Revell 1/72 P-47M

[danielwood5]

Hi all, I'm having a grand old time in the 'Brits Abroad' group build so I thought I'd join in here for double the fun. Freshly arrived from Hannants is this Revell 1/72 P-47M Thunderbolt along with the Eduard Zoom PE addons, both for £9 plus postage. I'm going to be learning quite a bit during this build as I've never used photo etch before and as a newcomer to airbrushing this is going to be my first attempt at a NMF too. I'm going to be building the aircraft on the box cover: 'Devastatin Deb' which looks an interesting combination of Aluminium undersides and a two tone blue camouflage above with the addition of a snazzy looking red cowl. I'll probably airbrush the undersides and then brush paint the camouflage.  Here's the obligatory starting off shots;

 

As you can hopefully see from the pics there's some nice looking mouldings with plenty of detail in the cockpit area but also a LOT of flash.

First things first though, as this is a Revell kit I'm going to have to do some research regarding the colours to use here so that is what I'll be up to over the next day or so.

Edited July 4, 2018 by danielwood5
bad grammar

[Learstang]

It's unusual to see that much flash, coupled with what appear to be nicely-moulded and detailed parts. Still, what's a little bit of flash? I've built so many limited-run kits over the years that if I get a kit without any flash, I wonder what's wrong with it. Good luck with this build; this is a kit I might be interested in buying as I think the P-47M looks great in that blue scheme.

 

Regards,

 

Jason

[Tbolt]

I wondered if some one going to do an M for this GB, nice to see. The Revell kit while not as good as the Tamiya kit, is quite a nice kit for a lot less money and is very good value. And of course if you want to build an M from the Tamiya kit in 1/72 it starts to get expensive with buying AM stuff. Looks like the molds are showing their age but if it's only light flash then its not really a problem

 

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good morning Daniel

Welcome aboard and enjoy your build ...

 

Cheers

Patrice

[stevej60]

Good choice Daniel,I did the box scheme for the last Tbolt GB,despite the flash it's a cracking kit.

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234998059-devastatindebp47m-revell/&page=1

 

Edited July 5, 2018 by stevej60

[danielwood5]

Thanks everyone, I'm looking forward to this build now despite the flash issue with the kit (the flash is as thick as some of the parts in places!). Your build looks great @stevej60, I'll be using it as a reference from time to time I suspect and I'll be pretty happy if I can get this one looking anywhere near as good looking as yours.

 

I've been doing some research on the colours used on this aircraft and as far as I can tell no-one seems to know for sure what they were! The general consensus is that Insignia Blue over Azure Blue is the closest match so I'll be going with my trusty Humbrols here as they are cheap and readily available (except for Insignia Blue which they no longer make, I do however have a tinlet of it stashed away for just such an occasion). I've also learnt that all the aircraft in the 63rd Fighter Sqn had different camouflage patterns and that there are no existing photos of this aircraft so I'll just be following Revell's guide as that seems as good as any other. The only info regarding the patterns used on this aircraft is this drawing that was done based on a rough guide drawn out by the pilot onto a napkin for the artist.

The rudder is painted in the same blue as the serials are painted in so I'll probably have to mix up a colour to match. Looking at the photos on the Little Friends website these aircraft were pretty war weary so I'll try to replicate this with some weathering although it really isn't my forte.

Researching the kits is far from my favourite part of the build but I can highly recommend the galleries on the 'Little Friends' website, they have some great photos on there. Having said that I'm all done with research for now and I'm ready to start laying down some paint.

[Tbolt]

The  colour pictures of 63rd P-47M's show the light blue to be a lot lighter than the rudder blue. It looks quite close to the light grey used on the 62nd FS M's ( maybe it was actually a grey and not blue ? ) Humbrol Azure blue looks too dark to me ( Colourcoats Azure is a lot lighter and closer to your profile ), you may want to lighten it some or use something closer.

Edited July 5, 2018 by Tbolt

[Hewy]

Nice price, nice little kit Daniel, wheels up or down on this

Glynn 

[danielwood5]

I think you might be right about the Azure blue @Tbolt, I've only found two colour pictures so far but the blue looks to be paler than the Humbrol Azure I've just had a look at so I'll have a to have a rethink there. There are plenty of pics of completed models and various die cast toy versions too all with different shades of blue on them so I'm going to try to recreate the 'feel' of these two photos.

 

I'm going to be going wheels down here @Hewy as the Eduard PE has some nice (but incredibly tiny!) detail parts for the undercarriage. Should be a challenge to get them on looking at how tiny and delicate they are but I'll give it my best shot.

[Tbolt]

1 hour ago, danielwood5 said:

I think you might be right about the Azure blue @Tbolt, I've only found two colour pictures so far but the blue looks to be paler than the Humbrol Azure I've just had a look at so I'll have a to have a rethink there. There are plenty of pics of completed models and various die cast toy versions too all with different shades of blue on them so I'm going to try to recreate the 'feel' of these two photos.

 

I'm going to be going wheels down here @Hewy as the Eduard PE has some nice (but incredibly tiny!) detail parts for the undercarriage. Should be a challenge to get them on looking at how tiny and delicate they are but I'll give it my best shot.

Yes that’s the two colour pictures I have. When I building my M years back I didn’t have these and I got the dark blue too light and the light blue two dark. 

 

Like I said before I wonder if it could be a grey - medium sea grey?

 

 

[danielwood5]

4 hours ago, Tbolt said:

Yes that’s the two colour pictures I have. When I building my M years back I didn’t have these and I got the dark blue too light and the light blue two dark. 

 

Like I said before I wonder if it could be a grey - medium sea grey?

 

 

I'm going to go with blue rather than grey I think, I've been getting my guidance from here and the very last post has info from a guy who has spoken to a few of the pilots and ground staff involved with these aircraft. It seems that they were definitely two tone blue camouflage and the crew chief on the aircraft I'm building seems to remember that they mixed the lighter blue shade from the dark blue so a completely accurate match isn't going to be possible at all. The two colour photos aren't the best quality either sadly, I'm not even sure if they've been colourised either but I'll use them as a reference none the less as I don't have anything else to go off! Looks like this is one of those subjects where artistic licence is definitely needed. 

[Tbolt]

23 minutes ago, danielwood5 said:

I'm going to go with blue rather than grey I think, I've been getting my guidance from here and the very last post has info from a guy who has spoken to a few of the pilots and ground staff involved with these aircraft. It seems that they were definitely two tone blue camouflage and the crew chief on the aircraft I'm building seems to remember that they mixed the lighter blue shade from the dark blue so a completely accurate match isn't going to be possible at all. The two colour photos aren't the best quality either sadly, I'm not even sure if they've been colourised either but I'll use them as a reference none the less as I don't have anything else to go off! Looks like this is one of those subjects where artistic licence is definitely needed. 

 

I don’t think those photos have been colourised as they appear in the Thunderbolt! Book on the 56th fighter group and they would probably have got them from a good source.

 

Of course like any colour photo you can never be sure of the exact colour. If they did just lighten the darker blue,it would be nice to know what the darker blue actually was and what they lightened it with.

 

[danielwood5]

13 hours ago, Tbolt said:

 

I don’t think those photos have been colourised as they appear in the Thunderbolt! Book on the 56th fighter group and they would probably have got them from a good source.

 

Of course like any colour photo you can never be sure of the exact colour. If they did just lighten the darker blue,it would be nice to know what the darker blue actually was and what they lightened it with.

 

Absolutely @Tbolt it would make life so much easier if we knew what they actually used but I don't think that will ever happen sadly, I read that someone spoke to one of the ground crew and they had a vague memory that they 'liberated' the paint from a local car factory!

 

Not made too much progress so far but I have started attaching some of the PE pieces to the 'styrene. Quite fiddly work but I've not lost anything yet although I'm a little concerned about putting together the multi part instrument panel, some of the pieces are beyond tiny!

[RJ-WobblyHands]

9 hours ago, danielwood5 said:

Absolutely @Tbolt it would make life so much easier if we knew what they actually used but I don't think that will ever happen sadly, I read that someone spoke to one of the ground crew and they had a vague memory that they 'liberated' the paint from a local car factory!

 

Not made too much progress so far but I have started attaching some of the PE pieces to the 'styrene. Quite fiddly work but I've not lost anything yet although I'm a little concerned about putting together the multi part instrument panel, some of the pieces are beyond tiny!

 

Interesting on the 56thFG  camo colours - from my research once you get to the -25's onward all  bubbletops were delivered NMF  - every plane was then painted at Boxted and ended up with different colours and patterns , makes building them all the more fun - no defined camo pattern A , B or C 

 

Its the small levers in the PE set that scare me even with a magnifying glass they are soo small.

[danielwood5]

To be honest @RJ-WobblyHands I've not bothered with the instrument panel levers, they're that tiny I can hardly see them on the fret so there's no chance they'd be visible when they're in a darkened cockpit!

Work has been slow but steady on this one. I've finished painting up the interior parts and am just about ready to start putting her together.

[danielwood5]

All the main bits have now been stuck in place. The fit on this kit is superb so far I have to say, no filer needed as yet.

 

I do have a question though, what is this moulding in the rear wheel bay? It looks like it's supposed to be fabric or something, anyone have any ideas what colour it should be painted? I'll be very thankful for any advice on this!

I'm also thinking of painting this section behind the cockpit in the same interior colour (Humbrol 117 US Light Green Matt) along with the section under the front windscreen, is this right? Anybody have any better suggestions? I've had a look at quite a few walkarounds but these areas are really difficult to see on most of them and I've yet to see a photo of the rear wheel well.🤔

Thanks for looking everyone.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

9 minutes ago, danielwood5 said:

It looks like it's supposed to be fabric or something, anyone have any ideas what colour it should be painted?

Its a canvas or leather dust boot for the rear tire. I would think a khaki or tan color would be good ? Section in front of pilot should be black to reduce glare. 

 

Dennis

Edited August 18, 2018 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[danielwood5]

4 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Its a canvas or leather dust boot for the rear tire. I would think ackhaki or tan color would be good ? Section in front of pilot should be black to reduce glare. 

 

Dennis

Cheers @Corsairfoxfouruncle can get on with some more painting now!

[Tbolt]

The area behind the cockpit was factory painted OD with the rest of the anti-glare panel.

 

 

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

To be more specific i thought @danielwood5 was referring to the instrument coaming ? If referring to the anti-glare panel then @Tbolt is 100% correct. It was Olive drab.  

[Tbolt]

2 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

To be more specific i thought @danielwood5 was referring to the instrument coaming ? If referring to the anti-glare panel then @Tbolt is 100% correct. It was Olive drab.  

He was asking about both.

[danielwood5]

Apologies all, due to real life getting in the way I wasn't able to keep this build updated but I thought I should close this thread out anyway (I hop that's OK).

I really enjoyed making this kit, the fit was good and in my opinion the finished model looks rally good. This plane wasn't really on my radar until this build but I really like it's fairly brutal good looks, I've picked up a couple of different boxings of this Revell kit for the stash and one day hopefully my model making skills will allow me to justify paying the price for the Tamiya 1/48 kit.

This was my first time using PE and I don't really think it's for me, especially not in 1/72. The seatbelts look good but the other cockpit PE is invisible when it's all closed up and I didn't bother with some of the other bits and pieces that came with the Zoom set, the landing gear oleo hinges in particular just looked like they would be more trouble than they're worth . I may use it again but I think I'll reserve the PE stuff for either seatbelts only or maybe anything 1/48 and above.

Anyway, here's some photos of the finished build, I did have a few more 'in progress' photos but they've ben wiped from Imgur as my account was inactive!

Huge thanks to you all who gave me such great advice and encouragement during this build.

[stevehnz]

That has come up nicely Daniel. Maybe a lighter background to your photos would make them look a bit less sombre but what you have is enough to see its nicely modeled.

Steve.

[danielwood5]

9 hours ago, stevehnz said:

That has come up nicely Daniel. Maybe a lighter background to your photos would make them look a bit less sombre but what you have is enough to see its nicely modeled.

Steve.

Thanks @stevehnz I'm pretty pleased with how this one turned out, it was a fun build too which is probably even more important. Thanks for the photo tips too, I'll definitely take that on board.