but I did ind an image online of ‘Georgia Peach’
with them, so I decided to include them. Using
online images, I calculated how big the stripes
would need to be. I then laid strips of tape onto
a Perspex board, measured these out exactly,
and them cut to size with a steel ruler and sharp
blade. In order to get the spacing correct, I laid
all ive strips out, and then removed the ones
I wanted to be painted white. After irst trying
to airbrush white over the gloss black, and
struggling, I switched to painting the white
from a Tamiya spray can instead. After the
white stripes were painted, the D-Day stripes
are efectively done, and could be masked
completely, ready for the metal colour. At this
point I also masked the singular black stripes on
the tail section.Next up
was the all over
metallic colour.
For this I have
used Vallejo Metal
Color, Aluminium.
Thinned slightly, applied
in light coats through my
airbrush. After allowing it to dry
overnight, I followed this with a couple coats of
80% thinner to 20% paint using Tamiya Smoke.
This I ind really brings a very nice look to the
metal inish, and as an extra bonus, this acts
a bit like a varnish and prevents issues with
the metallic paint peeling of with masking
tape. I also used the Smoke colour to dirty up
the panel lines a little and also used it to makesome of the smaller panels a little
darker. After drying properly, I moved
onto painting the Olive Drab on the
nose, and the blue leading edge of
the engine cowl. Kicking myself for
deciding to leave the laps of to this
point, I then spent a couple of nights
working on these to paint them in stripes
as well. While I was at it, I also painted the
insides and stripes on the outside of the main
landing gear doors.
The decals went on very nicely with Micro
Sol and Micro Set. The major decals were
lawless, and I reverted to the minor Tamiya
stencils as mentioned earlier. The stencils were
only applied in areas that the D-Day stripes
were not painted, assuming the stripes would
have been applied over top of these in a hurry
before D-Day. Given the decals had settled well,
I proceeded straight onto the weathering. The
stripes irstly recieved some light sanding with
2000 grit sand paper, before I added a couple
of hand brushed coats of Ammo by MIG Matt.
Some black panel line wash was applied in
places also, and inally some light grey pastel
work was done to simulate the poor inish
stripes often had. I also airbrushed on some
exhaust staining. I focused this behind the
engine cowl at the front of the engine area, and
underneath the plane at the exhaust ports. As
the external fuel tank is the droppable, paper
type of tank, so I assumed this didn’t stay on
the aircraft long enough to need staining. The
staining was a mix of Tamiya browns, and NATO
Grey, heavily thinned and built up slowly. This
was enhanced again with some extra Tamiya
Smoke, and some work with some black and
brown pastels. To try and simulate the fading(^22) REPUBLIC P-47D THUNDERBOLT WWW.MODELAIRCRAFTMAG.COM