Good ol' Squirt II has
become a bit of a cliché since Kits-World came
out with the decals for it in various scales. But what
the hell, it's a pretty cool scheme and besides, who doesn't
like a nekkid lady on their model airplane?
The Tamiya kit is very
good indeed, in fact it's the first I've built that actually
lives up to their reputation for fit and finish. After
the difficulties I had with their Skyray
and Mosquito
kits this was a joy to build. The fit of all parts was
darn near perfect and I used virtually no filler, other
than a bit of Mr. Surfacer here and there.
Paint is Testors Model
Master Olive Drab, Humbrol 64 Neutral Grey, Humbrol 14
French Blue, and Model Master acrylic Zinc Chromate Yellow.
Invasion stripes are Tamiya XF-2 Flat White and Humbrol
33 Flat Black, the former also being used for the cowling
and tail ID stripes. I read somewhere that Model Master
Euro Dark Green is a good match for the unique cockpit
green used by Republic and since I happened to have that
paint on hand I used it.
I didn't go too mad with
detailing, the kit really doesn't need much to improve
it. I used an Eduard Zoom set for the cockpit and a few
landing gear bits, added wiring to the engine and brake
lines to the gear legs and replaced the kit canopy with
a Falcon vacform. I replaced the Eduard instrument panel
with one from Yahu Models as they are far superior to
Eduard's pre-painted stuff which I am not a big fan of.
This is the first time
I've used Kits-World decals and I must say I was very
impressed with them. They are thin and beautifully printed
with great register and colour density. A bit of Micro
Set and Sol settled them into the details very nicely.
If I have one very minor nitpick it's the kill marking
under the cockpit which is oddly proportioned; the white
circle around the swastika is too large when compared
to the photos of this aircraft. I didn't have a suitable
replacement so I used it as is. Close examination of the
photos of this aircraft show it to have most, if not all,
of the standard P-47 stencilling. Kits-World only supply
a bit of stencilling so most of it came from the kit decal
sheet. They also missed the wing walkways on their colour
profiles but again, these are visible in photos, at least
on the left side anyway. Presumably they were on both.
Okay, I guess I have three minor nitpicks.
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