It took about three to four months for me to finish this baby. It's Hasegawa's 1/72 P-47D, built straight OOB. The only thing I added were masking tape seatbelts, bits of styrene for sidewall details, and a stretched sprue stick. The cockpit is extremely spartan, but is nearly invisible once the canopy is on. I wanted to give it the look of a well-used, war-weary bird, so I weathered relatively heavily. Here's what I came up with:










Here's a closeup where you can see the weathering a bit better:



Let me know what you think!

Well - I think you should build more "wingy-things".

Looks like a great build to me. I think weathering is difficult to pull off, but you managed to give the paint job a real "been around for a while" look to it. How did you do the panel lines - they really look good.

Congrats on a really nice build. I hope it won't be 10 years before we see another out of you.

cheers,
Mike

Great job Lucas, I think you should convert exclusively to "wingy-thingys" from now on.

The weathering is nicely done, it sure looks weary.

Cheers, D

For some one who hasn't built a wingy thingy in ten years , you sure did one fantastic job !

Hope to see some more of your aircraft in the pages

I think you did a great job, really. I hope to see more of your work. I guess this bird was based in the MTO? Russell

thats a pretty pimpin looking T Bird there nice work

Woo-Hoo! Way to go Lucas. Whatever you had 10 years ago is still there. want to weather my 1/32 bird efforts?
Cheers!
Rick

Very nice paint job and weathering,just right for me.

Thanks, folks!

Mike--I did the panel lines with a standard sludge wash made with Polly S grimy black and dish soap. I found the recipe for it in an old FSM article.

Russell--yes, this aircraft was from the 65th Squadron, 57th Fighter Group in Italy in 1944, according to Hasegawa's instructions.

For the weathering, I tried out a new technique used on armor models fairly often--the dot painting method. I dabbed on small dots of oil paint over the flat coat and brushed them down until they were almost gone. On the OD surfaces, I used white, yellow, blue, and brown oil paints (concentrating the lighter colors on top surfaces), while on the bottom I used blue, Payne's gray, white, and brown. This build was a fun learning experience overall. For my next aircraft project, I'm thinking of tackling a NMF F-86. I hope I won't be biting off more than I can chew with that one!