Greetings. This is my first
submission to the Aircraft Resource Center, although I have been lurking here
for a while. I had spent the past year or so working feverishly on scratchbuilt
projects, or resin garage kits, and I needed something relaxing to build
for a change. The kit I chose was Monogram's 1:48 scale P-47D. Rather than
rescribe the raised panel lines, replace the basic cockpit, fix an ugly seam in
the wheel wells, or replace the thick decals, I chose instead to build it
straight out of the box.
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I painted the Jug
with Model Master Enamels. Once the body work was done, the kit was
airbrushed with Testors primer grey, then various panels were underpainted
in black. The top surfaces were painted in medium green and dark grey, lightened
or darkened here and there with a drop or three of flat white, light ghost grey,
flat black, etc. The undersurface was supposed to be natural aluminum, but I
chose a light ghost grey / flat white mix instead. Weathering included a
wash in oils, drybrushing with cheap acrylic, and soot and oil stains added with
pastel chalks. The engine cowl was painted with Testors buffable aluminum plate,
then insignia red. Some red was scratched away in places, allowing the aluminum
to show through.
I wish now that I had used
aftermarket decals, because the ones that came with the kit were awful. They
were thick, and half a jar of Micro-Sol would not convince them to settle down.
Their only redeeming value was that they were opaque. Aside from the decals, the
P-47 was a fun kit to build. I did not set out to build the most accurate plane
in the world, but just to practice a few basic skills, and maybe thin down the
to-do pile a bit. I plan to build a simple base, and present it to my
father-in-law, who always dreamed of flying P-47's when he was a boy.
Brad
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