P-47D for the fun of it - Part 6

Tools 'n' Tips Article by Larry Shred on Oct 14 2009

D-Day

This part use to throw me off, D-Day invasion stripes. Now the kit comes with decals for this and I decided to paint the wing stripes and use the decals for the belly of the plane. In hindsight, I probably should have painted all of them simply because the belly strips are a little trickier to do and you probably would have liked to see that. Sorry. 

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I’m not fanatical about crisp, clean strips, perfectly straight and symmetrical wing-to-wing. I have access to plenty of photos showing D-Day stripes being slopped on to planes with rollers and paint brushes. They were rarely (in my opinion and the opinion of many of the war vets I’ve spoken with), applied with exacting precision. I have purposely painted the stripes by hand, no masking, with a brush, in order to accurately duplicate what I’ve seen in a picture some veteran gave me, but I know most of you want that clean look so I’ll do what I can to accommodate.

See photos 07, 08, 09 and 10

I have measured the stripe width (off the decals), and trimmed some tape to that size. I roughly measured out from the fuselage where the 1st stripe goes then place one long piece of tape across the wing, making it look as parallel to the aircraft as I can by eye. As you see in the picture, I’ve placed the 5 bits of tape across the wing to give the end point and stripe size. Place another length of tape across the wing marking the end point. I will normally use a pair of calipers to measure from the first stripe edge to the last stripe edge, just to make sure it’s kind of parallel with the other side.

See photos 11, 12, 13 and 14

After taping off the boundaries of the stripes, I made a pillow of paper towel, flip the plane over and rested it on top of the pillow. Because I left some overhang tape, it’s easy to line up the bottom side stripe boundaries. Just place more tape on the back by lining up to the front tape. I added some paper towel to prevent overspray, and then flip the kit back on its feet. Mask off the top side including a piece of tape along the exposed flap innards (technical term). Spray the white! I mix a few drops of blue in my white since I find it covers a little better and make the white a little more believable in my opinion. Then once again I remove the masking almost as soon as I’ve finished painting.

See photos 15 and 16

Now that we have the white, we need the black. I know the picture of this looks confusing but really it’s not. Using the tape cover up the width of the first white strip. Using pieces of tape cut to stripe width, just place side-by-side right across until you get to the last stripe where you want to cover the whole thing. Replace the centre piece of tape with a whole piece. To make a long story short, you end up with what you see in picture ‘B’. Spray the black remove the masking and there you have it, D-Day stripes. Since that takes care of most of painting, I’m moving on to applying a coat of Future.

Future Coat

Future floor polish is a modeler’s friend. There is information here at ARC that will fill you in on all the uses and benefits so I will just tell you how I’m using it here. First off, I never airbrush Future although many do. Invest in a really good brush, maybe ½” to 1” wide. If you don’t buy a good one you’ll be picking hairs off your kit all day. Future self-levels and rarely ever leaves a brush mark. You can’t fool around while applying it or it starts to dry on you and you will get some brush marks. A second coat will take care of them though. I like two full coats on a kit before I start to decal and usually apply the second coat an hour to an hour and a half after the first coat. This provides a great base to work on and allows you a cushion for removing screw-ups when weathering, touch-up painting or adding chip marks. 

See photos 17 and 18

If I feel like it I leave the Future coat to dry overnight and then start adding the decals. I often start applying decals and hour or so after the Future coat - What?! No, no, no Future must dry at least 24 hours before applying decals!. To be honest, it’s never been a problem for me. I’ve never really had any serious issues doing this, other than some fogging of the decals which goes away when totally dry. If not, then a quick touch up with Future takes care of it. I also dip the painted canopies in Future then leave them on some paper towel to wick away the excess. This gives you a scratch free crystal look to the glass.

Decaling

See photos 19, 20, 21 and 22

Get a bowl of really warm water (almost hot), this activates the glue and softens the decal. Cold water is a no-no. If you buy one of those coffee cup warmers you won’t have to keep changing the water. Cut out the decal you need and place it in the bowl. Within about 3 seconds it will easily slide off the backing paper. I use a soft brush to wet the area where I intend to place it. I should say that there are many ways to do this. Some people will put a setting solution under the decal; some will use Future, some… something else, some nothing. Because you rarely get a second shot at putting on a decal I don’t like to use anything that will increase the risk of wrecking it while putting it on, this is why I use warm water, brushed on where I intend the decal to go.

See photos 23, 24, 25 and 26

I keep the wet brush handy while sliding the decal in place. If it stops easily sliding around before I have it where I want it, then pushing the wet brush up underneath the decal puts a fresh layer of water under it allowing it to once again be easily moved around. You can keep a decal “alive” indefinitely with this method. Once you have it in position, tear off a piece of paper towel and using the torn fiber part (like in the picture), just touch it to the bottom of the decal and it will wick out all the water. I give the decal at least 4-5 minutes before I use the decal setting solution. You have to use decal setting solution to make the decal conform to the finer shapes on the kit.

See photos 27 and 28

Apply liberally without putting pressure on the decal or you risk moving it. Once you hit it with the solution you don’t want to be having to move the decal back into position. The solution very quickly “melts” the decal making movement without damage almost impossible.

Let’s say you get up to stretch a little now, because this is nerve wracking stuff! You get yourself a drink and come back to the kit say after 15-20 minutes. Don’t have a mouthful of drink when you sit down to check on the decal because you’ll most likely spit it out the first time you experience the “wrinkling”. Relax… it goes away, just like in the series of photos you see here. In the end its smooth, tight and well formed to the cracks, crevices, rivets or whatever else there may be.

Once all the decals are on, let them dry over night. Next day if any bubbles have formed you can just poke them with a pin and re-apply decal setting solution. When the solution been on for a few seconds use a soft brush to dab the bubble for just a second or two. Let it dry for a couple hours, repeat if needed.

Hey Man, Give Me My Props…

See photos 29, 30, 31 and 32

There’s not much that is difficult about this process, but there are a couple things you might want to use. First gather up the pieces, clean them up, test fit and correct if need be, then glue together. Take the time to use some sanding sticks to thin out and clean up the seams on the prop.

See photos 33, 34, 35 and 36

Spray the prop your preferred shade of black. I hand paint the centre of the prop in steel or aluminum (whatever I have handy), but I like the chrome finish on the hub itself. I find hand painting this never gives the clean effect I’m looking for, so I normally punch a hole in a Post It note and place it over the hub after the part underneath has dried.

Using the airbrush I spray the hub and let it dry thoroughly before removing the Post It note. In this case I just used the aluminum paint but wanted to show you what I would have done if spraying the hub, chrome.

See photos 37, 38, 39 and 40

Tape the prop tips like you see in the pictures and then you’re ready to take advantage of your gravity fed airbrush!

See photos 41 and 42

Stir up some yellow then take a Q-Tip and dunk it in thinner. Now place the Q-Tip into the yellow and then push it against the side of the airbrush bowl while turning it between your fingers. This puts just a very small amount of thinned paint in my cup to paint the tips. It’s very fast and you’ve literally used a few drops of paint, no waste. That’s hard to do with a suction fed airbrush. Spray the tips and remove the mask.

Guns, Guns, Guns

I have made guns by tightly rolling aluminum foil around a piece of wire, stretched sprue, plain old bits of brass tube, and other stuff. Mostly they didn’t look that great. I do give in and buy the aftermarket guns for commission builds because it’s the kind of detail that really makes a big difference on a finished kit. For this ‘D’ we’re going to use what came in the box. Do you remember earlier on in the article when I was centre punching the nubs for the ignition wires? We’re going to do the same thing here. Take a pointing thing and make a light mark on the end of the barrel. If you’re way off centre, then just sand it off (because you just made a light mark), mark it again. If it looks centered then push the mark a little deeper. This will guide the drill and keep it in the middle.

See photos 43, 44 and 45

Take your pin vice and drill into the end. Make one or two turns and just check that it looks to be in the right spot, then drill away. You don’t have to go that deep to get the effect of a hollow gun barrel but I have drilled1/8th of an inch into them without wrecking the gun. If you’ve never done this you might think this is pretty hard to do by hand, but it isn’t. You go for it!

See photos 46 and 47

Pretty much the last colour I use for painting guns is Gun Metal; I prefer the paint type you have to buff to get the metal look you want. I use the MM metalizer either magnesium or titanium. Sometimes dark grey, then rub pencil led on them. While I’m attaching the guns, I clean up and glue the Pitot tube in as well.   Let’s look at where we are now. 

See photos 48, 49, 50, 51, 52 and 53

What Have I Forgotten?

I know there are a few things about this build I haven’t really covered; a bit of weathering and paint chips as an example. I’ve tried to show some of the subtle difference a wash makes. This is difficult to do on a foiled aircraft because the camera really doesn’t pick up the change on the foil part all that well, but I think you get the idea. The result is much better on the painted surfaces of this P47 but still a bit of a challenge. The reason it is a little more difficult is; no matter how thin the aluminum foil, it’s still thick enough to round out the small edges. This means when you start to remove the excess there is no sharp ‘lip’ in the crevasses to ‘hold’ the dirt wash in. We’ll manage though.

See photo54

There are several other things – I forgot to show you what I do for formation lights (very cool), and how I use powders. I didn’t show all the decaling tricks, forgot to mention that I applied another coat of Future of the whole kit after the decaling was finished, didn’t add the prop decals, didn’t really finish all the weathering either. We could have cut the ailerons and rudder out and put them at a nice angle. Usually I try to remember to turn the tail-wheel as well, this give a little more realistic look to it. Although I didn’t do it on this build, I could show you how to color the bezels around gauges easily. So many things I’ve neglected!

See photos 55 and 56

Normally (if it wasn’t foil), I would spray clear flat on the kit after all the decals and final Future coat has dried. The weathering really starts after that coat. There is so much more I could have done but I’ve just plain (“plain” get it?), had it. Like I said at the beginning, this project has taken a long time. This was the first plane I really didn’t have to build for someone in quite awhile; I bet I started this thing a year and half ago. No, it didn’t take that long to build it’s just that there were several projects in-between and I had to keep going back to this when I had time.

See photos 57 and 58

In an attempt to get you to understand this hobby, pay strict attention to what I’m about to tell you. It is one of the most important parts of this whole article.

Because this kit stayed on my bench for so long, I hated it. It got to the point where I groaned every time I thought about having to work on it. It hung over my head like the Sword of Damocles. At times I thought I’d just scrap it and forget about the article.  Even now the planes not really finished, but I am… and that is important to digest. I just wanted this project to go away.

See photo 59

You’ll see articles on ARC where someone will say something like… “I just can’t get into it lately”, “It’s not fun anymore”, “I just want to give up sometimes” etc. etc. When I see these I want to post a response that says something like “stop whining”, “suck it up”, “walk it off”, “shut the hell up”, (do I sound grouchy?), but I understand them completely. I feel that way often and not just about models. One of the things I like most about the hobby is the fact it’s there, whenever I want it. If I don’t want to finish a kit, I don’t have to. Sometimes when I struggle to complete something I just go into the room, do one thing, then leave. That one thing may be sand something, glue something, just cutting a piece off a sprue. The thing I do may take 10 seconds or 1 minute. Funny thing is sometimes, before I release it, 3 hours has gone by. The hobby is there any time I want it, even if I never want it.

See photo 60

Here is another telling part of this tale. Although the finishing (kind of), and the documenting of this kits construction has removed an immense burden from my shoulders (frankly, if it wasn’t for this article the kit my never have gotten built), I’m already thinking about doing a build to document just weathering and dry brushing! Frying pan… fire, go figure, but writing and documenting is a pain in the neck. As a matter of fact, it takes away some of the joy of the hobby for me. So don’t look for that anytime soon.

Lastly, some people are going to strongly disagree with some of the things I’ve said in this article and probably send me a lot of “corrective” emails. That’s ok, that’s what it’s all about... how you do something it’s not about what’s right or what’s wrong. You will form your own opinions of good and bad. You may like everything I said here but in awhile you’ll find your own ways, your own tricks. Someone will probably write me someday to say something like “Hey do this, this way… it’s a lot easier than what you said in your article”, and you know what? I probably will use your suggestion.

Oh, one more thing. There is a lot of concern regarding the decline in interest in this hobby. I’m not sure I’m saddened by it all that much. Let’s face it… if we had the options our kids have today, how many of us do you think would be building these things? My kids have dozens of fascinating options when it comes to entertainment and playing. I had a stick to play with when I was a kid ;-) But I digress…

…if the lack of interest in this hobby does concern you, I give you this piece of advice; “Each one, teach one”

Larry Shred

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Photos and text © by Larry Shred