Lancfan's boxted Lifesaver ***FINISHED***

[lancfan]

The smoke bombs are each made from a piece of cocktail stick, a small slice of sprue and a piece of plastic card, all four are shown here. They just need painting and trimming before they can be fitted under the fuselage. Although the ASR parts are shown in side view on the decal sheet instructions they are far from full size, 1/72 scale line drawings of these parts should I feel have been included with these as I needed to scan and print (to scale) a side view to get the sizes correct.


David.

[Stuart]

The model is very nearly finished, first a close up view of the canopy as it was being modified and then a view of the assembled airframe. All that now remains to be done is to scratch build and fit the smoke bombs and the dinghy carriers.

I had to do something similer recently on my Mongram 1/72 P-51C when fitting the Malcolm hood - it can be quite nerve racking cutting the clear parts - nicely done!

[lancfan]

I usually pack the plastic with Plasticene when cutting through a canopy stuart- it damps down the vibration from the saw blade and stops it cracking.


David.

[lancfan]

Guess what- I'VE MADE A MISTAKE!
when checking the colour views of my subject aeroplane I found that it had DIFFERENT smoke bomb carriers than the NMF view I scanned. The offending items have been removed from the smoke bombs and new open frame carriers will be made from staples.


David.

[TobyC]

Nice work so far and good tip re cutting the canopy. I've been too scared before so may give it a go now.

[iggie]

Well, I was going to say something but.......

Don't be too hard on yourself, I suspect you would be the only one to have spotted it!

Look forward to seeing the MKII version

[lancfan]

The revised smoke bombs have been completed, painted and fitted.



David.

[Stuart]

supurb work David!

[lancfan]

Cheers Toby, iggie, Stuart.

David.

[Stevehnz]

Thats an impressive effort with the canopy David, sorry if I missed it, but is this a Mustang malcolm hood grafted onto the P-47 frame? What did you stick it together with? Thanks The whole job is looking a bit special & this scheme really stands out.
Steve

[lancfan]

Steve, the Malcolm Hood is left over from an Academy P-51B kit and it was glued in place with standard polystyrene cement.

[Jagewa]

Fab canopy trick David.

[Stevehnz]

Thanks David, looks like I could've done without buying the Rob Taurus malcolm hood canopy for one of these. Yours looks the goods to me.
Steve.

[lancfan]

The Dinghy Carriers have been made up and fitted to complete the model.



Finished, Republic P-47D-2-Re, 42-75855 "5F-A/Tony" of 5 Emergency Rescue Squadron, US 8th AAF, RAF Boxted, Essex, late 1944.






Critique-

The model.
This almost built itself and was a delight to make with all joints fitting perfectly and no filler being needed at all. The only fault was that of the poorly rendered Air Intake splitter but this was easily corrected.
8/10 for the poor intake splitter.

The Decals.
As far as colour and register were concerned they were brilliant but when compared to both the Xtradecal artwork and photographs of the full-size aircraft they were oversized by a degree which will be noticeable to all but the dimmest of eyeballs, I also thought that 1/72 scale line drawings of the ASR gear and flares should have been included with the painting instructions.
5/10 for the sizing error.

David.

[iggie]

Niggles aside David, that's a cracking build of an unusual subject. Your attention to detail is to be envied!