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Russ King
19 articles

P 47D Tamiya 1/48 Big A*s Bird

June 29, 2023 · in Aviation · · 27 · 400

My first Thunderbolt build. Great kit as has been described by multiple modelers.

Aftermarket Master Model detail set.. gun barrels, pitot, and gun sight. EagleCal decals. Paint: XF and Vallejo metals.

Everything was going well until decals. The larger decals were very fragile. The red triangles and "big a*s" broke into multiple piece. So, painted them on. No problem on the right side plain red but so so on the left side with the lettering. Yellow doesn't quite match the "Bird II". But did what I could and moved on. Airbrushed the black and white stripes along with the colored tail stripes. Panel liner and oils for some weathering effects.

Reader reactions:
20  Awesome 2 

14 additional images. Click to enlarge.


27 responses

  1. You’ve achieved a great NMF on this, Russ, and your repair work on the transfers is excellent.

  2. @rfking - Great work Russ. The paint and weathering look fantastic. I doubt anyone will ever notice that the hand painted lettering is a slightly different yellow than the decal lettering. If it continues to bother you, you could just do some really slight touchups on the decal lettering to push it toward your hand lettered color.

  3. Well done all around, Russ.

  4. Excellent result, Russ, great save on the decals!

  5. Sharp looking Jug. Your NMF and weathering look good.

  6. A really sharp-looking T-Bolt! The scheme looks great.

  7. This turned out great ! Glad you were able to overcome the decal problems.

  8. amazing job, congratulations!

  9. Awesome looking bird.
    Congrats on the build.

  10. This is a great looking Thunderbolt, Russ @rfking
    You did great on painting instead of using the decals, looks much more natural this way.
    Well done.

  11. Well done. I love Vallejo Metallics. Right now I am struggling with decals. Two kits, Hasegawa and Eduard, 11 years old and both have had decals split on me. I've managed to fix them but I'm getting pretty gun shy about applying decals now

  12. Great job, Russ (@rfking), especially the NMF and your painted-on replacement markings. I also use Vallejo metallics and have had some good results with them. Much easier to use than some of the others.

  13. My favorite WW2 planπŸ™‚
    And your painting and weathering are nothing but excellent πŸ‘Œ
    This kit is waiting for it's turn... I surely will visit this page again πŸ˜‰πŸ»

  14. Looks stunning Russ. Superb πŸ‘

  15. Outstanding work, Russ!

  16. Wow! That looks sensational Russ @rfking! πŸ‘ Your NMF is superb; I think I should try that Vallejo metal stuff. 😁

  17. Given those markings were very roughly applied in the field on the original, any problems you had are invisible to this observer. Nice result.

  18. Awesome result! Very impressive build and finish.

  19. Great looking Jug Russ.That IP is impressive to say the least.

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