Thunderbolt

[DEATH ANGELS]

Have not posted in a while but have been watching everyones builds. Boat prep, fishing, yard and ebay has taken all my time. I started this pre cad '98 GPM P-47 a few weeks ago. No problems with the frame. The skin was what pulled me to start the kit. The weathered finish is a real eye catcher. First attempt found the pattern did not line up and the colors were off in places where parts meet up. So I did what I could to realign graphics and blended colors to match up better at joints. Working on cowling now. Still cannot decide if I want to use the kit's simple 'half' engine or the detailed engine I have in an Orlik kit.

[milenio3]

Yeah, the weathering is kind of special. I didn't know about this kit.

Can you please post a picture of the front cover?

All in all is looking good.

[DEATH ANGELS]

This is the book. Ebay buy. But I do see these from PM members for sale sometimes.

[peter taft]

Hey... she's worth the full engine for sure - looking good thus far, and i too like the weathering on her...nice

[DEATH ANGELS]

Four months later out of hobby cash so no more kit buying for a while. Set up a work station in the shop having moved my projects out of the main house. Been working on the work station and building models after midnite to beat the heat. Replaced the...air extractors??? the backwards scoopy things on the sides at the star-n-bar. The graphics in the origional print was not even close to location. Finished the Cowl. Same story, graphics way off. Went with first repaint. Modified the engine adding cylinder heads. Mounted the engine in the cowl before figgerin out that the engine nose case was out to far. Plucked it out and cut the nose case down.

[DEATH ANGELS]

The photo shows the cowl on the factory kit images. The checkers are out of regester. Images in the kit do not show the sides well enough to show how far off the orgional regester was.

[dessy]

hey, 'i thought it was only me that struggled with model making'.
once ya get past the nose section i'm sure it will all come together .
looks a 'bruiser' of a plane though!.

[cMags]

I've got a copy of this kit too... It does look like a fun build, but I've noticed that some parts (like the right wing, forward cowling piece, and rudder fairing) are cut off in the print. at the bottom of the pages. I'm probably going to scan it in, redraw the missing parts, rescale while I'm at it to my favored 1:72 scale, and now that I'm aware of graphics registration issues, dig into those as well. But The kit does look to be worth the work. Looking forward to more of the build! The more detailed the pics, the better!

[DEATH ANGELS]

Has anyone built a GPM thunderbolt? I have been working with the gunbays and wheelwells was starting a test fit and trying to see where to cut open the top of the wings for gun bay access when I hit a wall. The one and only wing spar cuts right through both the wheelwells and gunbays. The only one per wing rib to shape the wing is also inside the wheelwell area. The now completed fuselage has an inch and a half of spar each side that will have to be cut off and some kind of new hardpoints made. Not quite like the photos of the completed kit. Well none of us expect a Big Mac or Wopper to have more guts than bun. Still fallacious advertising. Was going to also say 'with no instructions' but in the one and only parapraph it could be explained in detail except I dont know any slavic languages, barely know southern american. Kicking a few ideas like a new pair of spars and a set of ribs going around the bays. Will have to be hand made, I have no mad cad skillz. Extra knowledge bumps on the learning curve.

[Zathros]

If you are able to copy and paste the instructions, Google Translate works pretty good. The model looks so excellent! The weathering is definitely an eye catcher. It wood look great as a flying model on a stand. Better in my opinion. Great model and you really put it together nice! You certainly ironed out any imperfections.