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Tamiya 1/48 Republic P-47D Thunderbolt "Bubbletop" - brush painted NMF


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Republic P-47D Thunderbolt - WZ-P - No.226551

As flown by Lt.Col. Benjamin Mayo, 84th FS, 78th FG, Duxford Air Base, 1944


Kit: 1/48 Tamiya "Bubbletop"
Paints: Citadel, Humbrol and Revell - all applied by brush.
Built mostly OOB apart from a few bits of scratch-built plastic and wire in the cockpit and wheel wells.
This was built as part of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt STGB

Work In Progress: Here

This build represents a number of firsts for me. It's the first non-Spitfire aircraft build since getting back into making kits again a few years back (I'm not counting the Captain Scarlet Angel's Interceptor here!). I'm pretty sure I only made one American aircraft when I was a child which, I think, was a Hellcat. This is also the first time I have attempted a brush painted NMF on such a large area. With regards the NMF paint - I got a lot of advice from fellow Britmodellers, thank you, and did some practicing on some scrap bits before deciding to use Citadel's Runefang Steel - I've not really used much Citadel paint in the past either.
I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed building this kit - it is a well detailed kit and the fit is excellent.

Some photos:
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The detail in the cockpit was excellent but I couldn't get any decent photos yesterday so here are a few from during the build:
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Photos of the undersides added 04/04/16:
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Edit 04/04/16: I have now added some photos of the detail on the undersides (above). I'll also do some more B&W versions when I get chance.


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Edit - B&W photos added 09/04/16

As always: comments and suggestions welcome.

Kind regards,

Stix

Edited by PlaStix
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This is a superb rendition of the real thing, Stix! Very lifelike and the light weathering is very well applied. The brush-painted NMF, like someone said in the WIP, puts us all airbrushers to shame... Very inspirational for when I start building my Tamyia P-47.

Congrats on another superb build :worthy:

Cheers

Jaime

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Very impressive, I don't recall seeing a better hand painted NMF. If you hadn't of said I would have had know idea it was done by hand.

But you know you've got to build a Razorback to go with it ;)

Edited by Tbolt
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BRUSH painted NMF !!………Truly inspirational since I am in 'airbrush exile' right now…….Thank you for posting this……GREAT model BTW !.

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Wow! congrats are in order- that's an utterly gorgeous model you've created there 'Stix. And the dio looks great too as always. (where do you get your grass btw?).

VERY well done, :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: Dave.

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:wow: It looks real!!!!! I can't think of a better compliment, seriously. Your best model so far, hands down!

:mike:

Ciao

Hi giemme. Thank you very much for the very (too) kind comments.

absolutely brilliant youve inspired a re-tread.Very reassuring that NMF can be replicated with brush.

Thank you very much Tony. I does take a bit of work with thinned layers of the NMF paints and some decent flat brushes but yes - it can be done...........no-one was more surprised than me!

Nice job Stix.

Thank you Ozzy.

They just get better and better Stix!!

:worthy::worthy: Lost for words :worthy::worthy:

Like giemme you are far too kind......but thank you!!!! :thumbsup:

This is a superb rendition of the real thing, Stix! Very lifelike and the light weathering is very well applied. The brush-painted NMF, like someone said in the WIP, puts us all airbrushers to shame... Very inspirational for when I start building my Tamyia P-47.

Congrats on another superb build :worthy:

Cheers

Jaime

Hi Jaime and thank you too for your very kind comments - I don't think my brush painted NMF competes with air-brushed versions but I am very pleased with how it turned out.

Very impressive, I don't recall seeing a better hand painted NMF. If you hadn't of said I would have had know idea it was done by hand.

But you know you've got to build a Razorback to go with it ;)

Hi Tbolt and thank you very much..........and yes I may well have to build a Razorback version at some point but it may not be for a while......perhaps during the next P-47 Thunderbolt GB! :winkgrin:

An excellent piece of work....

Thank you very much HooK.

I'm going to spread my thank yous and replies over several posts as I can't remember how many quotes are allowed per individual post.

Kind regards,

Stix

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Amazing P-47 looks like the real thing.

Jan Remco

Hi Jan. Thant's very kind of you to say - I think the background I use for the photos helps - it was originally just a backdrop for my Spitfire display base.

BRUSH painted NMF !!………Truly inspirational since I am in 'airbrush exile' right now…….Thank you for posting this……GREAT model BTW !.

Hi Tiger331 and thank you for your very kind comments. I must admit, before doing it, I wasn't certain it would be possible to get a reasonable finish using brushes. In fact I had bought some Humbrol rattlecan Aluminium and Silver just in case!

Wow! congrats are in order- that's an utterly gorgeous model you've created there 'Stix. And the dio looks great too as always. (where do you get your grass btw?).

VERY well done, :goodjob: :goodjob: :goodjob: Dave.

Hi Dave and thank you very much too. The grass mats are from Gaugemaster (through the big A) and in this case it's the 'Meadow mat' 6mm version. I use the 12mm version for the larger tanks I make. The Meadow versions are less bright than some of their others.

I really like this one, it is beautifully finished. Congratulations on a job well done.

Thank you Rob for your very kind comments!!

Stix,

OMG...PHENOMENAL & STUNNING build.

even the photographs are SUPERB.. :clap:

EXCELLENT work Stix... she turned out gorgeous. :heart: :heart::Tasty:

KUDOS. :worthy: :worthy::worthy::worthy::worthy::worthy:

HOUSTON!!!! How are you? Not heard from you for a while. Hope you are keeping well. Thank you you for your exceptionally kind comments.

beautiful finish Stix, amazing brush skills!!! realy love the overall look of the Thunderbolt and the nice details in the pit! :) cheers

Hi Wolwe and thank you very much. Luckily the painting is helped by the rather lovely, crisp detail this kit comes with!!

What a stunning finish!

Ben

Hi Ben. That's very kind of you to say. Hope the studies at Uni are going well!

More replies in the next post!

Kind regards,

Stix

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'Glorious' I think is the word.
Would have to get my construction techniques up to scratch to do a natural metal finish

Hi DaveyGair. Thank you very much for your kind comments. I had never done a NMF before so it was just a case of trying out a variety of metallic paints first on some scrap, listening to advice from the very helpful members here on Britmodeller and then taking it carefully and slowly while putting the advice into practice.

Well done my friend. Keep it up.
cheers

Thank you very much Pawel!

Champion!

Thank you!

You've done it again! Superlatives fail me.
Just one comment, the grass could do with a cut, you can hardly see the tailwheel.

John

Hi John and thank you for your too kind comments................and fair point - I will speak to the groundsmen! :winkgrin:

Ye gad man, that is hurting my eyes it's so stunning
Rob

Thank you very much Rob you are way too kind!

very nice build indeed hard to believe was done with a brush!!!!! better metal finish than I get with a airbrush lol.......

great job on the scheme and nmf.....

Thank you very much Batcode. I use good old Humbrol's flat brushes - I find them excellent.

A superb build by any standards Stix but factor in the Brush painting and it stands out even more,great job :thumbsup:

Hi Steve - hope the nose is doing okay!! Thank you too for your very kind comments!

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to comment on my build of this kit. I actually thoroughly enjoyed doing all of it, although I did keep putting off stating the NMF!! Even the thickish Tamiya decals weren't too bad on this one. If anyone fancies a fairly stress free build of a P-47 then I can thoroughly recommend this kit.

Comments and suggestions welcome.

Kind regards,

Stix

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