Official FMS 1500mm P-47D Razorback Thread

[Grossman56]

Thanks guys.
This model is really excellent, no blemishes on paint or deformed foam. Can't wait to get where I have several coats of polyacrylic clear on to harden the skin before starting to detail. I have assembled and installed a new receiver with my 6s Admiral battery. everything works as advertised so disassembly has taken place for the first coats of clear. Decals removed with no pulling up foam, will lightly sand before clear.

Davegee, Did you remove the cockpit to repaint the dark green per Republic int. color? Looks like the inst. panel needs to be black also. Think I will make the correct gunsight and Armor glass plate. Pilot needs a repaint too. Haven't removed canopy yet, these are just my observations.

Dangerous Dan, Hope you received the wheel bushings and they work ok. If not let me know and I will make new ones.


Best Regards, Rex

Hi guys. Just checked the mail box for the bushings but nothing yet, but hey, it's Christmas so the mail can be late, right?

There's nothing like a big brown box waiting for you is there?

Grossman56
(Dangerous Dan)

[jetfool]

Those ponies out there must be pretty slow. Hopefully you receive it soon.

Took the day off from the P-47 and went flying. 57' and no wind, beautiful for December. Six of us flew about 3 hrs. and it was what I needed. Came home with all planes (3) intact and ready to get back on P-47. Hopefully have the clear coats and primer on by New Years Day.
Trying to download pictures but still goofing up.

Rex

[davegee]

Davegee,

I used my 3-view and scale up the left ail. trim tab, same for camera and air intake. Plane matches the 3-view really well. Layed out the gas caps, formation lights and added the underwing aileron covers (3 ea. side). Nobody will notice but I'll know! Made a wood plug and using clay made a mold. Used lite weight Bondo and poured in my 6 little clay moulds. 15 min. later presto ail hinge covers.
I had plenty of time to list the main things on paper I wanted to do thanks to my Commander who saw the big picture. LOL

Taking a break today to fly with my buddies

Best Regards, Rex

Very cool on the aileron covers that you fabricated.

I have a couple of questions on the above text, just so I know we are both on the same page regarding wording. Could you define the "formation lights" and the "gas caps" you were using from a 3-view drawing? We are probably thinking the same thing, just want to be sure we're in synche with these terms. For instance, and you probably already know this, the "gas caps" were under flush panels on the fuse; no fuel was stored in the wings of the P-47, save the N model that had new and longer wings with squared off wingtips. When I hear "formation lights" I think of the type that were numerous on the Corsair. I don't remember seeing formation lights around the outside of the P-47, with the exception of the three "recognition lights": red, amber, and green that were on the bottom of the right wing. If you could set me straight on these terms, we are good to go.

Thanks!

Davegee

[jetfool]

Davegee you are correct about the gas caps, my goof. glad I only marked in pencil. The formation lights are the three underwing lights you are talking about.
This morning, I brushed on the second coat of poly clear. You can really tell a difference in the poly acrylic hardening the models shell verses how soft the original was. Doesn't take long to dry but I let each coat set a few hours to gas off, I think I get a better hard shell this way. It dries thin and with 3-4 coats all the panels and panel lines still feel the same.
Dave, thinking ahead I think I'll paint the white on the cowling and tail stripes then overpaint the tail O.D. and the nose red. I think it would give the right contrast on the plane. Your thoughts?
Can you describe how you added the retraction link on your landing gear to resemble the original. Pictures

I'm glad you are keeping me in-line on the details.

Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

Davegee you are correct about the gas caps, my goof. glad I only marked in pencil. The formation lights are the three underwing lights you are talking about.
This morning, I brushed on the second coat of poly clear. You can really tell a difference in the poly acrylic hardening the models shell verses how soft the original was. Doesn't take long to dry but I let each coat set a few hours to gas off, I think I get a better hard shell this way. It dries thin and with 3-4 coats all the panels and panel lines still feel the same.
Dave, thinking ahead I think I'll paint the white on the cowling and tail stripes then overpaint the tail O.D. and the nose red. I think it would give the right contrast on the plane. Your thoughts?
Can you describe how you added the retraction link on your landing gear to resemble the original. Pictures

I'm glad you are keeping me in-line on the details.

Best Regards, Rex

Hi Rex: when you mentioned "gas caps" I had a flashing red light go off in my mind, as I know with the 3-view drawings there are circular patterns on the tops of the wings, which could easily be mistaken for "gas caps." It's just when the P-47 was designed, all the wing room was taken up by the HUGE landing gear (they even had "shrinker bars" that mechanically shortened the main gear by 9 inches when it retracted and added the 9 inches back on each gear strut when it extended). I thought this was a brilliant design by Alexander Kartvelli and the Republic engineering staff. ( They Needed that 9 inches for proper ground clearance for the prop when it was on the ground!) Also, there was 8 50 cal machine guns and all the trays for ammo on the two wings. So, they ended up on the early models putting in a 205 gal. main fuel tank in front of the pilot, and an aux tank of 100 gallons below the pilot. Both of these filler ports were underneath aluminum hinged panels on the right side of the fuse, opened with a dzus fastener tool. These were usually marked with a red box painted around the access doors.

The -5 RE P-47 that Johnson flew for his 22 kills in that aircraft, Lucky, had pretty "short legs" even with a 110 gallon belly tank installed. That's why they based the fighters on the eastern coast of England so they wouldn't have to fly so far to get to combat and protect the bombers. Even so, they had to turn back over western Europe. This fact wasn't lost on the Germans who just waited to launch when they knew the fighter cover would have to turn back, and then pounce on the bombers.

I think the circles that you were going to use as "gas caps" on the wings were actually inspection panels for the landing gear locks, or something like that.

Regarding the recognition lights, the three lights I described earlier, I think they stayed part of the design all the way to the end of the war, although later on, they were no longer, if seldom, used. I have spoken to several P-47 combat vets who flew later in the war, and they didn't even remember what they were. I doubt by that time of the war, they were even used. But still good to put them on, they were installed, anyway.

I'll attach a couple photos of where the main and aux tank fillers were. On the FMS plane, there are two small rectangular hatches in front of the cockpit and high on the right side of the fuse. I used the forward rectangle of the two for the main fuel filler, if you want to put any nomenclature markings like what I got from Callie, which are quite good.

Cheers

Dave

[jetfool]

OK I think I have got this.

Made a break hub for the backside of the Robart hub. Turned from 1/8" ply

Hope i have it working now

My mind has not totally gone, the pic came thru

[jetfool]

bear with me guys.

Christmas morning

[davegee]

OK I think I have got this.

Made a break hub for the backside of the Robart hub. Turned from 1/8" ply

Hope i have it working now

My mind has not totally gone, the pic came thru

Looks Much better covering the Robart inner hub! Nice Job!!

davegee

[jetfool]

Installed my rec. and arranged servo wiring.



sanded the mould stars off, looks like plane has the chicken pox



made up some Bondo aileron hinge covers from a balsa mold and clay for the female mold



Shorten the exhaust and added wastegate





removed cockpit, painted a darker Republic green, still a work in progress

I want the option of adding the bombs although "LUCKY" didn't have provisions for them. I added 2 magnets in each wing and pylons. Then I made up plugs to fit in wing with magnets, they are removable. Tink they will blend in and go un-noticed by most.



You can see the ail. hinge covers installed too

Thats all for tonight
Thanks for looking in, Rex

[davegee]

Nice work there, Rex! Thanks for the updates and pics!

davegee

[Elbee]

jetfool

Your work is great, Rex, diggin' the details.

Best, LB

PS: Thanks for the heads up on the AMA Focal Point spot.
I like that section as it shows how other modelers are modifying their aircraft; I especially like the foamies.
The write ups can be a bit self-promoting, but it's the nature of the beast, I suppose.

[davegee]

Davegee you are correct about the gas caps, my goof. glad I only marked in pencil. The formation lights are the three underwing lights you are talking about.
This morning, I brushed on the second coat of poly clear. You can really tell a difference in the poly acrylic hardening the models shell verses how soft the original was. Doesn't take long to dry but I let each coat set a few hours to gas off, I think I get a better hard shell this way. It dries thin and with 3-4 coats all the panels and panel lines still feel the same.
Dave, thinking ahead I think I'll paint the white on the cowling and tail stripes then overpaint the tail O.D. and the nose red. I think it would give the right contrast on the plane. Your thoughts?
Can you describe how you added the retraction link on your landing gear to resemble the original. Pictures

I'm glad you are keeping me in-line on the details.

Best Regards, Rex

Hi Rex: I forgot to answer your question on final painting look on Lucky. I agree that first painting the white stripes on the cowl and tail surfaces (horiz and vertical stabilizers, plus the control surfaces on those parts). That gives you a historically accurate start to your model. Then, you are thinking of overpainting the cowl red, and the tail stripes overpainted in OD? Correct me if I have anything wrong on this.

This is an authentic and probably very accurate for the spring of 1944 shortly before Johnson "traded in" his -5 RE P-47D for a -15 RE All Hell P-47. That photo of Hub, Johnson, and Mahurin definitely shows the repainted to red cowl on Lucky.

If you use my "Ole' Cock" as an example, which was in-theater and a squadron mate of Johnson at that time. That plane had the nose repainted red, and the tail stripes overpainted OD. So, if you painted your plane like mine, you should have what you want, and have an arguably historically correct paint scheme for that time. (Many people don't give a rip about my attention to detail on this, but that's just me, I won't change!)

Just a suggestion when you get to that point, use a different OD paint than the one you use to initally paint your aircraft. That's because you're painting OD over the original Republic factory paint, which most certainly could not be replicated exactly in the field in England. If you look at period photos of these paint changes, you'll see that the OD overpaint doesn't exactly match the original OD that the plane came with. A subtle difference will work great, and show an intentional repaint of the white stripes.

I'll attach a couple pics of "Ole Cock," You can see the difference is subtle, more obvious when looked at with the naked eye.

Cheers

Davegee

[jetfool]

Davegee,
That's exactly the look I want. Do you think a little darker O.D. over the white. I'm thinking the original paint would have some fading so the repaint would be darker. Correct me if I'm wrong. Beautiful pictures by the way.
Started priming today used regular primer but will use build up primer over the removed stencils to get an even surface.
The journey has begun!

Best Regards, Rex

[jetfool]

Today has been good so far. I sprayed the first coat of primer on. Next will be sanding then another coat of primer.

These pictures show making the rudder tail light lens, clay mold and the wife's clear drying craft epoxy.






Fuselage with 4 coats of poly brushed on





first coat of primer. going to let sit over-night

[davegee]

Davegee,
That's exactly the look I want. Do you think a little darker O.D. over the white. I'm thinking the original paint would have some fading so the repaint would be darker. Correct me if I'm wrong. Beautiful pictures by the way.
Started priming today used regular primer but will use build up primer over the removed stencils to get an even surface.
The journey has begun!

Best Regards, Rex

Hi Rex: I have seen several period photos where it looks a little darker, some a bit lighter. Probably your choice, although if I had to choose, I'd probably go with a little darker, but very subtle. Not a huge difference in the two, but enough to show that something was painted over.

I think you can make your plane look similar to mine that I posted, as they were both flying out of Halesworth Air Base at the same time. They would have looked very similar at that point of the war.

Sounds good on the priming. What spray primer do you use?

Davegee

[jetfool]

[Elbee]

jetfool,

Lookin' great, Rex.

Best, LB

[jetfool]

Davegee, These primers are what I use. I spray light coats and let dry sanding between coats w/ 320 wet. The filler primer I use over the removed stencils because the foam sucks up the poly and primer so I go over these aeras to level everything out. By the time done sanding you can hardly see any foam showing through. Makes a light and smooth base to apply paint. Rex

[jetfool]

Thanks Elbee,

Live-in the Dream!

[davegee]

Davegee, These primers are what I use. I spray light coats and let dry sanding between coats w/ 320 wet. The filler primer I use over the removed stencils because the foam sucks up the poly and primer so I go over these aeras to level everything out. By the time done sanding you can hardly see any foam showing through. Makes a light and smooth base to apply paint. Rex

Thanks, Rex. I use those same primers, too. Glad we're on the same page there.

Really like the primered aircraft parts, and details like the fresh air intake and gun camera on the right wing. Also, like the fixed trim tab on the right wing. Not too many guys do that, especially on a foamie!

I couldn't see the blast tubes for the 50 cal machine guns very well, but you'll want to keep them shiny silver, as they were stainless steel and for the most part kept that way throughout their service. Some guys paint them black or something like that, which is a rookie mistake!

Carry On!!!

Cheers

Davegee