P-47D Miss Mary Lou

Miss May Lou war photo 

Miss May Lou war photo, note 4.5 inch triple rock tubes 

Note rocket tubes 

Miss May Lou had four kills. Hard to tell if Mary Lou had blue paint on cowl flaps looking at war photos. 

7th Air force patch 

Academy kit 

Kit parts 

Kit instructions and decals. I will not be using the kit decals on this project. 

Kit instructions 

Kit instructions 

Kit painting instructions. I will not be using these marking 

 

I will be using the Super Scale decals sheet on the left 

Super Scale Decals instruction sheet 

I all way wash kit parts be for starting work 

I will use Evergreen Metal siding sheet for new cockpit floor 

Kit cockpit floor and new cockpit floor 

Kit cockpit 

Kit cockpit and new cockpit floor 

New cockpit details added 

New cockpit details added 

Cockpit added details and kit cockpit 

Cockpit 

Kit fuselage 

I added some new fuselage side wall details 

Added cockpit details 

Painted cockpit details 

Cockpit installed 

Cockpit installed 

Fuselage glued together 

I removed kit wind guns 

Will install brass tubing for guns 

Kit has little bumps for ID lights. They should be flush. I removed them and added new ID lights. 

New ID lights 

Kit wheel wells 

I will add some details to the kit wheel wells 

Wheel well added details 

Added details 

Wheel well added details 

Added wheel well details 

Kit wing had missing flap hinge, so I added them 

Added wing flap hinge 

Fuselage and wings 

Port wing glued on 

Wings glued on 

Wings glued on 

kit horizontal stabilizer 

Port horz. stab. glued on 

Kit horz. stab. glued on. Airframe complete 

Airframe complete 

I like to use Steel Wool to smooth out the plastic and remove glue marks. 

Added details to kit intakes 

 

Kit wheels on the right is missing wheel hub covers. I will use wheels from a P-47 bubble top kit on the left. 

Kit engine 

Kit engine 

I added some small details to engine 

 

Kit engine with added details 

Finish engine 

Kit weapons 

Kit bombs 

Bombs glued togther 

Kit bomb and rack 

Kit rocket tubes 

Rocket tubes 

Kit bombs and rockets 

Painted bombs and racks. Will do a little more weathering later 

Added fuse wire 

Kit landing gear doors 

I filled in some sink marks 

Gear doors 

Outside of gear doors painted 

Inside of gear doors painted 

Interior gear doors. I added missing hinges 

I used Model Master Acrylic paints 

Top side Olive Drab 

Under side Neutral Gray. I have reference photos that show the cowl flaps painted blue or Olive Drab. The war time photos look more Olive drab. The tail is NMF with blue strip. Side of cowl is NMF 

 

I used Interior Green as a base color than dry brushed Yellow Zinc Chromate in the wheel wells and inside of gear doors 

 

 

Kit prop 

Prop painted with a gloss coat and decaled. I will do some more weathering later 

Painted prop 

I used a small plastic bag to mask the aircraft 

I used an old bottle of Polly Scale "Conrail Blue" railroad color on the tail. It sprayed really nice. 

Masking Tail and cowl 

Cowl mask 

I used Vallejo Model Air "Aluminum, it went down nice. 

 

 

 

I used an old bottle of Polly Scale "Conrail Blue" for the strips. It sprayed really nice. 

 

 

 

Need to clean up some of the Olive Drab.  

 

 

 

 

 

I will use Flory's Brown Wash 

Wash on 

Underside washed 

Wash off 

 

Here are the clear coats I use. I really like the clear flat coat. Model Master paints have been discontinued so finding any will be hard. I have a good supply on hand, so I am OK for now. 

First coat of clear gloss sprayed