Last Legs Ponies: P-51 Mustangs, P-47 Thunderbolts (and other American WWII fighters) around the Caribbean

[ModelingEdmontonian]

No building to update on, but I do now have all five P-47 kits!

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

After eight days in the corral, the ponies are out, with seams and gaps and sink marks (such as they are) fixed up. 

 

 

Looks like it'll be nice (by the standards around here, anyway) for a few days so we should be able to spray some primer outside soon.

 

I also chopped some sprue on on the P-47s. These look elephants compared to the ponies! I had to touch up wheel wells on the P-51s, so I decided to apply the YZC to the P-47 wheel wells too.

 

 

I'll "formally" introduce the P-47 kits soon, but these are all the wings and most of the fuselages!

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Before introducing the P-47s, I'll update a little of the P-51 progress... Taped up the cockpits--much more to do here than on the Hurricanes I'm used to working with!

 

 

And sprayed the primer... Of course, realized in doing so that there is a little bit more seam work to do (e.g., on Guatemala, bottom left).

 

 

I gathered some of the other parts I want primed as well; this was actually more work than it looks with all the sanding and sink hole filling that was required.

 

 

I then assembled the two drop tanks that Costa Rica will carry. After the first one was done, I tried cutting off the locator pins on the second and found it aligned much better manually. I tossed the first one in the spares bin and assembled a third the same way. I used to really appreciate locator pins, but am coming to realize they are often the enemy of well-aligned halves of bombs, drop tanks, torpedos, etc. Is this a universal experience?

 

With wheels wells appropriately masked up and drop tanks included, here's everything waiting for nice weather tomorrow for more primer.

 

 

Oh, and meanwhile, I was also prepping the sprayed P-51 and P-47 "black pieces" for some finishing work (brush painted silver and yellow, mostly).

 

 

Edited March 21, 2022 by ModelingEdmontonian

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Ok, so on to the P-47 kits; Academy first, the one I bought in mistake. 

 

 

Not wanting to waste the kit, this will be a Brazilian P-47D-25 (or -27), using FCM decals.

 

 

I think I will build "C1" with the impressive load out as in the photo below. This will probably be the only "fully loaded" P-47 I model.

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Next up is the Tamiya kit... this one will be Colombia.

 

 

Not surprisingly, looks pretty nice!

 

 

I had to get these pieces to convert this into a D-30. All told this is by far the most expensive P-47 kit in the collection! 

 

 

These are the decals, which will also be supplying Venezuela, Mexico, and Cuba as well.

 

 

I will be building 834.

 

 

There's a profile on the 1/144 Shelf Oddity sheet @Tim R-T-C shared as well which is helpful too.

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

I suppose before showing the black parts up above I should have updated that I had in fact sprayed the P-47 wheels, props, and instrument panels.

 

 

The next kit is more or less the same, the Revell P-47M and the Hobby 2000 P-47M.

 

 

These have identical sprues. Lots of flash on both sets of sprues.

 

 

The Hobby 2000 includes masks (top right below) which will be useful.

 

 

These will be Venezuela (I'll build 8-B-36)...

 

 

... and Cuba (I'll build 451--not sure what colour that is exactly yet, but that's what I'll try to replicate!).

 

 

Here are the decals, again:

 

Edited March 15, 2022 by ModelingEdmontonian

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Alright, the last P-47 kit is the Revell P-47D-30. Similar to the -M, but one different sprue.

 

 

The oddest part about this kit is the strange instruction format.

 

 

The decals from this one will be helpful, because I'll be using those yellow wing stripes!

 

 

This will be Mexico (PZT1011)--again not entirely sure what colour it is, but I like it!

 

Edited March 15, 2022 by ModelingEdmontonian

[Farmer matt]

This is a great project. If you can find a copy, this book may be of interest.

LATIN AMERICAN AIR WARS AND AIRCRAFT 1912-1969

by Dan Hagedorn, published by HIKOKI in 2006

ISBN ..  1 902109 44 9

 

Who was fighting who,with what,and when. There is or was also a download companion volume but not tried it.

 

Regards, Matt

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Back to the ponies, I primed the undersides and the other parts. From there, Haiti, Dominican Republic, and Guatemala went back into the corral. I'm going to focus on getting Costa Rica done first, so these will stay here .

 

 

Then I was blasting Costa Rica and lots of peripheral parts with my bare metal silver AS-12.

 

 

Meanwhile, some rattle can white on Dominican Republic's rockets and the rudders for Guatemala and Costa Rica.

 

 

I brushed some Pledge on the Airfix drop tanks and when dry applied the decals Tamiya supplies. Here they are just settling in. Interestingly, I think Airfix has messed up which side the cap is on--should be port, not starboard when I look at pictures (and Tamiya agrees). I would have liked to actually use the Tamiya tanks, but that would have required more work to make them fit on the Airfix version than I wanted to do. Oh well...

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

I've been working by brush to touch up Costa Rica's airframe, but nothing worth photographing there. I felt the drop tanks could use more red on the caps, so I painted those in (these are resting by some P-47 wheels).

 

 

With the red paint out I also set to work on the spinners. Dominican Republic is green, Guatemala yellow, and Costa Rica and Haiti are red. More wheels (P-51 and P-47) as well as P-51 canopy frames in this picture, too.

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

The problem with my silver enamel is it takes a LONG time to dry, so Costa Rica is still waiting patiently. Continuing on with props and wheels and such... 

 

 

But now I'm second guessing my choice of prop for Costa Rica, so I need some help! I was basing my choice on this photo of Costa Rica #1, assuming they would all have had the same type.

 

 

But #2 is different, right?! Is this just a case of the cuffs are off on #2 and on #1? I'm pretty sure that is not an Aeroproducts prop on #2, or am I wrong? 

 

 

While I'm asking for help, I may as well ask this too: any thoughts out there on the colour of the wing tips? Blue Rider's profile doesn't show any colour there, but I would guess from the photos that that's red if I compare to the national markings' middle line.

 

 

Finally, and relevant to both the P-51s and P-47s: what stenciling or company logos should appear on the props? They don't seem to always be present--is there a rule of thumb for when they were on prop blades and when they weren't? I don't see them at all on the Costa Rican P-51s, but they do seem to be there on these Dominican Republic versions.

 

 

In that photo of the two Dominican Republic planes above, are we also seeing one cuffed and one uncuffed prop?

 

Anyway, back to the bench, I pulled out the P-47 IPs and applied the decals on the two from the P-47M kits and Tamiya's (the Revell P-47D and Academy kits don't provide IP decals).

 

 

I cleaned up the other cockpit pieces.

 

 

These Revell/Hobby 2000 seats are grossly oversized. You can also see how much crisper the P-47D parts are vs. the P-47M, which I find interesting, because they seem to be from the same mold. I've never been too worried about what the innards look like anyway, so probably won't even bother painting the seat belts on the P-47 seats.

 

 

With a little bit of assembly already done, I began applying the Mission Models' interior green.

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

2 hours ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

 

While I'm asking for help

Don't forget to add the covered over star & bars and TEX. ANG. on the fuselage. This can be done a coupke ways one is if you have decals. The second is Id take An 1/8” or 1/4” brush and roughly write the letters on the plastic in dark paint. Blue, grey, or black. Then when you spray over them just leave a little showing through. The star & bars just use kit decals and spray over them. 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

1 hour ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Don't forget to add the covered over star & bars and TEX. ANG. on the fuselage. This can be done a coupke ways one is if you have decals. The second is Id take An 1/8” or 1/4” brush and roughly write the letters on the plastic in dark paint. Blue, grey, or black. Then when you spray over them just leave a little showing through. The star & bars just use kit decals and spray over them. 

Good catch! I hadn't even noticed it! Thanks for those tips, I'll see what I can do. Do you think even a sharpie would work for the letters? I've never tried to do this before.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

2 hours ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

Good catch! I hadn't even noticed it! Thanks for those tips, I'll see what I can do. Do you think even a sharpie would work for the letters? I've never tried to do this before.

Well a sharpie will definitely bleed through paint but probably not the way you’d like it too. You can always use railroad dry transfers for the lettering ? Being that its under paint you wouldn't have to have it perfectly straight. I have a couple sheets of these in black & white. As you can see there are a lot of sizes on a sheet and will last you for years. 
 

https://www.hobbylinc.com/woodland-gothic-r-r-letters-black-1:16-5:16-model-railroad-decal-mg720?source=froogle&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIv8fgv5fY9gIVDyCtBh2XVQeVEAQYBCABEgIhpfD_BwE

 

Another option is to spray the aluminum mask with stencils and respray after adding a couple drops of Blue, grey, or black to the aluminum. 

[opus999]

The Jugs are going to look really cool.  That's one of my all time favorite aircraft and with the colorful markings of Latin America, they will be really great!

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Thanks to @Corsairfoxfouruncle, work on Costa Rica shifted to getting the bars and stars and TEX ANG lettering on the fuselage. First a little Pledge on the sides to prepare the surface last night.

 

 

And then this morning the decals are on. Once dry, we can start on the lettering

 

 

Also, the rudders for Guatemala and Costa Rica are now white and the Aztec masks are there beside them. Guatemala's will need blue stripes and Costa Rica's blue and red. Before sticking the masks on, though, I decided to to put some Pledge on to mitigate the risk that the masks pull any paint off, so that's drying now.

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

I have also made more progress on the P-47 cockpits. Here is Brazil (Academy), the simplest of the five. Nothing fancy here at all, just some green and a bit of black and with that I buttoned up the fuselage.

 

 

These are the three Revell/Hobby 2000--this is before I added brown to the head rest and went over them with a silver dry brush, but, still keeping it all very simple. As noted before, didn't bother with the seat belts.

 

 

Colombia (Tamiya) has by far the most going on... this was it at an interim stage as well. Tamiya provides a decal harness, so I stuck that on. I enjoyed putting this one together, and maybe I'll leave the canopy open on Colombia so that some of this can be visible when all is done.

 

 

A little more progress...

 

 

Beside a Revell office (which here has the IP installed).

 

 

And here all together and ready for installation into the fuselage.

 

 

Meanwhile, here are four fuselage halves (all but Tamiya). I've realized the Yellow Zinc Chromate around the tail wheel area is unnecessary, so never bothered finishing that up.

 

 

Before assembly, the Revell/Hobby 2000 kits require a piece cut out and the antenna installed.

 

 

Here is one of them all together.

 

 

And now Academy, Hobby 2000, and Revell fuselages all together.

 

 

I doubt I'll do much more with these for awhile now, so I boxed them up for another day.

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Pony spinner painting all done and they're assembled on the props--Guatemala is yellow, Dominican Republic is green, and Costa Rica and Haiti are red.

 

[ModelingEdmontonian]

On 3/21/2022 at 12:09 PM, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Don't forget to add the covered over star & bars and TEX. ANG. on the fuselage. This can be done a coupke ways one is if you have decals. The second is Id take An 1/8” or 1/4” brush and roughly write the letters on the plastic in dark paint. Blue, grey, or black. Then when you spray over them just leave a little showing through. The star & bars just use kit decals and spray over them. 

I have some solvent working the decals into the panel lines still, but thinking about getting started on those letters... what are your thoughts, @Corsairfoxfouruncle,  in the photo are we looking at a paint-over job with a grey or black (or blue?) and then a silver paint applied over that? I'm thinking the star seems to have been painted over with a dark colour for sure, so thinking through how I might do the same before I move on to spraying again (also fyi I'm just working with a rattle can and brush, no airbrush on this modeller's bench...)

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

4 hours ago, ModelingEdmontonian said:

I have some solvent working the decals into the panel lines still, but thinking about getting started on those letters... what are your thoughts, @Corsairfoxfouruncle,  in the photo are we looking at a paint-over job with a grey or black (or blue?) and then a silver paint applied over that? I'm thinking the star seems to have been painted over with a dark colour for sure, so thinking through how I might do the same before I move on to spraying again (also fyi I'm just working with a rattle can and brush, no airbrush on this modeller's bench...)

To my old Mk.I’s 👀 Im going to say painted over. If you look closely at the TEX its not defined like a decal was removed. Its rather sloppy especially around the upper part of the “T”. Also the lower part of the “E” & the “X“ is just plane blurry. If decals had been removed or more care had gone into covering it would be harder to see Im thinking ? 

 

Again in this photo ⬇️ it looks like a quick overspray but a little neater like they either had a bit more time or it was a different person. The “N” is pretty clean but the “G” is less so. 

 

Another thought is yes by the 1950’s Mustangs were overall Aluminum paint for corrosion control. My money is different brand or can of paint or this mustang was still NMF and thats aluminum paint. 
      Can you cut small stencils to spray through ? If not kind of use a wide strip of tape just pencil the letters in cut them out and spray or brush through the cut outs. 
 

Dennis

Edited March 25, 2022 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[Graham Boak]

I'd say painted over too, what a light colour?  Fresh (badly stirred?) Aluminium paint?.  Had the P-51s been NMF then there'd be visible panel differences, and would probably have rotted by then.  OK, the dry Texas air would have helped.

[ModelingEdmontonian]

Thanks for the advice, @Corsairfoxfouruncle and @Graham Boak. Alright, after lots of thinking about it, I actually opted to use gunmetal as the initial "paint over." It went on a little rough, so I have used a fine sand paper over it after this photo.

 

 

And now with the letters:

 

 

I think I'm happy with this; any thoughts? I haven't moved on to the other side yet, and of course I haven't over-sprayed with aluminum/silver. I'll see what I think of it in the morning. 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Looks good to me, should go real nice once the aluminum is painted over it. 

[Graham Boak]

Looks convincing.  I must admit to having had second thoughts about the letters being oversprayed.  Could this simply be an effect of taking some wet-and-dry to black painted letters and smearing it around?  Also, sometimes rubbing down old aluminium paint will leave a darker residue.  I don't think that I'm inventing that.  I feel that if you were going to overspray something you'd chose a matching paint to the background.  As far as modelling it goes, however, you are attempting to match the result not repeat the procedure that created it in the first place.

[mark.au]

4 minutes ago, Graham Boak said:

Looks convincing.  I must admit to having had second thoughts about the letters being oversprayed.  Could this simply be an effect of taking some wet-and-dry to black painted letters and smearing it around?  Also, sometimes rubbing down old aluminium paint will leave a darker residue.  I don't thin that I'm inventing that.  I feel that if you were going to overspray something you'd chose a matching paint to the background.  As far as modelling it goes, however, you are attempting to match the result not repeat the procedure that created it in the first place.

This is my take as well.