discussion Hobby Boss - P-47D - 1/48 (Steven)

[Steven000]

Hi guys, I made a start on the camo this weekend, first added the gray over the mottling,


Next I tried airbrushing the green pattern by hand, somewhat following the instructions…

Must say I’m rather disappointed with how it looks at the moment,


I looked up the real plane, and that one is actually very different, turns out the bottom was unpainted (alu) and it had a gray mottling over green paint on request by the pilot (RAF colors). Also the invasion stripes had no black on top of the wing etc…




So… Well, I don't have time this week so I’m gonna let it sink in a little bit and take a fresh look at it next weekend…

Thanks for reading, cheers

 

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Hi Steve. Have you got a photo of the plane camo that you are trying to reproduce on this model. I am getting a bit confused, the mottleing has thrown me . I thought it was going to have stripes. Maybe I am just having a senior moment. I think you have done a great job and that a coat of clear will blend things out in the long run.

 

[Steven000]

... Have you got a photo of the plane camo that you are trying to reproduce on this model. I am getting a bit confused, the mottleing has thrown me . I thought it was going to have stripes ...

Hi Steve,
Forgot to show the instructions image indeed, I picked the 'Francis Gabreski' scheme (2nd option in the kit)


I just found another version of the same scheme, I'm thinking of overspraying the model in green and start over, I like this new image better:


Thanks and cheers,

 

[Steven000]

... I thought it was going to have stripes...

Yes, but I prefere to add the invasion stripes after the camo is done, left the mottling 'bare' on those spots.
cheers

 

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Thanks Steve. So your using the mottling as a pre shade. Got it. Have to say I am impressed with that mottling effect. Could look awesome on some German WW2 models. Like to know how you did that sometime.

 

[Steven000]

Yes it's a preshade indeed, to be honnest it was 'lazy' version of mottling, instead of making lots of fine spots I made very thin, fast curly lines which crossed themself multiple times, in the end I blended the more obvious lines with some local mottling spots, hope it makes sense, half the time I don't really know what I'm doing myself!

 

[Steven000]

Hi guys,
I wasn’t happy with the paintwork, so I decided to over-spray the model with Vallejo ‘olive drab’ primer and a coat of ‘US dark green’...


Next I tried to replicate the ‘gray mottling’ from the black & white reference images, but that looked only like it was ‘bad airbrushed’ in the end,


So I blended and softened the mottling again until I had this…



Today I had the whole afternoon for myself, so I managed to get the invasion-stripes and colors on.
First the outline for the stripes was masked with thin strips of Tamiya masking tape…


‘Cling wrap’ from the kitchen was used to protect the camo, and I roughly sprayed the white stripes.


Then I cut strips from 12mm Tamiya tape to mask the 3 white stripes.


I did the same on the fuselage,


All the black stripes were airbrushed with black (Vallejo primer).


As soon as this was done the masking tape was removed. I was very lucky as it all seemed to come out very crisp…


I spoke too soon! The last piece of masking tape took a chunk off but I was able to fix it with gray paint…

...

 

[Steven000]

I Forgot how much time it takes to mask invasion stripes, it took me a few hours to get to this stage!


Next I added more masking to spray the ‘red’ nose, wing root and rudder.
To get a bright red I first sprayed a thin coat of ‘White’, followed by a thin coat of ‘Yellow’, and then a final coat of ‘Red’...


The red came out very bright, next I masked the contour of the canopy with strips of Tamiya tape…


A thin layer of Vallejo ‘black gloss’ primer was added followed by Vallejo Aluminium, as the canopy frame had a bare metal finish…


It was a very productive day, next job is a gloss varnish and decals…


Many thanks for reading and have a nice day! cheers

 

[Jim R]

That is coming on a real treat. The long time spent masking has been so worth while. The canopy edging and the red looks great. Interesting way to achieve a good red - worked well.

 

[flyjoe180]

I think the effect you have achieved with the grey on green looks pretty close to the original. Nice invasion stripes too

 

[colin m]

This is a real treat for the eyes Steven. Great work.

 

[Stefee]

Beautiful paintwork.

 

[scottie3158]

That looks superb mate.

 

[HAWKERHUNTER]

Looks fantastic. Love the camo scheme.

 

[Steven000]

Thanks for the comments!

This week I sprayed a gloss varnish before starting with the decals, I used 'Vallejo Gloss Polyurethane Varnish' which turned out more like a satin finish...

This is the decal sheet (2 options),


The decal-instructions are very poor, large decals like N° 4, 10, 35 are shown - but all the smaller decals are not, so you'll have to guess and find a good reference picture. In the end I got frustrated with the smaller ones so some of them didn't make it on the model...


The ace 'Francis Gabreski' had 28 aerial victories, but I've cut one off as that looked less uniform to me, the swastikas need a 2nd decal because they are a forbidden symbol in places like Germany. I don't like that but nothing we can do about it. I added the first one, let that soften overnight and placed the 2nd one on top of it the next day...


Quite a bit of transparent surfaces, I've cut most of it off, in an attempt to avoid silvering issues...


Micro Set and Sol were used to place and soften the decals, today I sealed them in with another layer of Vallejo gloss varnish. The serial number on the vertical stabilizer is far bigger then what you can see on the reference pictures. And unfortunately the invasion stripes are showing through beneath the white decals, I hope I can somewhat reduce the effect with a bit of paint...


That's all for now, next is a panel line wash...
Thanks for reading, cheers!

 

[boatman]

HI Steven that 47 is lookin great very nice bit of modelin you have done there very well done sir
chrisb

 

[flyjoe180]

Looking great Steven. I see what you mean regarding the issue we encountered in our builds over the past day or so with decals. Should be easy enough to touch them up in 1/48 scale.

 

[HAWKERHUNTER]

the swastikas need a 2nd decal because they are a forbidden symbol in places like Germany.

Model looks amazing Steve. We come across the swastika issue alot. I have just bought a FW190 for the memorial group build and once again it lacks the swastika decal. Fortunately i bought a batch of them many years ago in all scales just to deal with this prolem.

 

[Andy T]

I've just had a good catch up Steve, lots of good work going on and the paintwork looks great!

 

[scottie3158]

Really looking good.