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Tamiya 1/48 P-47D Razorback "Ruthless Ruthie"


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Drew T,

 

Incredible work.

 

Your build has raised the bar several times up.

 

I’m glad that you have posted some of your steps in your build. It’s inspiring.

 

Looking forward to your next post,

 

Mr. Happy

 

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Thanks 72scaler!  Thought I would post a quick update.  I applied all the decals, which amounts to a couple of decals from the Print Scale sheet as well as the stencil data decals from the Eduard set.  I have never used Print Scale decals before, and from what I have heard, they are difficult to use and want to fold over on themselves.  Fortunately, I only needed to use a couple of them since I painted on most of the markings.  I was careful with them and didn't have any problems, although they were hard to get them to settle down.  

 

For the Eduard decals, I have heard that the film can be removed.  The easiest way I found to do it was by applying paint thinner to the film.  After a minute or two, the film can be removed with light rubbing with a cotton swab.  On a few decals, it also removed the ink, so be careful if you try this yourself.  Since this was just stencil data markings, I wasn't too concerned with it since most aircraft didn't receive a full set of stencil data markings.  

 

The paint chipping was accomplished with Tamiya enamel X-11 silver.  This is their oil based enamel, so it can be easily removed with Naptha or paint thinner.  I have tried chipping with the paint chipping fluid that's similar to hair spray, but I could never achieve good results.  Plus, it makes masking over the paint risky and if you aren't happy with the chipping, the only way to fix it is by stripping and repainting the area.  With enamel paint, I can easily remove it with Naptha without affecting the underlying lacquer base.  

 

Studying photos of wartime P-47's it appears that the paint on the wings near the cockpit was abraded away from foot traffic.  The yellow primer would show around the edge of the wear with bare metal showing near the center of the wear pattern.  I accomplished this by first hand painting the edges of the worn area with Tamiya XF-4 yellow green thinned with their alcohol based thinner.  I then lightly sanded the paint with 2000 grit sandpaper to make it look abraded.  I then applied Tamiya X-11 silver enamel for areas worn to the bare metal.  The result looks fairly convincing to me, but I'm not sure I'm 100% satisfied.  I may go back and tweak it before I go too much farther.  For now, I'm working on an enamel wash in the panel lines.  I'll then seal everything with a lacquer clear and start on oil paint for weathering. 

 

This particular P-47 showed heavy chipping of the OD paint on the canopy, exposing much of the yellow primer, but not the bare metal.  I tried to replicate this with Tamiya XF-4 yellow green.  I went back and scraped the edges of the paint with an X-acto blade to make the paint markings look more jagged to simulate the look of paint chips.  The result may not be as good as what some others achieve with chipping fluid, but its much easier, especially around canopy framing.  

Edited by Drew T.
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Thanks Rich!

 

I thought I'd post a couple more pictures.  I wasn’t happy with the worn paint I applied on the wings near the cockpit.  So I removed it and tried another technique.  I wanted to replicate the worn down, not chipped, appearance of the paint that many P-47’s show on the wing surface near the cockpit.  The paint on the wing fillet does have a more chipped appearance, so I was happy with that part that I had replicated with Tamiya silver applied with a paintbrush. 

 

For the worn paint on the wings, I first sprayed the area with Mr. Color Chromate yellow 352.  Then I applied a thin coat of Mr. Color olive drab 12.  Then, I used Tamiya coarse rubbing compound with a cotton swab and rubbed down the olive drab until the yellow chromate began to show through.  I also used a microbrush with the rubbing compound to be more precise and to get a worn pattern to match photos.  Finally, I lightly applied Tamiya silver enamel with a brush at the center of the worn area that wore down to the bare metal.  I only applied the silver paint on the left wing, as the right side received less foot traffic, so it would be less worn.

 

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As I mentioned in my last post, the canopy was heavily chipped to match photos of the real plane.  I'm not sure why the canopy paint was so heavily chipped compared to the rest of the plane, but that's how it looked.  

 

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To highlight the surface detail, I applied a wash of MIG Black Night Panel Line Wash over the olive drab areas and Tamiya Dark Gray Enamel Wash over the neutral gray areas.  To seal everything up, I applied a semi gloss clear of 3 parts Mr. Color GX113 clear flat and 2 parts Mr. Color GX112 clear gloss.  Now that that’s complete, I’m ready for one of my favorite steps, oil paint weathering.  Thanks for looking!

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Hey guys, quick update.  I’ve been spending a lot of time using oil paints to weather the top of the model.  I like to work on the top and bottom of the model separately.  Once the top is complete, I spray a coat of Gunze GX113 clear flat to lock in and protect the oils from handling while I work on the bottom. 

 

To start, I first decided to remove a few of the stencil decals from the kit sheet.  The Tamiya decals are on the thick side, and I was afraid the oil paint weathering would highlight this.  Also, many wartime photos of P-47’s show many of these data stencils missing.  Below are the oil colors I used on the wings:

 

Olive Green

Burnt Umber

Yellow Ochre

Abteilung 502 Buff

Abteilung 502 Starship Filth

 

To start, I randomly applied each color and worked them into the finish to get tonal variety.  I then applied the starship filth around the gun access doors to replicate grime from foot and hand traffic around these areas.  One photo of the plane I’m depicting showed a heavy layer of a light tan dust around the wing roots.  I was going to use Abteilung 502 Buff for this, but it almost appears white over a dark color like olive drab.  I darkened it with burnt umber and added a yellow tint with yellow ochre.

 

I loaded a paintbrush with Ammo black night panel line wash and randomly flicked it on the wing to add visual interest and simulate oil splatter.  By the time I was finished with the wings, I had built up multiple layers of oil paint, which really adds visual interest and gives a worn and weathered appearance.  I doubt much of the airbrush mottling I did with the initial painting is visible under all the oils, but at least I have photographic proof it was there!

 

Many P-47 photos show discoloration behind the engine.  I simulated this with light streaking of Abteilung 502 Buff and burnt umber.  I also randomly applied my custom tan mix on the rear of the fuselage and streaked it down vertically with a flat brush moistened with thinner to replicate rain streaking dust along the fuselage.

 

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Now that the top is complete, I’ll seal it with a flat coat and start the bottom.

 

Thanks for looking!

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 4/16/2023 at 12:06 AM, cruiz said:

That is a tasty grimy model; all the rivets are starting to show. Are you planning to add more contrast to them?

 

Thanks Cruiz!  For now, I’m not planning on doing anything else to highlight the rivets.  They aren’t highly visible on the real plane, and I’m afraid it will start to look too toylike or unrealistic if I make the rivets too visible.

 

On 4/16/2023 at 1:28 AM, RichB63 said:

Spectacular finish…as realistic as it gets!

 

Thanks Rich! 

 

I finally got the underside to a place I’m happy with.  I started over once before I was happy with the result.  There aren’t many photos showing the underside of wartime P-47’s, but I like to have photos to go by when weathering.  I’m in awe of guys who can produce really convincing weathered finishes on subjects that aren’t well documented or photographed, and that’s one of my weaknesses.  Before starting with the exhaust streaking, I applied an overall wash of my custom tan artist oil mixture to give an overall grungy appearance to the underside of the plane.  The streaking was accomplished with black artist oils for the exhaust staining, and Starship Filth for the general dirty streaks under the wings.  To make the gear bays grungy, I flicked some Ammo Black Night Panel Line Wash in the wells.  It can be easily wiped away if it splatters on areas you don’t want it. 

 

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The wheel hubs were dirtied up with Starship Filth and burn umber oil paints.  The inside edge of the tires around the wheels were dirtied up with Abteilung 502 buff and the outside edge of the tires were dirtied up with my custom tan artist oil mixture.  I was careful to drybrush over the treads, as I wanted to keep the tread grooves clear to represent the plane operating from a dusty, but not muddy, airfield.

 

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For the gear bay doors, I used black artist oils to represent exhaust staining on the inboard main gear doors, and Starship Filth to represent general grime on the doors.  I also used some of the tan oil paint I had mixed on the bottom of the gear doors closest to the ground.  On the gear struts, I used Tamiya X-11 silver enamel to represent chipping and a light drybrush of light gray oil paint to highlight detail.

 

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For the drop tanks, I first applied my custom tan oil paint mixture to represent dirt accumulating on the tank from fuel spills.  I then applied a clear flat coat to seal this paint and applied Amo Black Night Panel Line Wash to represent the fuel stains. 

 

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I’m on the home stretch now, so more than likely, my next post will show the finished result!

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