The other build I have been spending time on lately. Like the Mohawk build, I wanted to wait until I had something more to post about. The P-47N version with the larger wings is such a cool looking bird. I included this photo even though the wings are not glued on yet (hence the gaps at the roots)
-
1. The wing is not glued in yet, but I love the larger wings on the P-47N. It really makes the plane have a commanding presence.
2. Notice the terrible fitting gun covers that will need seam work.
With the fuselage essentially foiled except for the wing roots, I wanted to get the wing going next. However, the kit has an internal landing gear bay which needed to be assembled and painted before the wings could be assembled. There are several areas that needed attention. First the ailerons didn't quite match up to the upper wing opening and I had to do a bit of shimming to extend them. There are still some gaps , especially at the wing tips which will need addressing.
-
1. Wingtips need seam attention
2. Flaps need seam attention as well.
3. Ailerons were shimmed for length because they were a bit short in length.
4. Landing gear struts were cut off so they would not be in the way during subsequent operations.
5. Inner gear doors were also removed so they would be out of the way. They were molded as part of the gear well.
And finally, I needed to address how I was going to do the wing guns. The kit gives you plastic barrels as a one piece assembly that fits into the wing and is then covered by a leading edge piece that needs to be fitted into the wing leading edge. I have aftermarket barrels which I wanted to install later, so I wanted to simply install the leading edge covers. Needless to say, like similar pieces on other kits, these do not fit well and the seams will need work.
The good news is that once the wings are installed and glued into position, the wing roots fit well and will not require any seam work unless there is a step. I will endeavor to avoid that if possible.
-
1. The wing root joints will fit fine once the wing is glued into position.
I also wanted to get the landing gear started. It began with the main gear wells. These pieces have the landing gear strut molded to them which meant that if assembled as the instructions wanted, I would have had to deal with struts sticking out of the wings during all the subsequent work (including foiling the wings). Additionally, the inner main gear doors were molded as part of the inner wells and would also have been in the way. Not a desirable situation.
So I cut the struts near the wing and pinned them for future installation. The inner gear doors were cut away from the gear wells and these will be installed later as well. The tail wheel opening has a part that has the gear doors molded as one piece. This will need foiling on the outer surface of the doors, but the interior surfaces need to be painted first.
The main gear wells were painted and weathered, and the tail wheel door assembly was painted on the interior surfaces. I will foil the outer surface and install this later.
-
1. This tailwheel assembly will be foiled on the outer surface of the doors and glued in place later. It's just placed here for the photo.
