1/48 Tamiya P-47D Thunderbolt

Gallery Article by Peter Wilkinson on Oct 11 2010

 

Here is my P-47D Thunderbolt painted in the markings of Col. Ben Mayo’s ‘No Guts No Glory’ of the 78th Fighter Group based at Duxford during the latter years of the war.  I spent many years, at various UK airshows, watching and photographing a P-47D in these markings and always had the intention to model it one day.  Well ‘one day’ has taken about 30 years to finally achieve, but here it is. 

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There is nothing to say about the Tamiya kit that hasn’t already been written, it really is that good. The only extras added were the Aeromaster ‘Thunderbolts Galore VI’ decals, Ultracast wheels and a few Eduard Photo-etched parts to spruce up the cockpit.  It has to be said that the cockpit ‘out of the box’ is fantastic and really needs nothing much to add to it, just the odd data plate and belts.  Painting was done with Alclad II and White Ensign / Humbrol enamels, before being sealed with 3 coats of Future / Klear.  The decals went on flawlessly, although the cowling checkers did require a lot of careful application over 3 nights, and were sealed again with a further coat of Future before weathering was added with a very thin spray of Tamiya Smoke on the panel lines and Pro-Modellers Dark Dirt for a wash.  Final finish was achieved with 2 coats of Xtracrylix Matt Coat.

I am very pleased with the outcome of this build and will not take another 30 years before I build another one.  Hope you enjoy looking at this as much as I enjoyed building it.

Thanks, as always, to Steve for providing us with somewhere to show off our models

Peter Wilkinson

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Photos and text © by Peter Wilkinson