Official FMS 1500mm P-47D Razorback Thread

[davegee]

I've used these files for my pilots. I have had great results printing them on my basic 3D printer. You can rescale them to whatever size you need. He even has a conversion chart to print them for different scales.

https://www.cgtrader.com/maxgrueter

Thanks, vduniec: I'll llook into it!

Cheers

Davegee

[davegee]

Work continues on my repaint of my FMS P-47D razorback. In the past several days, I completed all the patching and sanding I needed to do on the fuselage and wings. They were all painted with Minwax Polycrylic clear matte top coat. I went over everything between coats with #000 and #0000 steel wool to even things out and take any dust off. I then primed everything in Rustoleum 2X Flat Gray Primer and rubbed it down some more with the steel wool, in between coats. I painted the elevators/stabilizers with Krylon Fusion metallic aluminum spray. I'll send more pics of these parts as they are being painted.

My attitude in all this is to make some nice scale enhancements to the model, maybe ones a lot of people wouldn't bother to do. But I like detail work on some parts,and still have a reliable good looking flying model for fun. For instance, on these razorbacks, one of the things they added was a trapezoid-shaped frame with armored glass in it 1 inch thick that was mounted at a diagonal in the windscreen in front of the pilot to give him some added protection. I designed a frame on paper, cut out plastic sprue, and then cut a piece of clear acrylic to fit the glass inside the frame with canopy glue. Then I glued the edges of the frame with canopy glue to the inside frame of the windscreen.

I'll attach a pic of the canopy that I had to mask off each window section and paint silver. A bit of a pain, but I've done this a lot so not that bad. I like to use the Scotch lavender delicate colored masking tape to do this.Of course, curved window areas take longer to do with the compound curves, but if you take your time, you can get it done pretty well with hopefully no major goof-ups with paint on the window panes. Mine came out pretty well this time.

More pics to come.

Cheers

davegee

[Elbee]

davegee I understand completely. Best, Steve

[davegee]

Exactly! As you know, the later versions of the Corsair adopted a windscreen design more aligned with the bubbletop P-47s and others, with a flat plate glass in the front that became the new protective armored glass to protect the pilot in that area. I'm glad you added this feature to your fabulous Corsair. Even if others miss spotting this detail, you and I both know we did it right!

Cheers

Davegee

[Elbee]

davegee

In my case, it was like a 'happy accident'.

During my research, I saw this in some Corsair cockpits and not others. Now you've given me the explanation.

Once I saw it, I couldn't "un-see" it and the cockpit just looked empty without it.

Like you wrote, we know it is there, but not everyone sees it.

Great work, as your usual, Dave.

Best and have a relaxed Sunday afternoon.

[davegee]

Yeah, totally agree, Steve. I think I have always enjoyed doing details like the armored glass on fighter models. My late friend Bill Getz, who flew B-24s for 31 missions and then volunteered to fly P-51s with the scouting forces, showed me part of his windshield he kept after they got hit with flak on a B-24 mission. I was dumbfounded that it was Plexiglas only about 1/8 inch thick and wouldn't stop a bullet or piece of flak, regardless. He opined that they were basically cannon fodder up there, and even through some efforts like armored seats for the pilots were installed to help protect them. In Bill's case, they removed the armored back of the seat as they felt if they had to get out quickly to bale out, the seats would probably keep them from getting out fast enough to escape safely.

I'm continuing my redo of the P-47 until I complete it, mainly at the behest of people like Rex who enjoy seeing others' techniques (as I do) and how it finishes out. I have learned some things on this build, like using Minwax for the first time,which I say has been pretty good to work with. It doesn't get all the foam pattern out in some areas, but it sure hardens up the surface and makes it easier to get a smooth(er) finish, when done.

You enjoy the rest of your Sunday, too!

Cheers

Dave

[davegee]

Here's a few more detail items on the P-47 today. The first two shots are me working on the ram air ventilation intake on the leading edge of the right wing. The smaller square hole is where the gun camera is housed. These are not finished yet but sorta "roughed in" for now in primer. The third photo you can see a rectangular white strip on the trailing edge of the right aileron. This was a fixed tab at the factory after they test flew each plane. Only on the left aileron of most US WWII aircraft was a trim tab that could be adjusted from the cockpit. I will be cutting that in later today with a razor saw and bending it to look like it has been purposely set for flying conditions. I do that for all my warbird planes was well as the rudder trim tab and the elevator trim tabs, one on each elevator. They worked together in tandem. I carefully score or cut through the molded marks of the foam tabs and then gently bend them up or down slightly for effect. They are so tiny that I don't think they affect the flying of the airplane one iota, but it makes them look a bit more realistic, to me, anyway!

Cheers

davegee

[Elbee]

davegee

The MinWax thing is a foam saver. The more you use the tougher the skin.

I had completely stripped the OEM paint from my Freewing A-10 down to all white.

I put down 4 coats of MinWax before sanding it and added 2 more coats sanding between each.

I didn't spray any primer, just light 400 grit wet.

I hand painted it with Behr (HD) exterior latex in the peanut scheme which was never used in service.

Point is, the finish was tough and good-lookin'.

i applied all the Callie Graphics and top coated with a Matte Acrylic Spray.

Love your work, Sir.

Best, Steve

[davegee]

davegee

The MinWax thing is a foam saver. The more you use the tougher the skin.

I had completely stripped the OEM paint from my Freewing A-10 down to all white.

I put down 4 coats of MinWax before sanding it and added 2 more coats sanding between each.

I didn't spray any primer, just light 400 grit wet.

I hand painted it with Behr (HD) exterior latex in the peanut scheme which was never used in service.

Point is, the finish was tough and good-lookin'.

i applied all the Callie Graphics and top coated with a Matte Acrylic Spray.

Love your work, Sir.

Best, Steve

Thanks for your techniques you used with your airplane. Great info there.

Since I had not used Minwax before, I decided to try some areas where I had already primed it, and some areas where I had just sanded it down after applying spackle. I even put minwax on top of painted areas that I had done, and then resprayed it to remove surface imperfections that I had not caught earlier. Minwax seems to be able to be applied almost no matter what you have prepped previously.

On my first FMS P-47 when they came out in about 2016, I tried stripping all the paint off using acetone, which I almost instantly regretted. It ate into the foam some, didn't ruin it and I was able to patch it up, but decided completely stripping all the paint off was too dangerous for me. So, I did some sanding with the paint still on. That has seemed to work for me, and I think Minwax will fit into all my future building projects.

Are you watching Masters of the Air on Apple + TV? My wife and I are enjoying dedicating about an hour every Friday evening to watching this excellent show. I'm very happy that they followed real people and their stories with the 100th BG, as they did with earlier shows like Band of Brothers and The Pacific.

Cheers

davegee

[Elbee]

Hah, I will subscribe again once the series is complete and I can 'binge' the entirety.

On that note I have rewatched Band of Bros and The Pacific twice in the last year.

I love 'em both for different reasons.

I did use acetone to strip the A-10, smelly, but effective for me.

I only had an issue with acetone and the ABS parts, so I avoided those and came back with Isopropyl Alcohol (90%) which takes longer as I recall.

Best, Steve

[jetfool]

Great details, Davegee. Keep them coming I enjoy see[ng your progress. Glad you are liking the poly clear technique. The more you use it the more you will like it's uses. Using it on my fiberglass covered gas models now instead of epoxy.

Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

Great details, Davegee. Keep them coming I enjoy see[ng your progress. Glad you are liking the poly clear technique. The more you use it the more you will like it's uses. Using it on my fiberglass covered gas models now instead of epoxy.

Best Regards, Rex

Thanks, Rex. Minwax is in the "bullpen" for all future projects I do! I am spraying one of the wings in Krylon Fusion aluminum silver right now. Goes on really well. The fuse is basically painted now, but I'll be going over some imperfections on the tail where I removed the decals, a little Evergreen bondo, sanding, priming and then repaint those areas.

While waiting for those parts to dry, I go back to the cockpit. Most of that is done, however I'll be attaching some scale looking communications cords that go from the helmet through a cord that plugs into the left side of the cockpit. When done, it is very scale looking, more than I ever did with other pilots because I never really figured out how everything is hooked up. I then had my "Eureka!" moment when I bought a book on WWII pilot uniforms and gear, and everything made sense. So, I like to do that where I can, even if most people won't see the detailing underneath the canopy glazing.

For now, I'm putting an improved painted version of the goofy looking stock pilot and come back to that later when I come up with STLs for printing a 1/8 scale pilot from Max Grueter. I think once I get that figured out, I can print new pilots for all my jugs and my two E Flite P-51s. But that will have to wait for a while.

I think I can have this project wrapped up in 2-3 weeks, and hopefully get it back in the air again!

Cheers

davegee

[jetfool]

Thats Great! A lot of people don't look past the color of our scale models but there are a few that take a step back and admire one's abilities, that's what I enjoy seeing. The weather here is improving, and I hope to get to our field soon. Looks like I may be getting my Prusa sooner than I thought, Wife has an interest in making 3-D figurines for her craft customers so next week we are visiting a store that sells 3-D machines to see what is available. I am sold on the Prusa though.

Best regards, Rex

[davegee]

Thats Great! A lot of people don't look past the color of our scale models but there are a few that take a step back and admire one's abilities, that's what I enjoy seeing. The weather here is improving, and I hope to get to our field soon. Looks like I may be getting my Prusa sooner than I thought, Wife has an interest in making 3-D figurines for her craft customers so next week we are visiting a store that sells 3-D machines to see what is available. I am sold on the Prusa though.

Best regards, Rex

Cool! What model Prusa did you buy? Mine is the Prusa mini. I have had some problems with it for the year I have owned it. But I'm still hoping to get those resolved, it is a software communications issue to the machine that does not read the code, actually it is as if I didn't put anything into it to get it to print something. Some things print great, but I still have to figure this out before I can get back to printing again. I was pretty much at a standstill all last year as I was doing the museum work.

Here are some pics of the temporary pilot I am installing in the new plane until I can get a suitable printed pilot. Once I do that, I can replace all the pilots in the four Jugs that I have. This guy isn't awful, but my wife painted him up properly, and I just installed the scale headset wiring cables that they used. I got it from a photo in a museum with a mannequin. It is very accurate, and I have two of my four pilots set up this way right now.

Cheers

Dave

[davegee]

I've been working on some detail items on the plane. I'll attach a few pics. One is a circular cut out in the foam wing behind the left main gear that will fit a somewhat scale looking landing light. On later airplanes they relocated this light to the left outer wingtip area. I took a 1 inch aluminum flashlight that I got online for 4 bucks, cut it down into a cylinder to fit in the hole I made in the wing and it will look like a retracted landing light.

Also, I cut down the engine exhaust stacks on the cowl and inserted a plastic disc to look like the open wastegate on each side. These wastegates normally closed as they gained altitude and forced the engine exhaust to go through the menagerie of turbo compressors, intercoolers, and intake air that delivered sea level compressed air up to 30,000 feet or more. This gave the Thunderbolt a decided advantage in dogfights at altitude. My late good friend Russ Kyler who ended up the war flying the M series P-47 told me their attitude was: "If the Germans came up to fight us above 25,000 feet, they were DEAD MEAT!"

Also, painted on the OD anti-glare panel on the top of the fuselage in front of the windscreen. Right now, I'm painting first in white and later in red, the cowl ring in the front of the fuselage. Finished the detailing of the cowling fake engine adding some paper pictures of the cylinders to make it look like there are two stacks of cylinders (for a total of 18).

Still lots more to do, but it is coming along.

[davegee]

Just finished painting the cowl and some detailing of the engine section. The 56th Fighter Group, the highest scoring USAAF unit operating in the European Theater in WWII, after several color iterations settled on red cowls for all three squadrons. The markings for the 61st FS adopted Red rudders, the 62nd FS which this is one had Yellow rudders, and the 63rd FS painted their rudders blue. This plane I am replicating flew in the 62nd FS with Robert S. Johnson briefly making his final two kills before rotating back home from a very eventful tour of duty in England.

Vinyl transfers markings should be coming shortly from Callie, and I think in a couple of weeks I'll be ready to resume test flying this airplane. I have 7 good flights on it so far. I'll probably continue to use the stock shorty prop on it for a few flights before converting it to the larger V3 1700 mm Corsair prop that I have on my other jugs.

Cheers

Davegee

[Elbee]

davegee, Looking exceptional. Diggin' the high-end detail. It is those subtle little things that set some models apart. Best, LB

[davegee]

davegee, Looking exceptional. Diggin' the high-end detail. It is those subtle little things that set some models apart. Best, LB

Thanks, Elbee! I guess we all have our own little "signature" additions or embellishments to our models to personalize them a bit. I think this one is coming along nicely and I look forward to taking pics and flying it at the field sometime soon. Doing a subject in NMF is a fun diversion from my usual camo airplanes.

Will post more as I proceed towards completion.

Cheers

Dave

[jetfool]

Davegee,

Gonna be a stunning model. Little details really add character. Not a bad way to spend in February.

Best Regards, Rex

[davegee]

You bet, Rex. This is really the fun part, detailing and accessorizing the model. I see a light at the end of the tunnel, and it is Not an incoming train, so far!

cheers

davegee