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Building
and detailing the old Revell P-47 Razorback (Part I)
by Chris
Sherland
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PREFACE
Having
never built one of the old Revell 1/32 fighters, I chose the P47 simply
because it's my favorite WWII A/C, and I thought it would hold my attention
through what I was guessing was going to be a long haul. I decided to
go whole-hog on this project, and take the Revell kit as far as I could
(which I procured from a fellow 1/32 madman here on the trader's board,
Ronnie Murray). My plan was to add lots of custom features, and use
as much after market stuff that could be rationalized with my wife.
Jerry Rutman's detail set for the Revell P-47D Razorback was used,
as well as the Teknics R-2800. More on these later. As it turned out I began to take
a liking to scratchbuilding during this project (something I'd had no
experience with prior to this build) and in a few instances I replaced
not only kit parts, but some of the aftermarket stuff as well.
The
Jug I started with showed decent molding and looked to be in great shape,
this is a Revell-Germany issue, and was a 1988 release of the old '70s
mold. This build was not hard, just long. It is my first detailing attempt
and that shows! This is the ONLY big bolt out there to work with, until
that is, JR bites the bullet and makes a resin offering for the whole
dang thing!
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Why
look how light the Thunderbolt must have been! Those scissor links
aren't even breaking a sweat!
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| FIRST
STEPS (FUSELAGE PREP )..AKA "Grab a saw boys!"
Revell's
early practice of raised details and huge rivets suggested that the
entire kit be sanded down for re-scribing first. I did, and went at
it with lots of references. I used tape, a flexible ruler, a drafting
template, the 1/48 Verlindin scribing template, an exacto scribing needle,
a punch wheel set, and a modified syringe needle for rivet detail. Later
in the build in part II I will focus on scribing a bit more. Initially
it was simply sand down and "sketch" the panel lines back
in. I wanted to wait until wings, tail, and fuselage were mated prior
to finalizing the re-scribe job.
I
decided to articulate all of the flying surfaces, and the first step
was cutting them all away. Soft plastic helped here, but ˝ way through
I realized what I had gotten myself into. The Jug employed fowler-like
flaps, and weighted ailerons…lots more work than I had anticipated prior
to letting the knife fly, but how does that saying go? "Oh well!"
The engine exhaust vents on the lower sides of the fuselage just aft
the cowl flaps, as well as the turbo supercharger exhausts on the fuselage
sides are poorly represented in the Revell kit and had to be removed
for replacement. Lets just say I spent a lot of my initial time with
the kit sawing and stabbing.
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All surfaces cut
away, had to ditch the kit flaps. Some early scribing can be seen
here too as well as the turbo exhaust opened.
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| The
Revell kit lacks a lot of detail in some places and passes quite well
in others. The Jugs myriad of venting ports under the rear fuselage were
not one of Revell's high points. I grinded away at them until I got a
"passable" scale feel. I didn't feel like going too much further
to tell you the truth. The Dremel and a scribing needle did the job here. |
Venting ports
cut out of the fuselage, and more early scribing.
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| The
most challenging part of this stage was opening the fuselage and wings
for new scratchbuilt gear bays. The kit's bays are not accurate and need
more than help if a detail job is planned, they need to be replaced. There
is a lot of sawing and grinding to do to remove the kit's bays for replacement
due to the fact that the Jug's gear bays slightly penetrate the fuselage
as opposed to just residing within the wing structure like on a Spitfire
or a 109. |
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Fuselage
and lower wing opened to accept gear bays.
Note the cowling has been removed for the Rutman replacement. Both the
turbo and engine exhaust flaps have been removed prior to adding the
scratchbuilt ones.
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The
articulated turbo exhaust flaps on the side of the fuselage were in
dire need of some scale. The kit's flaps here were bulky and inaccurate.
I cut them away and scribed a pair of channels into the top and bottom
of the exhaust's backing which I left on. From there I built the flaps
from .10 sheet and inserted their mounting walls into the channels.
With this technique I could choose to mount them in ANY position desired.
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Channels
cut in kit fuselage sides for the turbo exhaust flaps. These were done
with a scriber. The longer you go with these the more mounting options
you have, including fully open or fully closed.
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The turbo exhaust
flaps getting fitted from the inside of the kit fuselage. .10 sheet
was used to construct these. Note some cockpit detail as well.
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COCKPIT
Once all the basic
prep was done, the next step was getting the Jerry Rutman cockpit together
to set the stage for mating the fuselage halves. Although there is quite
a bit of work involved, Jerry's cockpit set adds quite a bit, bringing
real validity to the old Revell piece. There were gobs of fitting chores
and choices to make in order to get it "right". I made a huge
error early on in the cockpit assembly, which was cementing the cockpit
walls to the kit fuselage sides instead of assembling the cockpit tub
as a whole, then installing it into the fuselage (that'll teach me to
skip the instructions!). There is an angle problem with the walls in
this configuration, but it still came out fine. I
scratch built the fuselage canopy rails and used the rudder pedals from
the Revell kit. Seat harnesses were made from masking tape and the foto-etched
buckles that come with the Rutman set.
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Cockpit
tub prior to final detail,and mounting.
 
Side
panels almost finished. Note horrible scar on the left, this was needed
to get the panel to sit right.
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Jerry Rutman did
a great job on the resin throttle quadrant, including prop and mixture
levers. I chose them over the foto-etch versions that are included as
well, and only needed to scratch the prop and mixture handles from small
rod and some glue "knobs". Not much more detailing on top
of the resin cockpit, a few foto-etched panels, and the throttle control
tubes were all that would be seen once the tub was installed, so I played
it cool on detailing stuff that would be out of sight.
For the main panel
I decided to combine the foto-etch gauges and panel supplied with the
Rutman detail set with a clear sheet insert to simulate the dial glass.
The foto-etch panel is finished a bit on the gaudy-side, so I sprayed
it flat black to tone it down a tad and give it a more subdued look.
The clear sheet was measured, cut, and cemented to the etched gauge
panel, and then the etched front panel was cemented over that.
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Finished instrument
panel.
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TAIL GEAR
Prior to mating
the fuselage together, the tail gear and bays must be tended to, and
prepped.
Republic didn't
skimp on complexity when they made the tail gear assembly for the P-47.
And I firmly believe this is why every Jug kit you see has that goofy
canvas "bag" draped over the whole thing, showing only the
stem and wheel. Well I'm here to tell you that I've never seen any photo
of a single combat Jug with that crazy bag on!! Needless to say the
tail gear supplied in both the kit and the Rutman set avoid the Jug's
tail gear system details in trade for either the canvas "boot",
or an oversimplified flat deck that the gear strut just sticks into.
Neither was to my liking so I sawed out the flat gear bay decking, and
scratchbuilt the tailgear using the Rutman wheel, the kit's wheel arm,
and all the rest fashioned from sheet and rod. The P-47's tailgear has
a very distinctive yoke, and again, it seemed to be a prime candidate
for some scratch-building. Thick
styrene card was used to fabricate the yoke arms while styrene rod and
tubing were used to do most of the rest. Some more sheet was cut and
shaped for the mounting panel and interior bulkheads. Small strips of
sheet were added to the interior walls to give some body to the bay.
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The
tail gear assembly ready to mount and the bay prior to final detail.
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MOVING
ON
Once
the cockpit, tail gear and turbo flaps were installed, the fuselage
halves were joined with standard CY. At this stage some of the final
fuselage scribing, filling, and sanding was tended to, as well as
building and installing the scratched exhaust flaps near the cowling.
A note here on the exhaust flaps. I have sniffed around some surviving
Jugs and these flaps loosely hide some of the main exhaust piping.
I added these pipes in because they are clearly visible on "real"
Jugs. This is all simple sheet and rod.
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Fuselage halves
together, and the mounting of the scratch exhaust flaps, Rutman firewall,
and Teknics R-2800 followed shortly.
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ENGINE
The
Teknics R-2800 went together well, although it only arrived with 16
cylinders!! Now I know that a real Jug could have made it home on just
16, but "hey c'mon, I'm building a model here!!"
Replacement
cylinders were sent to me, and all was well. I spent some time detailing
the front of the engine, and the exhaust (it would be visible through
the open cowl flaps) but did not dally here too long, I hate working
hard on stuff that can't be seen. Small rod stock was used for the push
rods, cut to size, and then cemented in place. Guitar string fastened
with epoxy was left to set and then bent to shape representing the wiring
on the face of the R-2800.
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The R2800 getting
pushrods installed
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| After
the engine was done I fixed it to the firewall (Rutman resin piece) along
with the modified "bell" mount from the kit. Lots of sanding
and fitting were needed both prior to attaching the firewall as well as
afterwards to attain scale and shape. Not much of this is visible in the
finished kit, so again, not much pain spent. |
Still
a little filling/shaping left to do.
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TAIL
With
the tail feathers cut away I filled and shaped the control surfaces
and rebuilt all the hinges from stock. A note here; these are not
attempts to make real hinges, just a stab at getting a better feel
than the kit monstrosities.
Using
a trick I learned from reponses to a page question I posted I mixed some "goop" from
1/2 talcum powder 1/2 slow CY. This dries a lot softer than straight
CY and is easy to control with ratios and then can be cured fast with
accelerator when needed. This goop was used as filler to flesh out
the airfoils on the elevators. It's a great tip and I'll be using
it everywhere I need good strong filler and some control over the
hardness. The rudder was filled and "spaced" with stock
and rod segments, then capped with sheet and shaped with Milliput.
In
all these photos you can see where the original kit hinge spaces were
filled with various thicknesses of sheet to get some decent scale.
I eyeballed the sizes here, no need for going insane, I was just looking
for some scale.
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The
rudder with spacers, and then capped prior to Milliput shaping.
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Hinges
added, and the most-excelent "goop".
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Elevators
with reduced hinge spaces, capped and shaped with goop.
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MAIN
LANDING GEAR and BAYS
After
getting the fuselage together, the gear bays needed to be dealt with
next and I decided to scratch them. I had purchased a set of bays from
Jerry Rutman however they were not quite accurate. I used them as a
guide to build a set from scratch. There are 2 major issues with the
Rutman bays, one is that the bay floors lack proper ribbing and alignment,
and the second is that the main hydraulic piston mounts are on the wrong
side of the bay. Nit picking some would say, and rightly so. But I was
possesed by this time.
Having
been inspired by John Formon's scratched bays on his
P-47 D-25 I set out to make my own. This was not a huge chore,
but taking my time made all the difference here. There are a lot of
considerations to take into account as you build these and going slow
helps reduce re-dos and big mistakes.
Once
I got the basic floors and walls together I ran through some fitting
and shaping. Once the fit of the basic structure was sound I detailed
and painted them. Wiring was made from various gauges of thin wire and
soft aluminum rod.
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Sketched-in
bays getting test fitted on the left, and final structural detail on
the right.
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All
that's left are the gear door actuators and MLG fitting.
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The
MLG from both the kit and the Rutman set were not to my liking. So I
set out to scratch them as well. Having never built a set of MLGs before
I sought lots of help from LSP folk. Scott Murphy, John Forman, and
Armand Eshleman all offered invaluable assistance. Thank you gents!
Here
are the main struts and a detail of the tail gear all sketched in prior
to detailing. The MLG struts are brass tubing, styrene rod, and the
white metal wheel arms from the Rutman detail set. The styrene rod can
be seen as the oleo here. Careful drilling into the white metal wheel
arms to accommodate the styrene oleos was the highlight of assembly.
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Part
II should be ready in a month or so. Lots of work left to do; more
assembly, detailing, painting, decals, and weathering will all be covered
then...I hope. Wish me luck!
On
to part II?
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References
- Mustang
and Thunderbolt Aces of the Pacific and CBI (Osprey) ISBN 1-85532-780-5
- America's
Hundred Thousand (Dean) ISBN 0-76430072-5 (This is simply a MUST
HAVE for USAAF and USN WWII fighter reference!!)
- Aero
Detail #14: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt ISBN 4-499-22648-1
- Warbird
Tech #23: Republic P-47 Thunderbolt ISBN 1-58007-018-3
- Squadron/Signal
Walk Around #11: P-47 Thunderbolt (Drendel) ISBN 0-89747-375-2
- Squadron/Signal
In Action #67: P-47 Thunderbolt (Davis) ISBN0-89747-161-X
- Warbird
History: P47 Thunderbolt (Hess) ISBN 0-87938-899-4
- Pilot's
Manual for P-47 Thunderbolt ISBN 0-87994-026-0
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© Chris Sherland |
