all over thinned wash of Humbrol's matt varnish. The lighter, upper belts have subsequently been given a wash of another light colour to tone down the original very bright yellowy colouring. Unfortunately I cannot remember the colour I used for the toning down. I then glued them in place with CA glue. They arn't perfect but they should be okay once they are mostly hidden inside the aircraft. I think they work a lot better in this way than if I had used them as an actual decal.

Kind regards,

Stix

Thanks Stix; at first, I thought you had started playing with Milliput! :frantic: Very effective solution :goodjob:

Ciao

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Excellent work on that cockpit Stix,you won't see better than that even in 32 scale!

You are way too kind Steve! :blush:

Very nice pit, looking forward to see your build progress.

In regards to the silver finish, have you considered metal pigments like these?

http://www.uschivdr.com/shopping-categories/shop-colors-paints-pigments-primer/metallic-colors-pigments/

This gives maybe a better result than brush painting silver.

Keep up the good work.

Cheers, Peter

Thank you Peter. And thank you for the tip about the metal pigments - I will investigate. :thumbsup:

Superb job on the cockpit and good idea to use the seat belt decals with the backing paper :thumbsup:

Cheers

Jaime

Thank you Jaime - the seat belts were a kind of happy accident - bought on partially through laziness!

Looking good. The Tamiya 'pit is impressive OOTB. I'm looking forward to your next update. :popcorn:

Thank you Greg - it is an amazing cockpit from Tamiya!

Cockpit is brilliant Stix. Certainly doesn't look like it's straight out of the box :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Hi Nigel and thank you - although it isn't quite OOB - I have added a few missing cables and linkages.

Now you're just showing off with that cockpit Stix's!! :D

It looks awesome......am sending mine off in the post for you to do!

Hi Rich and thank you for your way too kind comments! I'm sure you'll be able to make yours far better than I have - I've seen your work! :worthy:

Wow Stix, it's looking great and what a great idea on using the entire decal (paper and all) for the harness.

Hi Cookie and thank you too - as I said above - partially laziness on my part gave me the idea for how I've made use of the decal!

Thanks Stix; at first, I thought you had started playing with Milliput! :frantic: Very effective solution :goodjob:

Ciao

No problem. Not thought of using Milliput - I have some but haven't used any yet. Actually I was surprised how reasonable the decal looked done in this way. I was prepared to have to get the making tape out to make some as a replacement!

Kind regards,

Stix

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Great job on the cockpit. It looks awsome!!!!

Cheers,

Thank you Arnold!

Very,nice cockpit Stix, just one niggle. The oxygen hose along the starboard wall looks more like weathered metal than rubber in the last photos, probably just the flash.

Cheers

John

Cheers John and you are quite right! How odd. I hadn't noticed. I'm not going to panic as it looks fine in real life. :thumbsup: It must be the poor quality of lighting in our kitchen again - the lighting on some of my photos of my Crusader in the MiB GB made it look greenish!

Kind regards,

Stix

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That is one seriously impressive cockpit.

:goodjob:

cheers Allan

Hi Allen and thank you for your kind comments.

Well there's only one day in the way until the weekend when I can do some more on this project :thumbsup:

Kind regards,

Stix

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This morning I split my build time between this and my MiB GB Crusader.

Fist off on this project I added some cables to the back of the IP.

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Then, having seen some of the rather nicely detailed AM wheel-well sets others on here are using for their builds, I decided the Tamiya version could do with a little bit extra in the way of cables - just to busy the area up. So out came a micro-drill and some fuse wire:

24411010510_98464de244_c.jpg

This took longer than I expected - so much for an OOB build!

Last weekend I did some painting on some of the other inside areas using Humbrol's Pale Yellow No.81:

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........and this is what the wheel wells looked like under their first coat of paint:

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More tomorrow I hope.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Kind regards,

Stix

Edited by PlaStix
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nice work Stix's...plus you made the right choice of doing up the well wheel rather than going AM.....I know it would have saved me grief going that way!

That "yellow" should tone down a bit with some washes.

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Nice work on the office looks right. The wheel bays look too yellow to me need tone down a bit

Les

Hi Les and thank you for your comments and advice. They needed more than a bit of toning down! They were very yellow despite the name of the paint colour! To be fair to the paint, the lighting in the kitchen where I do my model building doesn't help - it didn't look quite as bad in real lfe as it does in the above photos. I have done some toning down with washes and dry-brushing and I think they look a little better - please see the photos below.

nice work Stix's...plus you made the right choice of doing up the well wheel rather than going AM.....I know it would have saved me grief going that way!

That "yellow" should tone down a bit with some washes.

Hi Rich and thank you. Yes the Tamiya wheel-wells are very nicely detailed to start with - they just seemed to be missing a few cables here and there. It was a bit time consuming to add them but nothing serious. Check the photos below for how the colour looks now.

OOB build? Does that actually exist? :lol:

Great job with the back IP and wheel wells, Stix! :clap:

Ciao

No I don't think it does - although I do try...........at times! I do think you are taking your kits further away from OOB than most though! :winkgrin:

And thank you for your comments.

Yesterday I did get a bit done on this project although I did end up spending more time on my Crusader in the MiB GB than I intended to.

First off I started adding some washes and dry brushing:

24609347282_c821ff6dde_c.jpg

As I mentioned above; the lighting in our kitchen isn't great for getting the right colour......

..........so I took some more photos later in natural light when I'd painted in some of the detail:

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I still need to add some final touches to the weathering but they are just about done.

More next weekend.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Kind regards,

Stix

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Hi Stix, that's sterling work there. The extra detail really stands out with the weathering. I look forward to the next update, Cheers Greg :goodjob:

Hi Greg and thank you. Unfortunately I won't get time to work on this until the weekend.... :weep:

Weathering looks spot on, especially with proper light :clap: And the scratch built piping/wiring really adds to the "real" look of it!

Ciao

Thank you Giemme. I was quite pleased that the cables seemed fairly straight forward to do, if a little fiddly, but, compared to what you add to your builds I am a novice!

Yes, the bay detail you added really makes a difference Stix.

Thank you Cookie. I may add a couple of other bits that I've found in some photos of the actual aircraft of this type.

nice subtle work, well done

Thank you Rich. It was seeing yours and some of the others' resin replacement wheel bays that made me think the Tamiya ones could do with a little bit more! Thank you.

Those wheel bays look just about spot on to me too Stix, somewhere between yellow and green.

Cheers

John

Hi John and thank you. I think it helps that the lighting was better when I took the photos. I think the Humbrol Pale Yellow is a good starting point but it looks better under washes and dry-brushing.

That are some realy nice painted wheelbays. :goodjob:

Cheers,

Thank you Arnold.

Kind regards,

Stix

Edited by PlaStix
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superb job on the pit and wheel wells Stix! cheers! :)

Thank you Wolwe. For my first venture with aircraft other than Spitfires it's a bit of a learning curve but I'm enjoying it so far...........we'll see what happens when I get to the metal paintwork and large decals! :fight:

Cockpit has turned out brilliantly Stix. It's great what you're doing with the extra detail. It's taken this build to another level already. :coolio:

Thank you Nigel - that's very kind of you to say. :blush:

As I often say on a Thursday - only one day in the way until the weekend! :yahoo:

Kind regards,

Stix

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Only a brief weekend update - I ended up putting more time into my Crusader build over in the MiB GB.

First off I added the bits that need to go inside the fuselage halves before they are joined permanently together:

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You can see where I did my first bit of brush painting testing (further back down the fuselage) with, in this case, Revell's Aluminium. I went on reasonably well although I need to do some proper testing with more metal finish paints on some exterior surfaces - the inside ones are not particularly smooth.

The cockpit tub sits in place beautifully - I didn't end up using any glue to keep it in place:

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This part was painted and fitted:

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.........and then the two halves, tail sections and the front were finally glued together:

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My only concern is that there is a slight step between the main fuselage parts and tail section behind the cockpit:

24263214924_31553856a3_c.jpg

.....it's nothing (less than a millimeter) that a bit of careful filing and sanding can't fix:

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....but slightly annoying nonetheless as everything else fits really well.

24264485933_051eedb604_c.jpg

More next weekend.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Kind regards,

Stix

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