P-47 N
built by Niki Bojkovský
text by Juraj Bojkovský (Niki’s father)
Here is my son Niki’s new Thunderbolt in 1/48 scale. My 13 year old son built it nearly alone with only minimum help from me. Main difficulties he had with the original decals that tend to crack and tear apart, then with insufficiently masked and thus faultily airbrushed canopy and finally with the base gray primer he sprayed prior to the metallic colours. He used the Duplicolor surfacer No 69 3847 Haftgrund (sold as a spray can) which I recommended to him. Since this primer is a bit more agressive and my son even sprayed it in a thicker layer it caused surface irregularities and tiny hair-like “scratches”.
These had to be all laboriously sanded out and subsequently polished thoroughly to achieve the perfect smooth surface for the metallic finish. All this additional work was completely on me 😀 – because it was me, who advised my son to use this kind of surfacer instead of Gunze Mr. Surfacer for instance.
After this experience I know that with some kind of model-kit plastics (Now proved with Academy 😀 ) this surfacer may cause significant problems if sprayed in a thicker coat. I had the same problem with Duplicolor surfacer application onto the Academy styrene, building the F4U-4 Corsair. I’d like to warn everyone in my reach to consider this surfacer usage – not to spend hours by repairing the damages it may cause.
Niki built this kit straight out of the box. Click on pictures below to enlarge:
For more finished model-kits please see the Built Kits category.
Model & Photographs Copyright © 2013 by Juraj Bojkovský.