Halinski 3/06 Republic P-47D-25 Thunderbolt (1:33)

Hi friends,
after being "rewarded" with a new project in my job during the autumn, I finally have some free time for getting back to cardmodelling. I decided to start Halinski's Thud this time.
At the moment, I have completed central part of cockpit and I'm moving onto the side panels. The build was a breeze so far, fit is perfect. Model is almost "as is", without any serious modifications except for instrument panel + wiring, seat belts and the stick - I've decided to do most things as intended by the authors, although there's a few doubtful points - especially the control stick looks like it was taken from a different model, including the steering mechanism.
No serious pitfalls were encountered, I didn't like only a few things:
- the instrument panel is printed very poorly, it's too light and without much contrast. I wanted to scan, edit and reprint it, but the print raster become too visible after the scanning, so I used original part from the kit.
- inside and outside of pilot's seat didn't fit perfectly, maybe my fault. No problem to deal with it anyway.
- the scratches on the floor from the feet controlling the rudder reaches too far below the seat.

And now for something completelly different:

ribs after cutting, rudder pedals and the instrument panel

control stick and the seat - last chance to see the fixing of seat belts at the back of the seat - but I know it's there

and the overall views of what I have done so far:

Hi all,
thank you for your kind words, it's very motivating.
And now a short update - now i'm working on the left side panel, i've completed most of the gizmos here - i need to ad a flap control handle and some engine control rods and wiring.
Below you can see the bodies of side panels without the equipment (as you can see, i've decided to add a diagonal rib to ensure that the panels will stay flat) and the mentioned left side panel with the controls - electric switchboard, engine control, landing gear lever and trim controllers. I've noticed some flaws in painting of switches and levers on the photos :gaga:, so i'll repaint it today - the photos can serve as a quality control tool...

hi all,
some progress was achieved over the weekend; from tomorrow till friday i'll have a short forced break because of a bussines trip to Russia.
I've added promised wires and pull rods to the left side panel, so it's finished now except for the top ribbed part and the radio mic - i'll add these when the panel is fixed in the cockpit.
On the right side panel (which looks like from P-47B version to me :(), i've decided to leave the placement of controls as it was designed by Hal and to add an oxygen system hose - which was present in D version very likely - and some wires. The hose was done by rolling a thin copper wire onto a wire from a office clip (like if you would make a spring), then painted and drybrushed to get the desired look - i hope it looks at least a bit like a hose, although the spirals should be a bit wider imho.

so the shots - first batch is the hose itself after a basic paint, the headrest and left and right panel.

and some overall shots of the cockpit - the panels aren't glued yet.

hi kartonists,
i'm glad you like my work. i have some progress over the weekend, not much but at least something - i've closed the cockpit with the sides and now i'm working on the outer skin of the fuselage - photos later.

but - now a cry for help comes:
when cutting the parts for bottom of the middle of fuselage, i've made a mistake and didn't notice which is side is front and which is back for parts 15 and 16 :rotwerd:. both of these parts are almost perfectly rectangular, so there's no way now how to tell - on part 16, there's nothing important except for a few lines so i guess i can take the risk and figure it myself, but on part 15, the spots for fuel tank holder are shown - and they're not in the middle.
what i would need from someone of you kind guys who own this model is to look at the sheet and take a shot if possible or at least tell if the tank holder is closer to back or front side of part 15 - it should be possible to tell from the orientation towards part 16.

i'll be happy if someone helps.

oh yeah, this is exactly what i need. thank you, hemingway! :meister:

jan: thank you for translation. i can understand german language if not too complicated, but i can't write in it.

Hi all,
a small update - front side of the fuselage is almost done, only a few parts to engine exhaust is needed.
The fit was very good on the cockpit part, except for an edge above the side panels - i don't know where the mistake is, but the hole in upper part was simply too big - same on both sides, so i decided to paint it and pretend it's the the canopy travel, thus everything is ok - sorry for that little cheat on history. I had some problems (definitely my fault this time) connecting the first and second front segment to the rest of fuselage - it was a big mistake to use common disperse glue and i knew it before, but it was a calm february evening, segments prepared to glue to one big piece lied before me - and i noticed that i didn't have any other glue, so i decided to take the risk - and whoops, it's there, the former is visible a bit, see circled area... the little texture fit problem in the same joint below won't be visible since it will be covered with the exhaust thingie.
well, i hope i'll do better next time. anyway, i think it's not that bad as it looks from the shot and the observer's eye will be distracted by engine cover, maybe...

http://ipmsstockholm.org/magaz…/stuff_eng_detail_p47.htm
http://www.aircraftresourcecen…walk057_P-47M/walk057.htm
http://www.zenoswarbirdvideos.com/P47Stuff.html

i'll post some more when i get home. just be careful - on some of the above pictures, different versions are shown and sometimes it's hard to tell.

i'm definitely going to resume the build - i'll start during weekend hopefully...

short update about current status - see shots from 29.1.07, that's exactly where i am now, except for the formers were strenghtened with blue paper, not yellow
my camera is dead now :(, so the only new shots i could post would be from my cell phone - i guess it's not worth the time now.

Quote

Originally posted by Airgoon
This is so funny - you're building the Thunderbolt and your camera goes dead.
I'm building the Thunderbolt and my camera goes dead.
I think there is something sinister going on...

well i dare to say (not tested) that this thunderbolt doesn't kill cameras, since mine went dead after a direct water hit in Peterhof during a business trip to St. Pete...