I'm in search of scale documentation for the P-47D (bubble), specifically "Eileen" - OD over gray with black & white checkerboard cowl.

Internet searches have yielded only a few photos of 1/48 scale plastic models (good ones), and Bob Banka's catalog doesn't list this particular scheme.

Can anyone point me in the right direction?

Jason:

I looked through the pictures I have and could not find anything on "Eileen." If my memory serves me correctly, Wayne Siewert of Aerotech Models competed in this year's Top Gun with a P-47 finished in this scheme. You might try contacting him to see what documentation he used. I am searching for some sites that has Top Gun pictures to see if I can find one.

G. F. Reid has a couple of pictures of the model on his site: gfoxr.tripod.com/gregshangar/id15.html.

Frank Tiano also has some on his site: www.franktiano.com/tg2002warbirds.htm.

hi jason

i guess i might be too late and you have already found what you are looking for, but just in case....

in eagles of duxford, page 83 there is a black and white picture of Eileen in flight... the text reads...

P-47 WZ-S 42-28878 is 1LT. Frank E. Oilers's "EILEEN" in new dark green upper and sky blue lower paint job. Also note new
squadron rudder markings.

good luck with the cowl, i've done it once, "VICKY" WZ-D 78th 1944, also from Duxford. which is about 15 miles away from were i live in the uk.

you might have seen it in RCSI.

CHEERS

dave

I think I've found a few references already. The plastic scale model guys do some amazing paint work, and usually list their references, and there's a bunch of good sites out there.

As for the cowl, I have no idea how I'm going to do it, but it looks so sharp that I'll have to find a way!!.

k_sonn, THESCALEMAN: Thanks for the help.

Guys, I believe the colors for most of the 78th fighter group were indeed british dark green uppers and the lowers were british "sky type S". The sky is sort of a blue green color. Perfect paints has both colors in their lineup.
Hope this helps,
Evan Q.

hi jason

might be able to give you some help on the chequred cowl, the original was painted white first, then they used thin metal square stencils to do the black, ok this is fine on a large object but not at our scale.

i don't know what scale your 47 is, mine was the yellow aircraft, 80" version. the cowl is a very nice fibre glass moulding.

like the original i painted first the white and allowed to dry. next i drew my horizonal lines using a marking gauge with a pencil glued to the scriber, laying the leading edge of the cowl down onto a flat surface, check the number of squares, as i've found photo's differ, also some have a black square at the very top others have a white! take your pick!

next the cowl has to be fixed to a block so that the other opposite (vertical) lines can be drawn, using the same method.
what i found was, it's very differcult to do the leading edge areas, you might find using thin Tamiya masking tape helps to fit the contours.

each square then has to be masked and painted with black, this can take a few evenings, don't rush it. 6mm Tamiya masking tape is great for this.

i have somewhere at home an e-mail from Gordon Whitehead, also writes for RCSI all on how to do chequered cowls, he wrote it some years ago, i'll try and find it and send it to you.

cheers

dave

JHuisman, I do have about three more photos of the Wayne Seiwert P-47 that I did not include in the TG photos on my website if you're interested. Meanwhile, Aeromaster decals illustrates "Eileen" on the following link. Nothing distinctive about the wings... Except-
Note that this plane, like many of the 56th FG's planes, displayed the stars and bars on the bottoms of both wings. The top only displays one on the right.
http://www.eaglestrikeproductions.co...dclimg=ad48083
I had this display handy because I plan to do "Happy Warrior/Oregon's Britannia" myself..
There's an issue of RCM that features a 1930s AAC observation plane as it's construction feature. I believe the modeler was Noah or Noel Hess(?) Anyway, he goes into great detail about how to accomplish the checkered cowl. Also, Frank Tiano did a feature on how Charlie Chambers did the checkered cowl on his "Contrary Mary" Platt P-51. I could dig both of these up if you need them.

Greg, the articles you are thinking of were by Claude McCulough (sp?) and the aircraft was an A-17 I think. He used some type of black ink pen to lay out the checkers and then painted them in by hand.

Chad, you're exactly right. It was the A-17. I would never have remembered that it was Claude Mac(?) that did it but I remember clearly that he did use ink.
In the Frank Tiano article they used a jig made up from a square with a pencil attached. They stood the Mustang on it's nose, maybe on a Lazy Susan, sans spinner, and rotated the plane with the pencil in contact with the cowl. The square had a ruler along the edge so they could move the pencil up any given distance for the next line.