Lastest Build-Real World P-47M

[AeroplaneDriver]

Here's my latest effort...number 13 of my lockdown building spree. 

It's Tamiya's P-47M, built OOB with the only addition being Eduard fabric seat belts.  P-47s are a favorite of mine, but I have to confess to it not being my favorite build by a long shot.  The kit itself is great, typical recent Tamiya quality.  The kit has all the various parts to build just about any bubble top P-47 and I considered a D with a more typical paint scheme, but decided to go with the M and do the more unusual scheme they wore with the 56th Fighter Group in the last weeks of the war in Europe.  It's an interesting scheme to research and you can go and find pretty contentious discussions on other boards about what the top color should be. 

The most reasonable argument seemed to be for  RAF Night Black, since it has the slightly bluish tint the 56th aircraft were said to have and the USAAAF bought a lot of it from the UK late in the war.  So I used Hataka Night Black, and sure enough it is a strange color that can be described as black, blueish black, or even extremely dark purple depending on the lighting.  Weathering is pretty minimal since they didn't fly in combat very long.  Basically some chipping with a silver pencil and some oil leaks and streaking underneath.   Final finish is Tamiya semi-gloss since they were apparently kept pretty shiny for the few extra knots that would gain. 

Looking at it finished it's different and I'm sure it'll grow on me but I'm wishing I'd done a D instead.  Oh well...it's done now so I can move on to the next one.  My building pace may slow in the next few weeks...I was officially sent my training notification for the A320 today.  Still no date assigned but I have my online training materials to start work on, which has to be done before I go to ground school.  Seems real life is going to start interfering again. 

Anyhoo...here she is...

[Dizzyfugu]

Very nice! 

[Old Wombat]

[Shakes head & puts hands on hips]

Another fine model you've built there, Stanley!

[zenrat]

Nice.
Not seen that paintjob before (although i'm a sucker for the contentious ones).  What colour is the underside?

[NARSES2]

That's come out very well.

I've got the 1/72 Revel kit of that in the stash and the question of what colour to paint it has always stopped me building it. However as I have that Hataka colour in my paint collection I might just dig it out. Thank you 

[AeroplaneDriver]

Nice.
Not seen that paintjob before (although i'm a sucker for the contentious ones).  What colour is the underside?

Underside is Vallejo Aluminum with steel on the panels covering the ducting to the turbo.  Not really noticeable difference though. 

Chris, same here with me on this kit.  I HATE mixing paint colors for large areas and most of the references I'd seen gave some kind of mixed color instead of an actual color reference.  It seems the most common stories floating around are that a pilot asked the ground crew to mix a paint color to match either a) his favorite dinner jacket, or b) his sports car.  There are anecdotal stories on message boards of people meeting pilots of the 56th at various events and even they can't agree what color is was.  MOST sources though seem to agree it had a bluish tinge to it.  Then finally I found a source that said it was most likely RAF Night Black because it has a bluish tinge and just the fact that there was a lot of it about at the time and the USAAF bought a lot of it from the MoD late in the war apparently.  By pure coincidence I had opened the bottle I had for the first time not long ago to paint the tails on my F-14 build.  I realized it was not right when it looks almost dark blue and redid it in NATO Black.  So when I read that and realized I had a bottle I decided to give it a crack.  In daylight I'm liking the model more than I did last night. 

[Glenn Gilbertson]

That looks really good - and the choice of upper colour sounds logical. Well done!

[DogfighterZen]

Another excellent build! I love dark planes and this fits my taste in every way.

[zenrat]

Nice.
Not seen that paintjob before (although i'm a sucker for the contentious ones).  What colour is the underside?

Underside is Vallejo Aluminum with steel on the panels covering the ducting to the turbo.  Not really noticeable difference though. 

Chris, same here with me on this kit.  I HATE mixing paint colors for large areas and most of the references I'd seen gave some kind of mixed color instead of an actual color reference.  It seems the most common stories floating around are that a pilot asked the ground crew to mix a paint color to match either a) his favorite dinner jacket, or b) his sports car.  There are anecdotal stories on message boards of people meeting pilots of the 56th at various events and even they can't agree what color is was.  MOST sources though seem to agree it had a bluish tinge to it.  Then finally I found a source that said it was most likely RAF Night Black because it has a bluish tinge and just the fact that there was a lot of it about at the time and the USAAF bought a lot of it from the MoD late in the war apparently.  By pure coincidence I had opened the bottle I had for the first time not long ago to paint the tails on my F-14 build.  I realized it was not right when it looks almost dark blue and redid it in NATO Black.  So when I read that and realized I had a bottle I decided to give it a crack.  In daylight I'm liking the model more than I did last night. 

[NARSES2]

Chris, same here with me on this kit.  I HATE mixing paint colors for large areas and most of the references I'd seen gave some kind of mixed color instead of an actual color reference.  It seems the most common stories floating around are that a pilot asked the ground crew to mix a paint color to match either a) his favorite dinner jacket, or b) his sports car.  There are anecdotal stories on message boards of people meeting pilots of the 56th at various events and even they can't agree what color is was.  MOST sources though seem to agree it had a bluish tinge to it.  Then finally I found a source that said it was most likely RAF Night Black because it has a bluish tinge and just the fact that there was a lot of it about at the time and the USAAF bought a lot of it from the MoD late in the war apparently.  By pure coincidence I had opened the bottle I had for the first time not long ago to paint the tails on my F-14 build.  I realized it was not right when it looks almost dark blue and redid it in NATO Black.  So when I read that and realized I had a bottle I decided to give it a crack.  In daylight I'm liking the model more than I did last night.

Cheers for that. Some colours certainly do look better in natural rather than artificial light that's for sure.

"It seems the most common stories floating around are that a pilot asked the ground crew to mix a paint color to match either a) his favorite dinner jacket, or b) his sports car". I can just imagine the ground crew's reaction to that 

[zenrat]

Chris, same here with me on this kit.  I HATE mixing paint colors for large areas and most of the references I'd seen gave some kind of mixed color instead of an actual color reference.  It seems the most common stories floating around are that a pilot asked the ground crew to mix a paint color to match either a) his favorite dinner jacket, or b) his sports car.  There are anecdotal stories on message boards of people meeting pilots of the 56th at various events and even they can't agree what color is was.  MOST sources though seem to agree it had a bluish tinge to it.  Then finally I found a source that said it was most likely RAF Night Black because it has a bluish tinge and just the fact that there was a lot of it about at the time and the USAAF bought a lot of it from the MoD late in the war apparently.  By pure coincidence I had opened the bottle I had for the first time not long ago to paint the tails on my F-14 build.  I realized it was not right when it looks almost dark blue and redid it in NATO Black.  So when I read that and realized I had a bottle I decided to give it a crack.  In daylight I'm liking the model more than I did last night.

Cheers for that. Some colours certainly do look better in natural rather than artificial light that's for sure.

"It seems the most common stories floating around are that a pilot asked the ground crew to mix a paint color to match either a) his favorite dinner jacket, or b) his sports car". I can just imagine the ground crew's reaction to that 

"Certainly sir, but iyou'll need to grease the wheels if you know what I mean.  Give me about 100 pounds".
And then chuck on the Night Black you already had in the back of the paint store because he's never going to know the difference.

[chrisonord]

That really  suits the  colour scheme, marvellous  build
Chris