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"Eyes of Texas III" P-47D


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First of all, I want to thank willieself for all of the excellent help in researching my neighbors aircraft! Thank you very much! And also thanks to my neighbor Mark who mentioned the idea a while back during a visit to the hobby shop!

Now, onto the project.

I am building the Tamiya 1/48 P-47D bubbletop version as a surprise for my neighbor who flew this plane in WWII, "Eyes of Texas III". It is from the 411th FS of the 373rd fighter group that was initially based out of RAF Woodchurch, part of the 9th Air force. I will be making custom decals for his aircraft to match the picturer below:

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So far I have two small delimas, the color scheme of the aircrafts anti-glare paint (is it OD or black?)and whether or not there are invasion stripes on the bottom of the wings. It is difficult to tell from the pictures, but I hope to go ask him sometime soon. If anyone has any information about this aircraft, it would be greatly appreciated. I have begun work on the cockpit as it is standard for most US P-47's. I will post pictures tonight!

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Alright, it's picture time! I have finished the cockpit section of the build besides the flat coat. The model fits together very well! I am pleased with the detail of the OOB cockpit too. Hope you enjoy the pics! Sorry about the darkness of some of them. it's a new camera and for some reason I couldn't figure out how to make the pictures lighter, will have to work on that.

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Thanks for the comments and nice words!! I hope to get as much work done on it as I can before leaving for 8 days to Airventure. If there are P-47's there (which I'm sure there will be) I plan on taking many pictures.

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Now this is what gives modeling life and purpose! I love doing models of aircraft of people I know, family members, etc. It just makes history and the whole hobby come alive. I will be following this thread intensely. When you get to it, please tell us all how you make your own decals, as I have several sets I want to make but I don't know where to start!

As for the anti-glare panel, I would go for OD. If you look at the pic, you will see that the anti-glare panel is a visibly lighter shade than the black theater bands and D-Day stripes. As for the D-Day markings under the wings, you can't tell from the picture, so I would slyly ask your neighbor.

Good luck, and post many pics!

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Thanks for the kind words guys! I made a little bit of progress today between my planning work for my upcoming trip. So far, I have glued the cockpit in place and the fuselage halves together.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Finally some progress! I've been very busy lately, gone and trips and such, but today I finally had some time for major projects. I also found in a book that his aircraft did have the OD anti-glare paint. So it is now confirmed, thanks for the help guys!! Anyway, on to the pics!!

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Thanks Will!! The past two nights we have been doing over to his house. He sits on the back porch every evening and he loves it when people come to visit. We don't ask, but he likes to start telling stories and giving statistics about the P-47. He even offered for me to see some photos of his plane that aren't already hanging up!! So this is great!! It worked out even better than we planned, I didn't even bring the P-47 up, he just offered! Him and his wife are very excited about P-47's so I know this will be an excellent gift!!

More updates soon!

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No, not holding out, just been too busy to do any work on it right now. I'm currently studying to take my private pilot written test this Saturday. Once I'm finished with that I should be able to continue building!!

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Slick, what product will you use for the bmf? Alclad? Tamiya rattle can? I have three P-47s going right now. They are all alclad. I've done a P-51 with a tamiya rattle can. The rattle can yielded good results without the extra work of alcad. However, the alclad finish is a bit nicer.

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Slick, what product will you use for the bmf? Alclad? Tamiya rattle can? I have three P-47s going right now. They are all alclad. I've done a P-51 with a tamiya rattle can. The rattle can yielded good results without the extra work of alcad. However, the alclad finish is a bit nicer.

I'm not quitet sure yet. I really enjoy the alclad finish but the Tamiya rattle can is much more available at my nearby hobby shops. I will have to see when I, hopefully, make the trip this weekend. I will let you know!! Which one do you prefer most?

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I'm not quitet sure yet. I really enjoy the alclad finish but the Tamiya rattle can is much more available at my nearby hobby shops. I will have to see when I, hopefully, make the trip this weekend. I will let you know!! Which one do you prefer most?

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I'd say that I would go with the alclad. Prime with gloss black. I used tamiya gloss black in the rattle can. It worked well right out of the can but I also tried it decanted and thinned with mr color leveling thinner and I think thats the way to go.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It has been quite some time since I've updated, or even been able to work at all. But hopefully I am back in business, and more than just for the moment. Right now I'm just finishing up some seems and gaps, looking over the model and we should be headed to the paint shop today!

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Ok here we go. I didn't want to rush my masking to paint the gloss black primer so I called it quits for the night. I am VERY pleased with how my invasion stripes came out! I will be headed back to the paint shop tomorrow morning. Check out the pics!!

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Very nicely done Slick.. Have you started on making the decals yet???

No I haven't started the decals yet. I made some decals a while back for my Limberg F-11F Blue Angel and I'm hoping I can do it again. This time it should work a little better because It's not yellow on blue. I also don't have to make very many so it shouldn't take too long.

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Taken another quick break from the paint shop. I'm waiting for the gloss black to dry so I may begin painting the alclad. This will be my first ever shot at using alclad. So I'm praying I don't screy up the model!

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I did quite a bit of work today! I finished all the painting besides the OD anti glare which I have masked. I also applied a future coat over the alclad but under the flat paints so i may be able to do a small amount of chipped paint. I hope to do the decals sometime next week as well as the weathering. I do have a question for you guys. How do you typically weather a BM aircraft? Critique welcome!! Enjoy!

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