This is the brand new 48th scale P-47 Thunderbolt from MiniArt, no aftermarket, no
scratch build... a honest build review of the kit as it comes out of the box. You
will see what was good, where I had issues, how I solved them and what I
honestly hated. Simply said - the ultimate kit review.
Following the instructions, I removed the cockpit parts from the sprues and
cleaned them up.
Right out of the bat I can say that the plastic is on the soft side. Probably
this facilitates the creation of such fine detail. So far i detected a little
bit of flash and Some parts, like the base of the pilot’s seat legs, are
molded out of register which in conjunction with the super tight tolerances
created an issue.
While I was trying to fine tune the bases I broke one of the legs. To fix this
first I glued the bases in the slots on the cockpit floor. Then I drilled
them, and the seat where I will later glue metal rods. Not much of an issue
but be careful when you build yours. This to me is the epitome of detail that
is totally unnecessary. It is never going to be seen so just put a sturdy and
secure attachment and be done with it.
At this point I also glued most cockpit floor details and the forward
bulkhead. For ease of painting I left the control stick out of the
equation.
The side walls are properly well detailed and on top of that we get separate details to glue on. The instruction suggests black color for all of the small extra pieces so technically they can be painted separately and glued in later. I chose to glue all the details paint the walls as a whole
Something I will probably remind you several times throughout the build – dry
fit first and correct if necessary.
Case in point the side wall to cockpit floor assembly is good design but way
too tight so I helped it a little bit with some sanding… not much of an effort
but makes life easier.
And that’s about as good as it gets from injection molding I think.
With so many parts going into small assemblies I like to keep track of what
has been detached from the sprues. Furthermore, in some areas we have options
to choose from, like here on the tail wheel so working with the instructions
helps.
 |
This little thing is a pain to put together but it looks very good once assembled, if you don’t want to deal with it there is an option that has a boot and less parts I believe. |
The main gear bays have more parts than some hobby boss kits in their
entirety. Gluing walls on their own results in a rather flimsy construction
but while the glue was still setting I put this sub assembly in the dedicated
grooves in the top part of the wing. This made the expected difference and was
enough to make things way sturdier. This design requires from the builder to
execute the assembly as close to perfection as possible. Deviations in the
construction can lead to difficulties with the wings assembly and later on
with the gear strut positioning.
The fit in this area is rather good. However, I must remind you that Once
before committing to the glue I did my homework and checked the joints. Some might say that braking the gear bays in so many parts is an overkill. I
would argue that this is a fair price to pay for the amount of surface details
we get in exchange. To my knowledge this is the only way to overcome the
limitations of injection molding.
The one thing I did not like here was the tiny actuator sticking out in harm’s
way… and this will become a theme later on.
The tail wheel well is represented by a single piece shell that fits nicely
into position and it is therefore easy to install.
The airbrush I use for the fine work is the Mobius 0.2 from Gaahleri, get 10% discount of your purchase with code: mmscalemodels on this link here: https://www.gaahleri.com/products/premium-series-ghpm-mobius-0-2mm?ref=mmscalemodels
After a quick layer of black surface primer, I went on to apply the base
colors. For the cockpit my choice fell on MRP’s bronze green. If for some
reason you think this color is not suitable or does not represent the real
color… well feel free to tell me in the comments section. On the gear bays I used a zinc chromate yellow from a gsi creos set of
interior paints. Just like with the cockpit I did not try to paint effects at
this point. Just simple overall paint application with the slight deviation
that I was not forcing paint to ho into all crevices, leaving those a bit
shadier.
Time to start the visual effects application. First off, using citadel abaddon black acrylic paint, very highly diluted in isopropanol I applied forced
shadows. On the sidewalls where I had a lot of details grouped together I
applied this shadow layer more liberally. In this case the details will be
black anyway so if nothing else, those will be easier to paint later on.
The Yellow gear bay details got the same treatment.
Using
light gull gray I lightened the base colors and applied this mix in the
flat areas as highlights. That might seem like a middle finger to those who
spend countless hours looking for the correct colors but it is not.
It is just
a way to make things more interesting and will be toned down with the
weathering to come. Additionally, when the cockpit is closed in the fuselage
it becomes a very dark place so in such scenario high contrast is something I
like.
With the airbrushed forced shadows, I covered most raised details and edges.
To highlight those painted with bronze green I used interior gray-green. I
applied that paler color using a fine brush. On some details I picked out only
the edges while others, with smaller surface area, I covered entirely. This
layer is what allows for the forced shadows layer to make sense.
For the gear bays I made a mix of colors as I did not have anything to use
right out of the bottle.
I gave all a coat of gloss lacquer varnish and left it to cure properly. This
protective coat will make the detail painting much easier and stress
free.
The sidewalls details firs I covered with flat black acrylic paint. With the
clear varnish underneath it was easy to come back and clean up any excess
black paint using a simple toothpick.
After I painted the oxygen hose with olive drab color I abandoned the detail
painting for a while. Instead I applied buff oil paint using the dry brushing
technique. I haven’t tried the new dedicated dry brushing paints but of all
others oil paints are my favorite for this job.

I came back to the detail painting… this time with a silver pencil, of all
things, only to color a few knobs and abandon it again in favor of putting
down several decals. I will talk more extensively about the decals in another
part of this build but for now let’s just say they are made by cartograf.
Some more knobs I painted with red paint and on the fuse box I dry brushed it
which I think gave a good result. I don’t think I would be able to pain that
tiny specs in any other way. To create sharper shadows on the black items I used tamiya’s black panel line accent color. Once it reached its matt finish I used a fine brush damped in white spirit to remove the excess wash.

Using a mixture of starship filth and starship bay sludge oil paints diluted
in white spirit I made my wash for the rest of the painted areas, both in the
cockpit and the gear bays. In some places I tried to be precise and
achieve a pin wash effect while on other places I applied it to full coverage
so it can act as a grime filter in addition to being a wash.
After the application was complete I waited for about half an hour and started
removing the excess using q-tips or a paint brush for the more intricate
spots.
With the wash done I applied yet another clear varnish... this time matt. As you know this surface is perfect to play around with watercolor pencils and that's what I did.

Mainly using light gray and silver I created subtle paint distress and not so subtle bare metal chipping. This was done almost exclusively on the cockpit as yellow does not work well with silver.
The seat got painted and "washed" with the rest of the cockpit. It may not be the most realistic looking seat... in fact it is far from it but it is so colorful and cool looking. At least for me. I also forgot to show you my attempt at the control stick boot. I spent more time on that than the result suggests.
Before I could close the cockpit I applied clear gloss varnish on the instrument faces and then committed to glue everything together. Pretty nice for an OOB build.
Before we know it the fuselage is all buttoned up. Well after gluing in the cockpit, painting, weathering and gluing the compressor and some other small bits and bobs like the antenna.
I also attached the rudder and the engine firewall thing that closes the fuselage from the front. The antenna on the spine I broke almost immediately. I don't like it when I have to attach such details so early in the build.
With the fuselage done I started the engine assembly. As you can see the transfer case has plenty of details on and off of it :)
Next I detached a bunch of parts from the sprues, cleaned them up and got everything ready for primer and paint.
To my knowledge pretty much everything inside the engine cowling is some sort of anodised aluminium so I painted the internal faces with flat aluminium.
The only things that were painted on the real airplanes were the engine braces of which I have only one. The paint was yellow zinc chromate, so thats what I used on the brace along with the gearbay doors.
The gear legs I painted in olive drab, again according my references.
The engine I painted with dark aluminium. On the casing, the transfer case and the wheel rims I applied... damn I forgot... some sea gray. I will leave those to cure and tomorrow will do engine related stuff only because I want to be able to put the assembly on the fuselage.
The engine is ready, washes applied and glued together. Some ignition cables would have been beneficial but let's stick to the OOB format.
Installing the four-piece cowling was relatively easy but I had to remove some material from the yellow brace. Honestly I don't understand the logic behind this design and I would much rather have an one piece cowl. I opted to use the closed cowl flaps because there is nothing but a blank bulkhead behind them.
Installing the engine assembly on the fuselage was pretty straight forward... no issues here. i also assembled the wings together and soon we may have a complete airplane.
Progress was quite quick which allowed me to assemble the entire airframe. Things are going to slow down for a while because I have to take care of the seams and joints left over from the assembly. But as a wise man once said "You win some, lose some, it's all the same to me"
Another major step out of the way. Made myself some masks for the inside and the outside of the windshield using the blade cutting function of the x-tool m1. The canopy I masked in more traditional way using thin strips of masking tape and filled all with larger pieces.
After a coat of primer the windshield is ready to be installed but only after some adjustments. The fit was not that good. Anyhow it is now in position.
Gear bay doors are done.. at least for now... there will be some more but probably after assembly. Same goes for the gear legs. One of the last assemblies to do were the bomb racks. Those will be painted separately from the air frame so now they'll go on a Popsicle stick.
After masking the cockpit I applied 1500 Gray primer on the top of the airplane... will let this cure and will flip around to do the bottom.
After long and boring masking session the invasion stripes are done. Many people will say this is not the way it was done in real life but I don't care... I am not brush painting those. Since I have black primer already diluted for airbrush I chose to use that as the black color.
After that was dry I applied very thin strips of masking tape along the masking covering the white. The instructions show that on the lower surfaces of the horizontal stabilisers the white band is outlined with black so that is my solution.
Using highly diluted (95ish% rapid thinner) insignia white I highlighted in-between the rivet lines. With the same mixture I created some streaking on the propeller.
Before I forget... I need to do the wingtip lights. Kindly enough Miniart provides teardrop shaped divots so I just filled those with clear red and green paints. After a little bit of trimming I glued and masked those off.
Allegedly those airplanes were originally delivered in the UK in NMF. After D-day, in order to be stationed on airfields on the continent, they were painted in camouflage with paints that Brits had available. From what I could find the belly was RAF medium sea gray so thats what I painted on.
For this build I am going to use a technique I used way back when I was building the F6F Hellcat. After a quick and straight application of the base coat I thinned some rubber black and applied it on the panel lines. After that was done I thinned insignia white and applied that over the rivet lines and where there were no rivet lines I highlighted the centers of the panels.
After that was done I applied another coat of the base color, very diluted, to blend things together. right now the effect is visible only under certain angle due to the glossy finish. once I get this surface to a more opaque state it will be more prominent.
The top of the aircraft was painter in the color that the Brits had closest to the US olive drab at the time. This, according to my research, was RAF Dark green. I started the painting with freehand demarcation lines.
They came out pretty nice and the little overspray visible on the images totally disappears if you are not zoomed in so much. Next up I applied the base coat on the rest of the intended surfaces. Here I did not go for the full opacity of the color because it is quite dark and later I will have to be heavier with the postshading which will call for heavier blending layer.
Other than that the inter-shading is done as well as the blending layer. Silly me forgot to check the instructions and I will have to paint the cowl flaps after everything else. Turns out that the checker board decal ends at the flaps.
I also did some sponge applied splatter pre-shading and painted the under body fuel tank in neutral gray... which is intentionally slightly different than the camouflage gray.
After more than 15 hours over 3 days was still not done with the decals... insane amount of them. High quality but still a lot of work. The only things that are ready are a few sub assemblies.
Welp... the decals are done trough and trough. The checker board on the nose was tricky but with some experience, the right tools and the good decal quality I was able to pull it off.. almost.. some touch ups were necessary but that I expected.
Started playing with oils, not necessarily in the weathering aspect but more so in the painting. Using a neutral gray I highlighted one corner of almost all panels and with starship filth I "shadowed" the opposite corner. All this is done to help separate the panels a little bit because I intend to go light with the panel line wash. This approach creates a very interesting combination where highlighted corner may meet non treated part or shadowed corner of other panel. And all possible combinations of having 3 variables creates something that I really like.
Next on the right wing I tried to seal this with a varnish... guess what.. all mostly disappeared. I will say that this was due to the oil paint not being left alone to cure properly but we will see if that holds tomorrow because I redid the lost effects and will let it do its thing overnight.
After the gloss coat i diluted the star ship filth oil paint to a wash consistency with white spirit and applied the wash top and bottom... all over the place. When the surface turned matt I removed the excess with a paper towel.
The final step was to apply an overall coat of semi-mat varnish. I was contemplating weather to use straight flat or this because straight flat will be better for the watercolor pencils but I dod not want to have a dead flat finish as the final appearance of the model. Also I know that most of the pencil weathering will be destroyed if I apply a lacquer semi mat over it so I decided to apply the semi mat and be done with it. I hope the pencils will stick.
Masks are down.. it is nice to have things as they should be instead of covered in tape.
Also watercolor pencils are truly amazing for scuffs and scratches... despite the fact that I don't have the best possible surface underneath them. Mind you, things look much better in person... the close up show things that cannot be seen in real life.
Water color pencil weathering is done. I am not sure weather or not to do dust and dirt effects on the wing roots and cover the chipping.
A little bit of dusting and oiling went down today.
The dust I tried to keep at minimum, just as a hint of environmental weathering, mainly on the wing roots, around the gearbay area and the tail.
Oil streaks and general grime were applied on the belly in addition to the pencil made streaks I did earlier. As it goes with oils now I have to leave them alone to cure.
For some last bits of weathering we have the exhaust and heat stains. All created using Tamiya smoke diluted with rapid thinner. One thing I dislike about this paint is that it is glossy and I find that to be an issue especially where I try to replicate gun stains. So I applied flat varnish almost everywhere except near the exhaust... because oil gets out with the exhaust and that leaves shiny finish.
As you can probably see I tried to be restrained for. This is for a couple of reasons. One - this is kind of the ethos of this build... less is more. And second... unlike big bombers and carrier based aircraft these front line fighters did not see long cruises to leave the white lean mix residue or rather large stains in general... or at least this I imagine.
I also dealt with the recognition lights and the landing light. The lens on the latter had too big diameter to fit and I had to sand it down. inevitably I scratched the clear plastic with the sandpaper so I decided to give it a quick sand down with 3000 sanding sponge and call this a wear effect.
Finally I installed the landing gear. Here it is of a great importance how the gear bays were assembled long time ago. Any deviation from the intended positions of the sidewalls and the top means screwed up geometry. Further more the instructions carry no images that can help with the visualisation of this geometry. So I tried to get the gear legs to be glued in the same way.. so if they are not correct they will at least be the same.
Now I will leave the glue overnight to set properly and will continue with the final assembly.
I guess this is a wrap.
The gear bay doors went on without too much hustle, everything is well thought out and actually made to fit. The rocket launchers, pylons bombs and the fuel tank also took their places without a fight.
The wheels though... for starters when you have weighted wheels its nice to have a register of sorts to show you the correct orientation. With today's cad designed kits I don't think its difficult for the engineers to put such a helper in place. Then there is the fit of the wheels on the shafts... not really confidence inspiring.
The Icing on the cake goes to the tail wheel which is a joke to be honest. Not only that the shaft is way too small but the gear leg is super flimsy.
The propeller assembly design also offers a lot to be desired. The canopy fits with no problems though.
Well, it is a shame that the final bits of the build leave a bit of a bad taste in the mouth. I sincerely hope that Mini Art will watch my review and will take notice because I intend my criticism as a constructive one.
This was a very enjoyable kit to build with great surface details and decent fit and it should not be let down by such small things.
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