"Chautauqua" was a P-47N assigned to the 463rd FS of the 507th FG on Ie Shima in mid-June of 1945.  The model is an Academy P-47N built mostly out of the box.  Since much of the taxiway and parking apron areas on Ie Shima were made of crushed and oil-soaked volcanic sand, this model is depicted in a rather heavily weathered condition as it would have  sustained considerable chipping and fading in this environment.  The aircraft is sitting on an oval pine wood plaque from an art supply store and it covered with actual fine sand tinted with dry pigment.  It is made to appear as it was in mid-Jun 1945 with two kills.  Weathering consists of pastel dust, considerable paint chipping, slight fading, and a couple small dents.  The only modifications were thin tubing for the gun blast tubes, a resin Meteor Productions cockpit, and "3-Guys" decal sheet.  I took the picture in the thumbnail on the main page at the 1997 IPMS Nationals in Columbus OH.  The pictures below were all taken in my back yard in Oct 2004.  You can see that, while I was dusting the model with a soft paintbrush, the bomb and one drop tank came off and are lying next to the model