1/48 Tamiya P-47D "Miss Mutt"
Latest off the bench is LTC Robert Rowland's "Miss Mutt" which also carried the marking Pride of Lodi, Ohio. Rowland's birth place was in fact Lodi, Ohio, where he was born in 1917. He graduated in 1935 and then attended Ohio State University and the University of Maryland majoring in sciences. He joined the Army Air Corps in 1938 at Fort Hayes, Columbus, Ohio, was assigned to flying school in Texas and graduated from the pursuit course at Kelly Field, Texas.
In December 1941 he was transferred to the Tuskegee Army Flying Field and became the advanced instructor and director of fighter training for the Tuskegee Airman. By 1943 he was transferred to the 348th Fighter Group in Rhode Island as the XO. In May 1943 this unit deployed to New Guinea and were the first P-47 Thunderbolt group assigned to the PTO. While there he flew 203 combat missions an become an ace with a total of eight confirmed kills. The 348th specialized in air-ground and close support operations as well as air superiority missions. During one phase of their air superiority missions the 348th shot down 231 confirmed Japanese aircraft with only one pilot loss. LTC Rowland would serve after the war with Air Force in CONUS, Europe and Vietnam. He would retire with the rank of Major General and died on January 6, 2003 in Virginia Beach, Virginia, at the age of 85.
Since I'm always interested in Ohio pilots, especially those that achieve Ace, I became interested in building Rowland's A/C. The Tamiya kit, as usual of their products, is an excellent kit. No real issues and the fit and alignment of parts was suburb as well the excellent detail displayed in the cockpit. I did add an Ultracast seat with molded hardness as I hate working with PE belts. The decals were a combination of the kit supplied decals and Kits-World for the nose art and Pride of Lodi markings. Nylon thread was used for the antenna. Paint was a combination of acrylics and enamels from Tamiya and Model Master. And I used a Pitt Pen to highlight the panel lines. Overall an enjoyable build.
Tom,
Beautiful job on an iconic Thunderbolt. Great work all around.
There She is. You done Lodi proud, my friend!
Fantastic thunder craft! I haven't done a T bolt in years, you might have inspired me.
What a great model, love the art work you chose Tom. Been around all year to build mine but somehow never actually give him a chance. Wish I could build as fast and good as you mate
Go for it Pedro. It’s a fun build
This is my bias and I apologize in advance but, you can't go wrong with Girlie art on a airplane. In our current society you'd be label something bad. Given the times ...babes and planes where the passion and if you didn't know if you where going to be here tomorrow people looked the other way. It was good for moral ...
Two thumbs up Tom
Nothing wrong about seeing a Jug with jugs
🙂 … Greetings … 🙂 :
Nice clean work on this P-47 model Tom. That cockpit looks nicely done.
Thank you for sharing these pictures.
Nice work, Tom. I’m working on an old Monogram P-47 right now.
Incredible colour scheme. Tom, you are another of that small group who have developed a signature look. And it is very clean and precise. Excellent build!
Pretty difficult to go wrong with this kit. I really like your result here. Definitely one of your best.
Beautiful finish on this Tom. Not having built a Tamiya rendition of a P-47, are those after market gun barrels or from the kit?
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@tom-bebout
Kit barrels James they’re very nice
Nice. I have in the back of my mind to build another Jug in the future. Inspired by David Leigh-Smith's 'On This Day' series of articles (@dirtylittlefokker).
1 attached image. Click to enlarge.
I have that one in mind too James ! @jamesb
You just never know... You might see it before you think you will. I have a lot of research and pictures for this plane. If you want me too, I don't mind sharing what I have collected with you. Please let me know when you're ready to pull the trigger on this one. I'd be more than happy to help you if you are interested.
This is just a tip of the iceberg.
These photos have been online before on numerous occasions, but I have many more that I captured from several videos...
The plane's overall look evolved with time, and it depends on what time you want to depict in in...
Louis @lgardner, you are very kind. Might be a bit before I pull the pin on this one. Like I said, it's in the back of my mind at the moment. Something about the camo scheme really peaked my interest.
Thanks,
James B
A beauty of a Jug! Well done.
Very nicely done. As a fighter pilot, I have always found the PTO friend or foe identification paint scheme interesting and at the same time also very effective. The germans used yellow on their aircraft. both in Europe and Russia, but in actually flight conditions, the color could "wash out" except under bright sunlight conditions. The white of the PTO scheme stands out under all lighting. The white wing leading edges really work nicely during head on passes where visual ID can be very difficult due to high closure speeds. And lastly, if you are an allied fighter pilot and the are on the tail of anther plane, getting ready to fire, and all you see is a white tail...odds are you are about to shoot the wrong guy.
Tom my friend ! @tom-bebout
This is an amazing build, and I am happy to see that you were able to locate the decals set you asked about... It is up to your typical high standard, and I especially like the work you did to the "office".
I enjoyed reading your article as well. I learned a lot from reading this... Thanks. Stories like this need to be told or they will be forgotten before we know it.
The P-47 is one of my favorite planes. It also happens to be the very first plane that I ever had the chance to sit in...that I can remember that is. When I was a little boy, my Dad would pick me up and place me in the cockpit of a recently retired Puerto Rico ANG P-47N that was sitting on display outdoors at a local museum that was called "The Museum of Speed". These are pictures of the actual plane I'm talking about.
Dad would let me pretend to be a pilot for a little while as he stood nearby on the wing. I would sit in the cockpit and move the joystick around and watch the ailerons move. At the time I didn't have a clue what I was doing...I knew I was having fun and the instruments looked so cool !. I do distinctly remember how huge the cockpit was.
Thanks for sharing this beauty with us... and for the trip down memory lane.
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