Hi All.
Apologies to those who may have seen this on the P-47 SIG website but as its a special build I wanted to show it on the main site as well.
This is the Tamiya kit. Eduard seatbelts were used and theres some additional wiring around the engine and undercarriage. The missing oxygen tube in the cockpit was scratchbuilt from wire.
The artwork for the cowling was originally done for a 1:6th scale "Lorene" built by Dave Gianakos. Russ Kyler supplied a copy of the photograph of Lorene Kyler that the original artwork was based on and was consulted throughout the redrawing of the noseart.
Paul Parkes at PARKES682DECALS made the decal for me. Thanks Paul!
Russ visted the UK in August of this year and during the few days we spent together he signed the as then unfinished model for me.
Heres the photos.

















I'd like to dedicate this special build to my friends Russ and Joan Kyler and to the memory of Lorene.

Nige

Beautifully done Nige and a real bonus to have it signed

Thanks Mal

Hi Nigel,

Excellent work once again!

Jean-Luc

..super looking replica Nige, look forward to seeing somewhere soon.. (?)

A great look plane Nigel- absolutely love the oversize marking on the wing. The panel lines look good in grey, and not overdone. I did a Google and found some photos of the the 1/6 model, and learnt a bit about Russ: it must have been great having the personal contact with the pilot of the subject.

For me, this is what modelling historical subjects is all about- I wish more people concentrated on this side of things, rather than the exact shapes of aircraft in a certain kit...

Thankyou guys.
Ben,
I hope you didnt have to look too far as there is a feature on Dave Gianakos's 1:6th scale P-47's right here on the Kitmaker Network.
HOTLINK
Dave is a member of this site, indeed so is Russ

It was great to finally meet up with a spend a few days with Russ a few weeks ago! We had been email buddies for a long time before then.
Here we are at the Boxted memorial.

I agree Ben,,it should be more about the people who flew, serviced, and in many cases died while serving rather than if a dimension is a slightly out on a kit.
We are very lucky, we get to build plastic models of the aircraft, but what inspiration we have!!

Neil.
Im not sure when my next show will be. Probably not until the New Year!
Im hoping to have the VFS build finished in time for the MK show.
If your going to be at Halesworth at all over the Bank Holiday I'll have "Lorene" with me

Nige

..sadly I don't think I will be...

no aeroscalers coming down to Medway this year ?

Ben is right ..modelling is more fun when you are attempting to research and build a replica of a 'real' machine - Nige does this consumately well..

I'll be at Medway this year - With South East London IPMS.

See you there.

Andy

Stop it Neil you'll make me blush
I do strive to get my builds as accurate as possible though
Just to round this build off, I took HV-J along to Halesworth at the weekend and took a couple of photos of the model alongside Russ's dogtags, which he donated the museum sometime ago.

Nige