1/72 Tamiya P-47 D 28-RE "Eileen"

Gallery Article by Jerry Hawhee (Old Blind Dog) on Aug 19 2010

 

Not much to say about this one: barrels of ink have already been spilled concerning the history of Republic’s P-47 Thunderbolt, one of the greatest fighters of World War II. Tamiya’s 1/48 and 1/72 razorback and bubbletop are among the finest kits out there today, and honestly need no introduction. 

I seldom build my 1/72 fighters with open cockpits, but this one turned out so nice I couldn’t resist.  A set of Eduard photo-etch seatbelts were sourced from the spares box, and that was pretty much the only after-market addition to the entire model. Polly Scale US Interior Green was airbrushed on all interior components before construction. Small details were picked out with PS Engine Black and Tamiya Flat Aluminum, applied with a Microbrush. 

Click on images below to see larger images

  

Markings come from Superscale sheet 72-811 (P-47 D Thunderbolts; Thoroughbred and Eileen, 84th FS/78th FG). I chose to do Lt. Frank E. Oiler’s “Eileen,” a P-47 D 28-RE based at Duxford in 1944. I liked the colorful nose art and the checkered cowl, as well as the challenge of painting my own set of invasion stripes on the belly. I began by shooting a couple light coats of Tamiya Fine White Surface Primer straight from the rattle can. I masked off the three white stripes with Tamiya 6mm tape, which, conveniently, is the perfect width for invasion stripes in 1/72. I sealed in the masked stripes with another coat of the white primer before spraying Polly Scale Engine Black for the two inner black stripes. 

Once the invasion stripes were thoroughly dry, I masked off the entire section on the belly, and airbrushed Polly Scale RAF Sky Type S as per the decal instructions. Undersides were then masked off for the PS RAF Dark Green upper surfaces. The cowl was prepped with Tamiya Fine White Surface Primer and two coats of Polly Scale Clear Gloss. The checkerboard pattern decals were applied with some difficulty, though I have to say that removing the first row of white checks, and making small accordion cuts in the second row makes the process much easier. Still, the instructions were a bit vague about how these decals were to go on (side to side, or upper to lower?) as only a port side view is included. Long story short; I ended up with a couple odd-sized rows and an acute case of modeler’s embarrassment. 

Everything else about the build was fairly straightforward. The bombs were sprayed Tamiya TS 16 Yellow, then masked off with tiny 1mm strips of tape before getting a light airbrushed coat or two of Polly Scale Olive Drab. (They may be the best thing about the undercarriage!) 

And that’s about it, for what its worth. Thanks for looking.

Jerry Hawhee (Old Blind Dog)

Photos and text © by Jerry Hawhee (Old Blind Dog)