P-47M-1-RE Thunderbolt, 56th FG - Attempt at British Night Camo

[IIBSWAT]

My first plane model in 40 years (usually it's tanks), I was inspired by the description in AK Real Colours for Night being a mix of a blue and black.

 

Went for the Tamiya P-47M 1/48 - it's from 2005 (61096) - excellent model, any fault with the construction was mine and not due to the model!

 

As I paint with rattle cans I got a custom filled rattle can and settled on RAL 5004 ie a very, very dark blue. I did try it out on various undercoats as testers and found it was too blue, when used on black undercoat. So finally went for a pale grey, as the final colour looked more black

 

The weathering and inspiration for the model came from AK 56th fighter group in WW2 - the colour and weathering for the drop tanks, undercarriage doors, wheels, I lifted straight from the cover.

 

Overall learnt an awful lot that I will carry over to my next plane, as I have the aviation bug now, including:

- Pencils are harder to use than oils and scratch the base paint (I used only pencils on this) and the colour changes to a whiter look with the clear coat

- The decals in the 56th FG book were awful and totally the wrong colour( great book, terrible decals), the decals in the box were (old?) difficult to get to sit on the model, even with a gloss layer for them to sit on, so I will go with spraying markings next time (as I do on tanks)

-I'm sure most of you know this already, I didn't but the the Tamiya model was a masterclass in what a model should be for the way it all fitted together - I will actually be drawn to Tamiya planes first after this

 

I have started a Loire 130 and looking to see what other aircraft I will do next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mick]

great work

[2996 Victor]

Hi and welcome to Britmodeller!

 

This is an impressive introduction, if I may say so - an excellent P-47M in a surprisingly difficult to master scheme. You've absolutely aced it, and using an ultra-dark blue rather than pure black is a good tip. Your weathering techniques are pretty impressive, too, and more than I would ever dare to try!

 

Very much looking forward to seeing your next build.

 

Cheers,

Mark

[Col Walter E Kurtz]

I love Jugs.. this is a great model. I think it was a brave and interesting choice to go with the scheme you picked. It looks great and the weathering is top notch! thanks for showing!

Kind Regards

Andy

[russ c]

Suoerb `Hot Rod` P-47 there, really nice work

[IIBSWAT]

Thanks for your kind words gents and making me feel welcome on the forum!

 

The last plane I did was when I was 17 so it is a learning experience moving to flying 'stuff' from heavy 'stuff' - so thought it was about time I joined, any critique accepted!

 

Hot rod indeed! Might go for another Jug, but it would be moving to the other end of the colour pallet as I would like to do the winter version of  'Ole Cock III' - P-47D, again from the brilliantly inspirational AK 56th FG book (Haven't seen this colour scheme in model form?) . The Jug looks worn from the pics, the white looks very stark, high contrast, in the colour pics, not the drawn profile. This would be interesting as I would have to paint it and then paint over it with white. I find white a real challenge, though I have tried white experiments before in tanks (my panzer II and III below) but never on an aircraft...oh the decisions of what to do next!

 

Edited February 20 by IIBSWAT

[2996 Victor]

I think I need that AK book on the 56th - I've heard it's good! To be honest, I've never heard of or seen mention of white over-painting on ETO-based aircraft, so this looks a fascinating subject to tackle. Although the paint on Ole Cock III does look quite stark and bright, I reckon if you do the same as on your Panzer II and III it'll look fantastic over the camouflage green/grey.

 

Now that you've tackled the Tamiya P-47M, the 'D' will be a breeze! One of the things to look out for (if that sort of thing bothers you) is the floor in the Bubble Canopy Tamiya 'D' - it's corrugated when it should most likely be smooth like the 'M's - have a look at Darrell's thread and downloadable PDF here: P-47D Cockpit Floor.

 

Very much looking forward to seeing your next project!

 

Cheers,

Mark

[IIBSWAT]

Thanks @2996 Victorit's a great book, the colour pics and profiles are excellent, but the reds are a far too orange in the decals that come with it, imo.

 

If you don't have it, the mmp bubbletop yellow series book is great too, I used it a lot for this to get the right 'bits'.

 

I am involved with a loire 130 wrestling match atm but I have now purchased a Tamiya 'D' to give a winter Ole Cock iii a go at some point after!

Edited February 22 by IIBSWAT

[2996 Victor]

25 minutes ago, IIBSWAT said:

Thanks @2996 Victorit's a great book, the colour pics and profiles are excellent, but the reds are a far too orange in the decals that come with it, imo.

 

If you don't have it, the mmp bubbletop yellow series book is great too, I used it a lot for this to get the right 'bits'.

 

I am involved with a loire 130 wrestling match atm but I have now purchased a Tamiya 'D' to give a winter Ole Cock iii a go at some point after!

Thanks - I've been looking for the book bit it seems rarer than hens teeth! I've just got the MMP book and it certainly seems good.

 

I've seen your Loire build thread - fascinating subject which I'm looking forward to following. 

 

Cheers, 

Mark

[GStreet]

One fantastic specimen. Makes me want to start one right now. 

[georgeusa]

Great first build as the scheme you picked is really hard to pull off.  You have done so quite well.  The finish looks wonderful and the weathering is just done with precision.  Thanks for sharing and looking forward to more builds by you.

[IIBSWAT]

Thanks @georgeusa for your kind comments - the colour scheme, story behind the 'M', the history of the 56th, etc is what got me back into planes, I was inspired without realising what challenges the colours would throw up!

[Fred piket]

Fantastic Thunderbolt! I love it. Your panellining is beautiful and on the money. You've made a potential "boring" dark blue/black paintscheme interesting, and that's quite an achievement! Well done sir

[Phantome]

Awesome build, and the color looks spot on. I've considered using the Eggplant purple/gray seen on many modern Russian aircraft as a close approximation of this color.

[IIBSWAT]

11 hours ago, Phantome said:

Awesome build, and the color looks spot on. I've considered using the Eggplant purple/gray seen on many modern Russian aircraft as a close approximation of this color.

@Phantome Yes, there has been all sorts of speculation about the best colour, plum, very dark green, grey, 'it's just black' etc etc 🙂! Seen stories of the colour being matched to a jacket (which I like the idea of 🙂) etc.

 

I went with AK Real Colour (Color for the actual book) - in 1935 experiments were carried out on 'black' and it was found that it needed to be more matt (they thought this was better). It was found by adding ultramarine to the carbon black it produced a (quote from the 1936 searchlight trials) ' serviceable matt blue-black surface' - searchlight trials were carried out at Lee-on-Solent and it was recommended that the dark matt blue-black finish be standardised as 'Night'. So if we assume that the 56th used British Night and not some other mix (!) then I am comfortable with very, very dark blue/black...err I think!

 

Anyway people are free to use whatever colours they want and the experimentation of others might shed new light on the Night conundrum and I would be very interested to see any/all interpretations, that's the joy of modelling!

[RupertTheBear]

That looks the business! 
Awesome Jug, I really like the weathering. Very convincing! 😍