Early memories – a 1/48 Revell Spitfire Mk II and a 1/48 Hasegawa P-47D Razorback Thunderbolt Mk I

Started by James B Robinson · 60 · 4 years ago
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    Tom Cleaver said 6 years, 3 months ago:

    The SEAC scheme is called "Tropical Land Scheme". Dark Earth and Dark Green uppers and Sea Grey Medium lower surfaces. With white ID stripes on vertical fin and rudder and horizontal stabilizers.

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    John Healy said 6 years, 3 months ago:

    Hi, James great choice with that T-bolt. FYI, British Thunderbolts had dull dark green interiors and yellow zinc chromate wheel wells, same as USAAF planes.

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    James B Robinson said 6 years, 3 months ago:

    Thanks for the input gentlemen, I've got the appropriate exterior colors and will have to re-address the interior colors some. The plane I picked out curiously doesn't appear to have ID stripes in the vertical or horizontal surfaces. I was prepared to paint those in lieu of using the decals since the sheet is not model brand specific.

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    James B Robinson said 6 years, 3 months ago:

    After a little research, I discovered that my original posting of the P-47 was indeed a MK I, so I re-corrected that in the title.

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    Peter Hausamann said 6 years, 3 months ago:

    Good one (two) James. Looking forward to your updates.

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    david leigh-smith said 6 years, 3 months ago:

    Wonderful article, and like @yellow10 had me stuttering over the morning coffee seeing the ‘made in china’ stamp. Had no idea the RAF outsourced to the Far East.

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    Peter Hausamann said 6 years, 3 months ago:

    It reminds my of a McHale's Navy episode where Gruber provides Cpt Binghamton with wing from a supposed splashed Zero. But later Binghamton discovers to his embarrassment that inside the wing is stencilled "Property of USN".

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    James B Robinson said 6 years, 3 months ago:

    David @dirtylittlefokker, Glad I could hopefully start your day off with a smile. Hope you have a speedy recovery.

    Peter @tecko, I vaguely remember that episode. Will have to see if I can find it again. 🙂

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    Peter Hausamann said 6 years, 3 months ago:

    I think the episode might be related to "Washing Machine Charlie".
    Just checked it on YouTube, it is in above episode.

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    James B Robinson said 6 years, 2 months ago:

    Finally an update! Had a few family things to take care of, little trip to see family in Missouri and working on plans for my daughters Wedding in two months. Funny, How did I get roped into being involved? Oh wait...I used to be a Wedding Photographer and apparently know about these types of events! WOW have things changed in the past few years. Well, enough on that.

    Got some bench time today. I've progressed to the point of buttoning up the fuselages. Didn't do a lot of detail in the cockpits other than PE seat belts for both A/C and a PE Instrument panel for the Hasegawa P-47. Ran into a few fit problems with the Revell Spit. Fuselage was workable but the wings were trouble. Following the instructions, there were problems with the trailing edges and the wing to fuselage fit. Had to trim down some of the cockpit details and some of the alignment stubs inside the wing assembly to fit to the fuselage. Worked the fit up as best I could and finished the joints with some Bob Smith Gap Filling CA.





    Here is where I needed to trim a few spots.


    Test fit of the elevators indicates that there could be some gaps to work on.


    Moving on to the Hasegawa P-47, fit was much better than the Spit. Still a few gaps at the wing root to fuselage area. Should be able to fix this with a little effort.



    Getting ready to call it a night!

    Finally shot of the night.

    Hoping to get a little time tomorrow to clean them up and possible spray some primer.

    MTC.
    James B

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    David Mills said 6 years, 2 months ago:

    Coming together very nicely James B!

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    James B Robinson said 6 years, 2 months ago:

    Thanks David @davem, just checked on the seams this morning. The Bob Smith CA really helped.

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    Chuck A. Villanueva said 6 years, 2 months ago:

    Great progress on both models James. Looking forward to seeing start applying the paint schemes. Also made note of your wedding photographer experience. And congrats on your daughters upcoming wedding. Great news.

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    James B Robinson said 6 years, 2 months ago:

    Thanks Chuck @uscusn, I started shooting weddings accidentally. A friend asked and then another friend asked and all of the sudden word of mouth got out and it became a paying hobby. Use to really enjoy it but by the time I was shooting one every weekend, I needed to slow down. Now days, only very special weddings are considered and I'm always up for shooting toddlers and Seniors. The joke about my daughters wedding, when he proposed, I told her she better stick with him. If she didn't, I was going to keep him! 🙂

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    Chuck A. Villanueva said 6 years, 2 months ago:

    Lol, I will make note of that for my own daughter when a good guy offers his hand to hers. At times not even Jesus meets her standards. I guess I may have taught her to be safe, careful and never compromise herself. She is tough, geez.