Andrea, which P-47 are you trying to model your plane after? Do you have a color scheme picked out?
Later in the war the US did not paint the planes camouflage because air superiority was being established in EU and later in the Pacific. If you know the history of the plane you are modeling then the period of the war will tell you most likely how to detail your plane.
Also, Crew Chief's followed orders to paint planes as the mission or location dictated. In many cases they used any paint they could find and the planes were painted in the field not a nice paint shop.
The factory Zinc paint would not be painted silver most likely because the planes were not painted silver around the tail area. The wings of a Mustang for example are made smooth at the factory and then painted silver but this was done to maximize speed and performance on that plane. P-47's did not have any reason to paint the tail silver for performance.
I think the model looks better when the skin is natural and you can see the Zinc details, it's like seeing into the planes details, like layers.
I suggest you do a little research on the plane your interested in painting your model like and post some pics on here so we can help.
Last edited by Chris Nicastro; 11-05-2017 at 05:33 PM.