Damon's Demon:

Building the Hasegawa 1/72 P-47D Thunderbolt
Using the 1998 IPMS Decals

by Chris Bucholtz

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Introduction

In my real-life occupation as a journalist, one of the most enjoyable tasks is piecing together information by acting as a sort of detective. I enjoy talking to people, and I often find that asking the right question can yield a tidbit that serves as the keystone to an entire story. Little did I know that this practice would come in handy in my modeling!

When I became the chairman of the 1998 IPMS/USA National Convention and Contest in 1996, I immediately started looking for an interesting topic for the decal sheets. Our goal was not to present esoteric subjects of local interest, but to give modelers a sheet of markings they'd be eager to use but which commercial decal makers were unlikely to embrace. My search for intriguing subjects was in low gear until I stumbled across Damon Rarey's web site dedicated to the art and life of his father, George.

George Rarey

George had been a commercial artist before the war started; when he was drafted, he entered flight school and ended up flying as a member of the 379th Fighter Squadron, 362nd Fighter Group. In addition to being a well-liked figure within the squadron, Rarey continued his artistic pursuits. He kept a sketchbook of daily life in England in the first half of 1944, and he created nose art for many of the planes in the 379th, including even the nose art on group commander Morton Magoffin's P-47D. Rarey worked hard to match the nose art to the personality of the pilot, and the colorful, humorous mascots he devised made him one of the most distinctive and original of the many nose-artists of World War II. He also brought an artist's approach to the task of painting nose art; he made a study of the mascot and the pilot before applying paint to cowling. Rarey flew 62 missions without an abort - escort missions, fighter sweeps and, as the invasion approached, more and more ground attack missions. Shortly after D-Day, while making a strafing run on a German convoy, his plane, 'Damon's Demon,' was hit by a large flak burst and exploded in mid-air, killing him instantly.

His drawings - including 21 studies for nose art - were included among his personal belongings and were sent home to his wife, Betty Lou. The son he never met, Damon, became an artist himself, and keeps these drawings as priceless keepsakes.

Researching the Decal Sheet

Although Damon took a little convincing, he agreed to make his father's art available to us for the decal sheet. The color studies proved invaluable, but they only illustrated a small part of the airplanes; we'd need such mundane information as call letters and serial numbers to do the decals. A flurry of letters to 379th FS veterans brought a half dozen photos from ground crewman John Kotyk which were invaluable, and recollections from the veterans helped piece together information on four P-47s.

The one that eluded us was Rarey's own 'Damon's Demon.' While we knew what the nose art looked like, it took a snapshot of crew chief John Benson posed next to the cockpit to reveal the data block and the serial number: 275465. That meant it was a P-47D-11-RE. We also knew the way Rarey displayed his mission tally, and the fact that the crews' name was presented in a neat block below the canopy. The squadron prefix was also known: B8. What we had left to discover was what the last letter in the code was. This was the key to the entire scheme. Joe Carpenter, a mechanic who succeeded Rarey as the squadron artist, recalled during a phone conversation that Benson was still around, living in Milwaukee, and he provided me with his phone number. A call to the soft-spoken Benson went like most of my research calls had gone.

"I doubt I have anything that can help you, but I can try," he said.
"I only have one question," I said. "What was the call letter on George Rarey's plane?"
"I don't know," Benson said slowly. But after a pause, he blurted out, "B8-B! It was B8-B!"

With that information in hand, the specifications were rushed to AeroMaster decals. In turn, the information was channeled to crack decal graphics artist Jack Morris in Arizona. Jack recruited aviation artist Rocky Gooch in Missouri for some aspects of the sheet. The art finalized, the sheet went to the printers. Gaston Bernal of AeroMaster said the print job was the best he'd ever seen, and when it arrived on my doorstop (in two massive boxes!), I knew my efforts, and those of Gaston, Jack, Rocky and the 379th vets, had paid off. After the event was over, I was eager to put the decals to use. That meant revisiting one of my favorite subjects, the P-47D. While the Academy kit is quite good, I opted for the Hasegawa 1:72 kit. I'd built one about 18 months earlier (and used it to impress Damon Rarey with the seriousness with which we approach the hobby!) and I knew the pitfalls and shortcuts. Armed with the decals, the kit and some aftermarket goodies, I went to work.

The Hasegawa P-47D

The interior of the Hasegawa kit is very poor, but the True Details set for the P-47 is absolutely superb and is engineered with both detail and fit in mind. I airbrushed the cockpit tub and sidewalls with a coat of tire black, followed by an airbrushed application of dark dull green sprayed from the top of the parts down; this created an artificial shadow effect and heightened the already wonderful detail. Using photos in the superb 'P-47 in Detail and Scale' and 'P-47 Walk Around' books, I picked out the many sidewall details with a small brush, then gave the interior a dark wash followed by some light drybrushing. The kickplates on the floor were drybrushed with silver paint to simulate weathering.

The control panel came from an Eduard basic set, and it went under the instrument shroud. With the basic cockpit in place, I was able to put the fuselage halves together in short order. As has been the case with this kit for many years, the fit was very nice. I removed the radio mast at this point, since I was convinced that it would be broken off anyway, and sanded the stub back into the spine.

The area behind the seat needed some dressing up. The True Details set leaves to small, wedge-shaped gaps at either side of the seat attachment points. I addressed this, and the seam on the headrest area, by supergluing a sheet of lead foil to the entire rear bulkhead. The foil was laid over a styrene strip framework and then pressed hard against the bulkhead, leaving a subtle pattern to simulate the armor application in the real P-47. The excess foil was cut away and sanded down, and the area behind the pilot was painted interior green. I made a replacement headrest from styrene strip, painted it burnt sienna and cemented it in place, and fashioned a seat mounting brace from three pieces of stiff wire.

If the kit has a weak spot, it's the wings, which can have serious sink marks just ahead of the flaps on both the top and bottom and on the wingtips. My kit was no exception, though I've seen worse examples; superglue and sanding removed these offending areas with little effort. At this point, I used a Dremel tool to cut back the inner wall of the upper wings. Leaving these in place results in large ribs inside the wheel wells that are completely inaccurate. Once this surgery was done, I joined the wing halves; the engineering of the wings is clever and leaves only the leading edge seam to fill, but it creates a need to be careful while handling the model, since too much pressure in the wing can pop that seam easily.

I added the wings to the fuselage and turned my attention to building up the gear wells. The kit provides detail on the inner walls and some piston detail, but the wheel wells themselves are devoid of detail and are not boxed in. Since I'd built the same kit earlier, I knew the answer to boxing in the irregularly-shaped wells - lead foil. This is malleable enough to conform to the curves of the wheel wells but sturdy enough to maintain a flat surface. I installed pieces larger than the wells to ensure a bond with the superglue, then trimmed the excess and sanded it flush with the exterior skin. Each well received nine ribs, made from styrene strip, and five triangular support members cut from styrene sheet. These additions were easy to make, but their presence enhances the wheel wells greatly. I painted them with Testors yellow zinc chromate and returned my attention to cleaning up the very faint seams around the wing roots.

The horizontal tails were added next, and these went on with a minimum of effort.

The next area was the engine area. The cowling in my kit suffered from a serious set of sink marks around the cowl flaps, so I substituted a cowling from another Hasegawa kit. The engine went right out, since I had an Aires Pratt & Whitney R-2800 early version. This accessory is a kit in itself, with separate cylinders, crankcase, magnetos and distributor; it also has an accessory section (which went unused) and a brass ignition harness. Putting this petite powerplant together was a fun and rewarding diversion from standard kit-building, and once it was together, it was painted black with a dark gray crankcase facing and drybrushed with silver. After the wiring harness was added, I installed 18 tiny pushrods to the front bank of cylinders, using short lengths of stretched black sprue. The finished engine is smaller than a quarter but adds a lot of life to the nose of the model.

The Hasegawa kit's other flaw is the propeller, which is very inaccurate. The newer Academy kit includes both a narrow-bladed 12'2" Curtis-Electric prop and a 13' 7/8" Hamilton Standard prop. I borrowed the Curtis-Electric propeller, but first I turned my attention to the spinner. The Academy spinner is far too long, so I fit the prop hub over a dental bit chucked into my Dremel tool and turned it down to a more appropriate length. In the process of doing this, I broke through the front of the spinner, so I stopped, superglued a chunk of styrene rod into the spinner, and went back at it. When the shortened spinner looked right, the propeller tips were painted yellow and masked, and then the blades were painted with AeroMaster black and shot with two thin applications of Testors Model Master metallizer sealer. This gave the blades a very faint gloss sheen.

The kit engine is mounted on the same piece as the internal cowling scoop. I cut this away and sanded down the area where it set, creating a nice shelf for the engine to rest on. The interior of the cowling was painted yellow zinc chromate, and to simulate oil staining, I soaked a toothbrush in several shades of thinned black and brown and spattered the inside of the cowling.

I set the cowling, engine and propeller aside and turned my attention to the windscreen area. I always try to add the windscreen before painting the model, since it allows me to blend the canopy into the fuselage and eliminate any seam between the fuselage and windscreen. I opted to use a Squadron vacuformed canopy, so my first task was to fill the small hole atop the fuselage designed to accept the windscreen mounting peg. I superglued a piece of styrene rod into the hole and sanded it flush, them painted the area that would be below the windscreen with tire black paint. The windscreen was cut from the carrier film and dipped in Future floor polish.

At this point, I realized I'd need to add the armored glass panel inside the windscreen at this point as well. I tried to make a panel out of plastic rod and clear styrene, but the very small size of this part made that impossible. At about the point when I was ready to give up, I stumbled across a solution: thick plastic. I cut an appropriately-sized squared from a CD jewel case; the thick plastic was crystal clear, but the sides were wide enough to replicate the prominent frames visible through the windscreen! I painted the 'frame' and tacked it into the windscreen at the proper angle and position.

When it was dry, the windscreen/armored glass assembly was tacked in place with white glue, followed by an application of superglue. The white glue and Future both help to prevent fogging from the superglue fumes, and the superglue could be sanded to eliminate the seam between canopy and fuselage.

With this done, I was ready to paint. The scheme for 'Damon's Demon' is deceptively involved. Not only did I airbrush olive drab and neutral gray in the finishing process, but white, red and natural metal as well! I masked the windscreen and filled the cockpit with damp tissue in preparation to paint. I shot the model - including the cowling - with Testors Model Master metallizer buffing aluminum. At this point, the model looked so neat I very briefly contemplated building a natural metal P-47, but I quickly got back on task and painted the tail trim tabs red. These tab colors corresponded to the flights aircraft were assigned to within the 379th; the information for these colors came from a sketch in Rarey's sketchbook that makes note of the flight assignments. I painted the tabs, then masked them. This was followed by the application of white ID bands on the tail surfaces and the front of the cowling. I also painted the panel around the machine guns white; this was another marking unique to the 379th. I have found that it's much easier to paint these accent colors first. If you paint them first, you need only mask off these small areas. If you paint them last, you must mask the entire model EXCEPT for the areas of color trim!

The upper surfaces were airbrushed using Model Master olive drab ANA613, which was doctored with the addition of a few drops of dark blue to give it a slight color shift. This was characteristic of USAAF olive drab aircraft stationed under the cloudy skies of England. It's important to consider the environment your subject served in when doing this type of weathering, especially with a paint that had as many peculiar reactions to weather as American olive drab.

I cut masks from Tamiya masking tape to create a wavy demarcation between upper and lower colors. The wheel wells were masked and I shot neutral gray over the lower surfaces, using the shade in Floquil's late and lamented Military Colors line. This color is quite dark, but matches the shade the USAAF specified; neutral gray was described as half white, half black.

At this point, I started weathering the model in earnest. Using the point of a sharp X-Acto, I chipped and lifted paint, exposing the aluminum undercoat. I started by simulating the wear in the photo of Benson next to the cockpit; this gave me an idea of the degree of chipping. I continued on to the wing leading edges and wing roots and the ammunition bay doors, and other areas. The trailing underside edges of the flaps and the front of the cowling were also given some chipping. I've discovered that panel lines that aren't deep enough can be accented by paint chipping, which then suggests to the observer's eye the presence of a panel line. In any event, the key is to keep it accurate but subtle. I always arm myself with many photographs of real aircraft, and I stop just before I think it's right on.

I sprayed the model with thinned water-based Varathane to provide a glossy surface for the decals. These performed very nicely, and snuggled right down into the panel line detail. I gave the model a second gloss coat of Varathane as a protectant for the decals, then gave the model a wash with dark gray watercolor paint. This effect was fairly subdued, and the paint is forgiving enough to allow you to re-do spots you aren't satisfied with. This was followed by several coats of Testors Dullcote, each thinned heavily with lacquer thinner, until a nearly dead-flat finish was achieved.

The canopy frames on 'Damon's Demon' were natural metal, a fairly common phenomenon among P-47s. The windscreen was covered with Bare Metal Foil and the frames were cut out; this was a rather frustrating exercise, since the narrow bands of foil didn't want to stick once cut. When the frames were completed within reason, I added a bare metal panel to each side of the cockpit per the photos of the airplane. The sliding canopy was masked conventionally and airbrushed, first interior green, then with non-buffing aluminum.

At this point, I realized I should drill out the opening for the machine gun blast tubes. The P-47's guns were aligned parallel to the ground, not aligned with the wing, and the kit barrels had been removed when the wings were assembled. Now, I had to drill new holes properly aligned with the ground. Ideally, this should be done before the plane is painted - especially when the gun areas are painted with jaunty white paint! I started the holes on the right wing with the tip of a #11 blade and drilled the holes; to my amazement, they all aligned perfectly! I tried to repeat this feat on the left wing, but this time ended up with two pairs of staggered holes. The middle holes were filled and sanded down and I re-drilled the gun ports. Then, the now ruined white panels were repainted following the masking of the entire left side of the airplane! Consider it a lesson learned: if you want to replace the guns, do it before painting!

The landing gear in the kit is somewhat cartoonish. The struts are too long, the gear doors are riddled with sink marks, and the wheel covers are just plain wrong. I replaced the wheels with the True Details items, but the struts and gear doors needed extra attention. I trimmed 4mm off each strut to reduce the height, and snipped the pins holding the strut door to a reasonable length. As built, these pins keep the strut cover at least nine inches away from the strut. In reality, the cover is very close to the strut. A length of wire was bent to shape using photos as a guide and affixed to each strut to replicate the brake lines.

I made a new set of gear doors from sheet styrene, cutting out shapes that corresponded to the kit parts and adding a second piece of styrene sheet to replicate the doors' interior structure. The wheels were added to the struts, and the doors were glued to the struts with tiny bits of superglue. Minor adjustments were needed to get the doors' attitudes just right, but the result was well worth the effort.

The Hasegawa kit doesn't come with any centerline mounting points, a major omission. I drilled four small holes in the bottom of the fuselage with a pin vise, using photos and drawings as a guide, and cemented lengths of metal tubing into them, careful to get the angles identical on each. I slipped a length of fine wire into each tube to replicate the sway brace structure of the centerline mount. A larger hole was drilled between the forward pair of braces and a thicker piece of wire was inserted to replicate the take-up plumbing for the tank. Another hole was drilled on the left side of the fuselage for the return hose.

The drop tank came from the Hasegawa kit, and was not a lot of fun to clean up for use on the centerline. I sanded the rather prominent seams by rotating the tank inside a piece of sandpaper rolled into a tube; this ensured the tank would maintain a circular cross section. A hole was drilled for the return hose, which was made from a bit of brass wire. This doubled as a great handle for painting the tank, which was airbrushed with aluminum metallizer.

Installing the tank was somewhat involved. First the return hose was fed into its hole in the fuselage; then, the tank was positioned on the braces and aligned with the fuselage, using tiny amounts of white glue. The take-up hose was next glued to the tank. In all, the centerline tank assembly is comprised of 12 pieces, but it adds a lot to the model.

Next, I added the seat, control column and gunsight from the True Details set to the cockpit. A small piece of cellophane from a decal sheet envelope was white-glued to the sight to provide reflector glass. The early P-47Ds had both a range-finding sight and an old-fashioned ring and bead sight installed side-by-side, so I added a photoetched ring sight from an Eduard P-40 set next to the True Details sight and made a bead from stiff wire, which I glued to the top of the nose.

At this point, I added the engine and cowling to the nose, being careful to keep them aligned with the centerline of the model. I inserted lengths of metal tubing into the machine gun ports, paying careful attention to their alignment as well. The tail wheel and tail gear doors were added to the tail wheel bay, along with two actuators from the door to the tail wheel strut. Actuators were also added to the inner main gear doors.

The wing pylons were also given some improvements. Photos show their most prominent features were the large, inverted V-shaped braces that held weapons or tanks. I shaved the mounting pegs for the kit tanks from the pylons and added a pair of carefully bent bits of styrene strip to each pylon. Once painted, these small details added a great deal to the model. Several small (.080) holes were drilled into the model at this point on the left wingtip, the front of the vertical tail and in the spine behind the cockpit. A photo-etched radio mast was installed into this last hole, and a tiny spring made by wrapping very fine wire around another length of fine wire was inserted into the tail hole. A few threads from a pair of smoke-colored ladies' nylons was superglued to the spring, and when dried, stretched to the top of the antenna mast. Superglue held this end in place and the excess was trimmed, leaving a neat and durable aerial arrangement. The wingtip hole was made to accommodate the pitot tube; I used a bit of small tubing with a slightly longer length of wire though it as the boom and tube assembly. The wire doubled as the pitot head and the attachment point to the model; it slipped inside the pre-drilled hole neatly and prevented any glue build-up where it might mar the appearance of the model.

The final touch was the various lights on the plane. The tail light was sanded flat and the circular area left was painted chrome silver; once dry, I applied a tiny bit of Soba glue, a high quality white glue. The wingtip lights were filed away early in the building process; bits of wire were painted red and green and inserted into holes in these notches, and the entire notch was then filled with small amounts of five-minute epoxy. This produced gave the illusion of a colored bulb in a clear fairing. The below-wing retractable landing light was drilled out and an MV Products lens intended for model railway use took its place. Finally, I drilled out the signal lights on the lower right wing, painted the resulting holes silver, and added drops of Soba glue tinted with red, green and amber food coloring, which dried to leave clear colored lenses in these holes. The final touch was a bit of black pastel added around the guns to simulate smoke staining. With that, my version of 'Damon's Demon' was finished.

Knowing I helped preserve these markings for posterity and for my fellow modelers gives this P-47 a special place in my collection. My thanks to the many people who helped with every step of this model!