Tamiya 1/48 Republic P-47D Thunderbolt "Bubbletop"

[Lego]

I started this a few weeks back as my first attempt at using Alclad II and got a fair result from it. Nothing fantastic but I knew I would not get that the first time out from reading.

The cockpit is ok for an old kit not to much detail here with stupid decals for seat belts.




I put her together with very little difficulty at all.

I spray the alclad grey primer followed by the gloss black after polishing with micro mesh and sanders etc... The black coat looked great nice and smooth so I sprayed the alclad airframe aluminium over her. Slap what a disaster all speckled and dry. At first I thought it was the paint but after inspection I came to the conclusion it was the black gloss base.

So sanded again and went through the process all over and got an ok result.



So applied a few decals and yeehaaa another slap in the face this morning.





They all looked perfectly fine going to bed. So it looks like this is going onto the shell until I get a new set of decals and figure out how to rip the front ones off. Absolutely gutted. I hate decals. Do tamiya decals not like micro sol and set?

[Paul]

Nice work, I've built the 1/72 version if this kit

[FishBowlMan]

That cockpit weathering looks fantastic.

What a shame about the decals on the nose. I hope you can get it sorted as it looks wonderful otherwise.

[Mike00]

Looks great, I loved the cockpit

[AchtungPanzer]

Cockpit first class man

[Scruffy]

The decal wrinkles are fairly common, especially when a large decal is applied around compound curves. Let the decal dry, then with a new #11 blade gently make a small slit in the wrinkle and apply another drop of setting solution, it might take a couple times but this should settle the wrinkles. The P-47 looks great, and it would be a shame to have try to remove the decals if you don't have to.

[Lego]

Some more pics. Rescued the front checkered decals with some well placed paint.





Left side of the plane decals went on ok.








Got a bit busy underneath





Right side went on cracked and fell off. Just dried up like a dead leaf after a couple of days. The ones underneath are now blistering and will fall off soon.





Underneath is now blistering after being perfect.











I should have just sprayed the stripes on underneath. This is what I will have to do now anyway while I get more decals.

[Lego]

The decal wrinkles are fairly common, especially when a large decal is applied around compound curves. Let the decal dry, then with a new #11 blade gently make a small slit in the wrinkle and apply another drop of setting solution, it might take a couple times but this should settle the wrinkles. The P-47 looks great, and it would be a shame to have try to remove the decals if you don't have to.

Not the wrinkles that stopped me in my tracks it was the wrinkling, blistering followed by mummification and then crumple to dust

[Scruffy]

The decal wrinkles are fairly common, especially when a large decal is applied around compound curves. Let the decal dry, then with a new #11 blade gently make a small slit in the wrinkle and apply another drop of setting solution, it might take a couple times but this should settle the wrinkles. The P-47 looks great, and it would be a shame to have try to remove the decals if you don't have to.

Not the wrinkles that stopped me in my tracks it was the wrinkling, blistering followed by mummification and then crumple to dust

Yeah, never really seen new decals behave like that

[longlance67]

looking great mate,

the Alcad finish you got is top notch buddy

well done

Shane

[UKguyInUSA]

Awesome looking plane, shame about the wrinkling decals though, you must be well bummed after doing such a great build and paint job.

This is a plane on my wish list, so, I'm nervous now about buying it if the decals are problematic?

I've never tried the Alclad metal finishes before, want to do it, but a little nervous about screwing up. I will have to get a cheap 1/72 scale plane to practice on, I guess?

Look forward to the completion of this one!

Cheers,

Martin

[Lego]

I love this kit. I cannot fault how it went together and it looks great. Put it this way I intend to buy another one. I can only dream of a 1/32 with the quality of say Tamiya's corsair

The decals are terrible especially the white being so transparent but I could of helped myself there and just painted the d-day go faster stripes. There are tonnes of after market decals that can compliment this kit.

The alclads are nice to work with, just remember that the smoother the surface the better result you get. So polish until you think it needs no more and then polish again.

[DesertAAModeller]

Have this kit as well, haven't even opened the bags its so nice. I've used Alclad only a few times, but I never use Alclad's own primer or gloss black, I use Tamiya rattle can gloss black, either light cotes from the can or through the airbrush. You did a great job on the Thunderbolt despite the problems you ran into! Hope I can do as a good a job on mine.

[Lego]

So I ripped the decals off and sprayed the stripes on. Unfortunately the mocrosol left marks on the metal finish that could only be repaired by re-doing those parts again, but I did not have enough Alclad.








A very kind Modeler donated a set of oop aeromaster decals so I could pull this jobby back together. Thanks again Stephen
I ran out of Alclad so I had to use Tamiya on the drop tank.





I put the finished photos up in the Gallery

http://intscalemodeller.com/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=6553

[Ridgerunner]

keep up the good work