Simon looks like you have things well in hand, so to speak.. ;-). I built Gabby's ahh "Frank's" Thunderbolt a while back, in fact it was my first post on iModeler.

I would have hunted you down had you not made that decision about the underside. 🙂

Simon, one thing to remember about this particular a/c is that it was only in service from D-Day, or shortly before, to 20 July '44 when Gabby dug the prop into the ground and ended up a POW. Additionally, Grabreski was the top U.S. Ace in the ETO & he was the commanding officer of the 61st Fighter Squadron, so his aircraft was very well maintained. So weather it enough to be in use but not a bedraggled old warhorse. Of course it's your model and finish it to please yourself. What ever you do I'm looking forward to seeing it when you've finished it.

Hi, Simon, that sounds just right on the weathering. The thing to take from my model is the grey is far to dense. I was going for a wispy look, the best I can describe it low hanging fog that is dense enough in places to block out the sky, and in other places thin enough to see the blue of the sky through the tendrils of fog, with parts that are completely clear. I hope that made sense. As hard as it is to describe, you can imagine how hard it was for a hack painter like me to try to reproduce.

A little background, when the 56th FG started receiving "silver" Thunderbolts, they started painting their own camouflage on the aircraft that they called either "German" or "Luftwaffe" camouflage, using a soft blending of RAF Dark Green & Dark Sea Grey (RAF topside grey) as an air to air camouflage.

Once again I've rattled on way to long, I need to shut up and leave you to it... 🙂

Simon, I think the fuzzy dice would be great...lol

Looking good so far Simes,hoping your having a nice Easter pal.
N.

Wotcha Simes,Those wing root seams look pretty much par for the course to me ,nothing to get worried about, I usually run some masking tape either side of the seam before filling that way you don't go filling up the surface detail with filler you can even rub 90%off it down before removing the tape then finish off, again to avoid damaging the surface detail, I think I may have shown what I mean on my glider build, the only tricky bit will be where the seam runs through the wheel well, remember not to fill the seam where the flap is though ,I've done that before now and realised too late. As for your camo can't you paint it up first in the dark colour (not the usual way I know) then use the Blutack sausage method putting the Blutack where you want the dark colour to remain.

Coming on nicely though Mate.N.

Faith and Begorrah Simon, I should have mentioned earlier that this particular kit has a bad wing fit problem. I built this kit some time ago and ran into the same problem. There is a solution though. Hopefully you did not glue the wing halves together or glue the wings to the fuselage yet. What you have to do is glue the bottom halves to the fuselage, then glue the top halves to the fuselage, then glue the upper and lower halves together. I did it this way and while I still had gaps, they were not as bad as they would have been had I followed the directions. Anyway, it is coming along quite nicely and I look foward to seeing this one finished.