This is my
Thunderbolt Mk II in 30 squadron markings used in South East Asia.
The P-47 replaced the Hurricanes on escort and ground attack missions in July
1944. The conversion was difficult with a heavier and more powerful fighter, it
became operational three months later on Chittatong air base until march 1946.
In the end, the
Thunderbolts were in bad shape due to a lack of maintenance and repairs. They
were
replaced by the Tempest II.
Check
this for further 30 squadron history : http://www.lyneham.raf.mod.uk/30sqn/pages/history13.html
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About the kit, the
Hasegawa one is bigger than the Academy one (guess who's right ?) but has a good
shape, builds well and overall has good decals!
I enhanced it using
an Aires resin co ckpit, P&W R2800 resin engine, a Squadron vacuform canopy
and some PE parts remaining from my last P-47 build. Everything went well until
being displayed on an old Airfix clear stand from the Dassault Super Mystere B2
kit (it will come later...).
The painting : here I encountered
problems as I did a silver (Humbrol 11) undercoat to create a chipped paint
finish. The coats of the final colors didn't resist to Tamiya masking tape, I had to
repaint this several times before obtaining the right result. I don't have much
hair on my head, but this time, I'm sure I lost a lot of it... I'm anxious for
the next time...
So I mainly used the following Humbrol
colors: gray FS36270 126 for the intrados, dark earth 29 & dark green 163
for the camo scheme. White stripes (yeah !) were done with Gunze H1.
I weathered the kit by chipping
the over(over)coat(s) with a needle (the result was worth my suffering and my
loss of hair), a dark brown juice in the panel lines and a
flat finish.
I also added exhaust traces by
airbrushing flat black first and tan next.
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My patience was put to test by
painting this kit, but isn't that an aspect of modelling ?.. That's what improve s
experience!
Happy (patient) modelling !
PS
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