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WIP Tamiya Bubbletop P-47


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Herewith is Tamiya's 1/48 Bubbletop riveted and NMF'd, ready for the rest of the colours.

The plastic was sanded down with a 3600 grit polishing pad, any obvious surface flaws addressed and the model primed with Mr. Surfacer 1000 thinned with lacquer thinner. Then I smoothed out the Surfacer with 3600 and 4000 grit pads and fixed the any remaining flaws.

The rivets were done with "Rosie The Riveter". For a guide, I layered a piece of black electrical tape on top of a piece of Tamiya masking tape and cut strips anywhere from 1/8" to 1/4" wide, depending on how much flexibility I needed.

After doing all the rivets, I sanded the rivets flush with 3600 and 4000 pads once again. By this time I'd rubbed through the Mr. Surfacer in a number of places, so I had to mist a few light coats of Alclad on first in order to avoid crazing the plastic before laying down a wet coat to smooth it out.

The primary shade is Polished Aluminum over top of Aluminum, with various panels masked and sprayed Semi-matte Aluminum, Duraluminum and Aluminum.

She'll be done up as "Battle Baby" off of Eagle Strike 48-163 "Best Sellers, Thunderbolts Part IV".

Constructive criticism welcome!

Cheers,

Tony

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WOW Tony, that finish is impeccable. :worship:

There appears absolutely nothing to criticise at this stage, the paint looks flawless.

All of that hard work in the preparation really paid off. This is a perfect example of what to do for those wishing to try Alclad laquers.

EXQUISITE!! :thumbsup:

:cheers:

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Where did you get the info for laying out the rivets on the model? I was thinking about doing this on my P-47N i'm working on at the moment...

I used scans of the drawings from the AeroDetail P-47 book (No. 14) for the rivet plans. They aren't perfectly accurate, but they're close enough for my needs. Since I don't actually have the book, I don't know if it has the plans for the N. Regardless, the fuselage should be the same.

By the way, if you're planning to do the N, do yourself a favour and check out Jun Temma's P-47N, converted from the Tamiya D. Glorious model.

Cheers,

Tony

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Thanks guys, for the kind words. I'm a slow builder, but I'll post some more progress shots as they're available.

Very nice! If you had to do it over again, would you have added the rivets before the primer application? Also, what shades of alclad did you use?

Isaac,

I prefer to prime the plastic first so that I can see and address all the surface flaws before doing the rivets. It's much more difficult to fix things if I have to work around rivet lines that would have to be redone after smoothing out a seam or sanding mark.

For the panel highlighting I used Semi-matte Aluminum, Duraluminum and Aluminum. The Semi-matte was used sparingly, as it creates a marked contrast to the Polished Aluminum base shade.

Cheers,

Tony

Edited by tbell
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I used scans of the drawings from the AeroDetail P-47 book (No. 14) for the rivet plans. They aren't perfectly accurate, but they're close enough for my needs. Since I don't actually have the book, I don't know if it has the plans for the N. Regardless, the fuselage should be the same.

By the way, if you're planning to do the N, do yourself a favour and check out Jun Temma's P-47N, converted from the Tamiya D. Glorious model.

Cheers,

Tony

Damn thats a nice model, but I'm not going to go that nuts with it! Thanks for the tip also..going to see if I can get a hold of that book!

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A little more progress this weekend; Painted the anti-glare panel (Aeromaster acrylic O.D.), the black stripe (Tamiya NATO Black plus a touch of brown) and the national insignia (custom mixed from Krylon and Tamiya spray bombs, decanted).

The insignia masks were made by applying old decals to strips of 40mm Tamiya tape and cutting them out with an Olfa compass and X-acto knife.

Cheers,

Tony

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Looks great Tony. Judging by what you have done already, it will be a real stunner once complete. Interesting choice of markings too.

And just because my jealousy makes me extremely petty, are you going to touch up that insignia on the fuselage? Looks like your tape curled at a few corners.

Beyond that, it looks darn near perfect.

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Tony that's amazing work once again (I still have fond memories of the P-80).

As someone who aspires to the kind of finish you're achieving I hope you don't mind that I took the liberty of saving your pics and thread as reference and inspiration.

Can't wait to see more,

Steve.

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And just because my jealousy makes me extremely petty, are you going to touch up that insignia on the fuselage? Looks like your tape curled at a few corners.

Petty? Not at all! I asked for constructive criticism and that's what you've given, for which I'm grateful. Now, I do indeed plan to touch up the blue by hand...

As someone who aspires to the kind of finish you're achieving I hope you don't mind that I took the liberty of saving your pics and thread as reference and inspiration.

Thanks Steve, of course I don't mind at all. Just make sure you don't inadvertently perpetuate any of my mistakes too!

Cheers,

Tony

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Wow, what an awesome build. I am still intimidated by NMF, but your work is stunning. I can't wait to see more of it.

Cheers,

Dave

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Bloody hell that is a nice finish you have achieved.

If I could get my BMF finishes even have as good as that I would be happy!

Inspiring work.

:cheers:

MikeJ

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