P-47D Thunderbolt Razorback - HobbyBoss 80283 - 1/72
And another HobbyBoss 'Easy Assembly' kit with some ordnance borrowed from a Tamiya kit with some left over decals from Eagle Cals EC#56.
THe decals allowed me to display Col. Frank Klibbe's P-47 D-15-RE Little Chief No. 1A which had artwork representing Klibbe's High School Team in Anderson Indiana.
Choosing this scheme allowed me to check how to add the white striping, which were added after the olive darb and grey - using several light coats of Vallejo Premium White Primer and masking.
Also, I got to read up on Col. Klibbe, who achieved a final tally of seven victories before his combat tour ended.
There were the same number of parts in the H-B fuselage, wings, tail and cowling as in a single Tamiya underwing rocket launcher - 4 pieces, not much to this 'assembly'.
It was a pleasant surprise to see nicely engraved panel lines that pretty much matched those on the Tamiya kit and the most of the diagrams in the Eagle Cal drawings.
There were some difference, one missing detail was the starboard wing leading edge vent. which I guess I could have correct by adding a decal.
It was only after I took the pics that I noticed I forgot to paint the exhaust and add pin gunsight on top of the fuselage in front of the windscreen, so I need to get those done.
First thing I had to do was cut off the 'radar' hoop just behind the fuselage - I can't say I've ever seen any photos showing a P-47 with radar until I found a photo of aircraft 42-75332 which actually has the radar antenna and 'Tail Warning Radar' - go figure.
Also got to try a bit of panel highlighting and I think I applied a bit too much paint as the highlights are barely visible in the final shots.
The Eagle stencil decals worked great as did the lettering, but the insignia gave a bit of trouble as they did not seem to soften up with Micro Set/Sol. I ended up trying Tamiya Mark Fit Solution and that seemed to help more.
The upper/lower demarcation was faded by using a piece of paper cut to the required waves.
Sprayed with thinned XF-62 Olive Drab and XF-53 Grey, with Future Polish for decals then finished in Micro Satin.
The white stenciling does appear to be a bit loud for me.
The Eagle decals also state that Klibbe's ground crew kept his 'aircraft waxed and polished by crew chief for additional speed advantage' - lucky me, no weathering required.
The letter 'S' in 'Anderson' was left out due to the original artist having trouble with the 'S' and did not complete it.
Biggest issue was the propeller - kit supplied a Hamilton Standard prop while Eagle photos and instructions indicate Klibbe's planes had Curtis Electric Props all with just lettering and no Curtis emblems.
I guess I could have borrowed the Tamiya prop as kit #60770 supplied both types but different mounting so I stuck with the H-B Hamilton prop which actually came with Curtis decals.
Reading up on the prop differences, the HS prop was a 'Hydromatic' prop which utilized differential oil pressure and a piston to change blade pitch, all in the front prop dome which made it bigger than the Curtis hub.
The Curtis prop was all electric with a relay box in the cockpit, interesting stuff that I only looked up trying to figure the difference between the two.
RAF style rear view mirror added from scrap bits.
When compared to a Bf-109, you can realized the actual size of the T-Bolt, MASSIVE!
Also included a photo of my son's dog, she seemed to be a bit upset with me that I wasn't play fetch as frequently as indicated in my son's instructions.
Thanks for reading and having a look.
Nice crisp job, George. That could pass as a 1/48 build.
Thanks Gary, (@gwskat) - seeing your T-Bolt posts (Razorback in particular) from Nov inspired me to finish up this model.
Hey, George. I'm glad you enjoyed my build and it added some modeling mojo to your build.
Nice work George.
The "hoop" is a radio direction finder, and was indeed used on P-47s in the CBI, where navigation gear was "lacking."
Thanks Tom (@tcinla), BCI theatre would explain it, maybe that's why the box art has the Himalayan Mountains in the background?
Funny thing is the kit has decals for P-47D flown by Lt. T. Bailey from 356th F.G-Europe another flown by Cpt. W. Dunham from 460th F.S.-Pacific.
A quick web search shows both planes did not have the hoop.
Great looking T bolt!
Thanks Robert (@roofrat), I was thinking of waxing it to a shine just like the Crew Chief did.
@georgeswork, Very nice work George! ?
Thanks Gary (@garybrantley), definitely had a beer!
Amazing Thunderbolt, George @georgeswork
A 109 looks like a miny aircraft.
You clearly got the attention on the last picture.
Thanks John (@johnb), definitely a 'jug'gernaut.
Excellent job on this "Easy Assembly" kit, my friend George!
Love what you did with the kit, the result is REALLY attractive!
The more I look at those Hobby Boss "Easy Assemblies", the more I like them. My home town's minuscule hobby shop has a good number of them stocked: sounds like a good idea to switch to my "old fashioned buyer" mode and pay it a visit, returning home with a few "easy" goodies!
Great write-up as well!
P.S. I believe your son's dog finally understood that you had to trade some fetch time with modeling time...
Thanks Spiros (@fiveten) these HB kits can be defined as the Good and not so Good - all depends on which kit you have, so be a little careful.
I bought a few at 2nd hand prices, great paint practice! But I have seen some 'list' HB prices almost as high as Tamiya kits.
That's a nicely done Razorback George! Well done.
Thanks Greg (@gkittinger), I am happy with the result.
Great job George. Great looking T-bolt. I like how you put this together kit bashing with the Tamiya parts. The end results is a very solid looking build.
Thanks for the comments Bob (@v1pro), I just got the Tamiya kit last week and I'm glad I got to use the parts as it does make this HB kit look more impressive.
Beautiful model! Congratulations!
Thank you, Juan (@juanravi73), glad you like it.