P-47D-3 Thunderbolt "Daring Dottie III" (Tamiya 1/72)

[rav_pl]

P-47D-3 Thunderbolt 42-22637/38 "Daring Dottie III", 348 Fighter Group, 341 Fighter Squadron USAAF, Finschhafen, New Guinea, march 1944. Pilot: Capt. John T. Moore (7 victories).

Kit: Tamiya (1/72). Decals: AviPrint.

[Joel_W]

I must say that I'm rather impressed with the over all finish and weathering, especially for 1/72 scale. Just enough weathering for an operational aircraft, with that "used but not abused" look. And your decaling looks like they were painted on.

Joel

[HOLMES]

RAV,

EXQUISITE build..

Looks AWESONE in MY eyes... SUPERB painting and weathering..

KUDOS.

: :worship:

[jfmajor60]

You know sometimes you can tell the scale of the model from the photo, but not in this case, that is outstanding work there rav WELL DONE!!!

[Aurora Mark]

I have to ask, how did you get those decals to look like they were painted on stencils? Fantastic!

Your work around the overall aircraft is stunning, the guys here already hit on the points I was going to give. All around, splendid. If I were to change one thing though... just kidding. Splendid work.

Mark.

[rav_pl]

how did you get those decals to look like they were painted on stencils?

Nothing but the good old rules:

1. gloss surface prepared for decals (Gunze GX100),
   
2. good decals (AviPrint are very thin and flexible),
   
3. decal fluids (usually Gunze MrMarkSetter and MrMarkSofter, sometimes Agama Hypersol, but not here),
   
4. gloss coat on it,
   
5. postshading (Gunze C101 or C183),
   
6. wash (black enamel with gas),
   
7. and finally a matt varnish (Gunze C182).
   

Some decals on "Daring Dottie III" (eg. the name) have two or three layers set separately - even there the effect is good.

cew

[Bill]

Nice job!

[polybebber]

Now that's a beauty, excellent choice of markings and a fantastic paint job and finish

Lothar

[Greenghost]

Do you happen to where can I get the decals?

Thanks

S.

[rav_pl]

where can I get the decals?

Here or here or here or maybe somewhere else.

[Tbolt]

Very nice work, lovely finishing and weathering. Nice to see you used the correct red tail band, rather than the yellow one also supplied on the decal sheet.

The only thing I can see wrong and it's very minor, is the engine has got Turtleback's on it rather than the correct distributors, but that's Tamiya's fault anyway for not understanding the engine.

EDIT

OK Radek picked me up on it and I'd forgotten the research I did when I built "Miss Mutt II" of the 341st FS with it's yellow markings on the tail and just reminded myself with an incorrect source (Squadron/Signal Thunderbolt in the Pacific Theater). So this aircraft should have the yellow band instead of the red one, but it's an easy mistake to make as just doing a search shows up red and yellow from different soruces and obviously AVI were not sure, that's why they supplied both.

But looking at B&W photo's you can see that 340th FS aircraft have the tail colour clearly different from the serial number which means it's red whereas 341st FS aircraft (tail number 26 to 50) have the tail colour matching the yellow of the serial number so it's yellow.

Edited January 16, 2015 by Tbolt

[rav_pl]

On this sunny Saturday I was able do take some outdoor pictures:

[thegoodsgt]

Very nice build! Thanks for sharing.

Steven Brown

Scale Model Soup

[Don]

Now that's a sweet looking jug! Love the camo, awesome decal work, restrained weathering, great photos...looks the part to me .

Regards,

Don.