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Koster/Monogram 1/48 XP-72


johneaton

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Started on this as a fill in model while others have waiting time. The Koster parts are very good to work with. I followed Bill's directions and sprayed the vac sheets with a good grey primer, then went around the edges with a narrow felt pen. I scored around on the middle of the black line and then put a piece of 220 wet or dry on a glass surface and sanded until things looked right. Since it has been a fill in project I wasn't as good as I should have been about wip photos, but what's not shown is the process of putting together and installing a Black Box/True Details P-47M resin cockpit and Eduard seat belts/instrument panel. I put strips of plastic card in alternating spots on the fuselage halves and glued them together using the Tamiya resin glue in the hexagonal bottle. I am starting to like that glue, though the brush is a bit bigger than I like. There were resin parts for the contra rotating propeller, engine fan, and intercooler below the chin. This airplane was powered with the Pratt and Whitney R-4360 and unlike earlier Thunderbolts it did not have a GE turbocharger. Instead it had a second stage compressor mounted in the back where the turbo was earlier. The compressor was shaft driven from the engine.  It had good altitude performance and reached 490mph during the test program. Only two were built, it was too late in the war to be needed.

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I reinforced the cowl seams with .6 ounce fiberglass adhered with thin CA.

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The wing panel lines were scribed.  The XP-72 had 6 guns arranged differently so gun ports were filled and the barrels modified.  The inner gun port will be re-cut to match the location of the third.

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I backed up the cooling fan with Aves Epoxysculpt, that gave me a lot more time to position the fan correctly.  I tried it with gel super glue the first time, but somehow once it was cured I saw that it had deformed the opening of the cowl and I had to take it back out.  Some careful Dremel work was successful but I hope I don't ever have to do that again.  I put a brass tube in to hold the prop assembly.

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The basic assembly is done and most of the filling and sanding, though there are a few remaining spots to deal with.

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Edited by johneaton
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WOW! I don't remember seeing one of these built, so I'm looking forward to this build. Looking real good!!

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I’m really liking this project John. An old Monogram base kit, a Koster vacuform based conversion kit, and combined they make a rare member of the Jug family.

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Absolutely love it! Koster vacs, especially his conversions like this one, are great fun and also an easy way to get your feet wet in the world of vacs. Looking forward to seeing the end result, but be careful! Your SKILLS are showing!  😉

 

Gil :cool:

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  • 4 weeks later...

Here's the current progress, lots of time fixing seams, rescribing and fixing goofs on scribing, and other various don't want them theres:

 

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Edited by johneaton
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Very nice John!  Not too far from the finish line now.

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Getting closer.  If I was a real modeler I would spend a few more hours on the propellers.  The resin parts were pretty rough, by modern standards.

 

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Thanks, Jim and Rick.

 

Nah, Rick, I'm about two pockets short of the patience a real modeler has🥴

 

Edited by johneaton
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I think it's done now.  Well, not really as I have forgotten the pitot tube.  I guess it had an early air data computer. 

I painted the stainless areas around the cowl flap gills and installed some brass rod for the guns.  The XP-72 was going to have only six 50's instead of the usual 8 and the inner one was located further back in the wing.  Also, if it had gone into production it would probably had the same wing as the P-47N.  The last photo shows it with the ProModeler P-47N.  What a couple of brutes!

 

 

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Impressive! You did a great job of refinishing the surfaces to get a good looking NMF. Excellent example of old school skills and elbow grease. Congrats, and thanks for letting us ride along!

 

Gil :cool:

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VERY nice!!! Well done!!

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