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HASEGAWA 1:72 P-47D THUNDERBOLT "Bubbletop"
Current boxart for the kit
Older boxart - allowing you to see both versions
produced by the kit!
Reviewer: Myself
(smakr@bigpond.com)
Kit Review
submitted:
November
1999
The Kit:
Over the years one has come to expect a superior quality kit from Hasegawa, and
this is unlikely to disappoint. There are not a lot of parts to this kit,
just 28 or so in all, in light grey crisp injection mold packaged in
cellophane. There is a separate cellophane package for the decals and
one-piece canopy. All lines on the model are engraved and are accurately
scribed from what I can match up with reference material. The level of
detail is excellent with exhaust outlets and other ducts etc provided.
However, there is ever so minor flash encumbering some parts that require just a
very quick going over with the excel blade, mainly around wing roots. The
first thing I noticed about the kit, is the fiddly work has been taken out of
the modellers hands - cannons, aerial, fin, etc are already molded onto the
aircraft for you.
Instructions:
The usual "Hasegawa strip" is the order of the day, setting
out the assembly steps with painting instructions for individual parts based on
the Gunze Sangyo & Mr Color ranges. Sprue and Four-View markings
diagrams are also provided for the two versions provided for by the kit.
Construction:
There is not a lot to report on - everything goes where it should and fits as snugly
as you would expect. The Cockpit is typically sparse with a crude
seat already molded onto a base going inside the fuselage half, plus an
instrument panel and decal for the only interior detail. You are also
provided with a pilot figure, so I spruced mine up for an in-flight model.
The fuselage halves went together perfectly, with the assistance of the usual
pegs and rubber bands for insurance.
The engine is then assembled and consists of a main cylinder block being affixed to the backing plate with further raised block detail and splitter plate. This is then painted polished metal and placed inside the cowling which was painted black inside. The huge four-blade propeller and it's little spinner are already molded so it is just a matter of feeding through the shaft to assemble this part of the project. This all looks good from front on, but be wary of the engine-in-cowling step because although it goes in a certain way, the smallest lean to one side could be noticed through the front and make the interior look off-centre.
The main wings are split into four halves - upper/lower and left/right. As already mentioned the cannons are molded onto the wing, as is the pitot tube and pylons so it's just a matter of slapping the wing halves together and attaching them to the aircraft. As was the deal with the tailplanes, affixing to the fuselage was an easy task, the engineering of the kit allows you to be pretty precise in positioning without too much effort. A dab of hobby glue was still needed to plug up very small gaps along the root sections of both. The cockpit was also put on in this step, and includes the internal 'mechanism' that allows the canopy to slide back when open. Of course, if you wish to display an open canopy you will need to cut this from the windscreen frame. The mechanism is not very adequately covered in the instructions on exact positioning, but as far as I could tell from the mainstream reference library I have (most of which is centred around the "Razorback" model) this is placed immediately behind the cockpit seat. Some minor trimming was required to fit properly and I should also point out that the Canopy itself required exact placement as well for the way it can be handled could easily misalign it if you are not watching what you are doing.
Undercarriage is a quick and easy affair aside from the fact that the gear doors need to be cut - they are clearly marked for where you should cut them and with an appropriate #11 blade this would be an easy task. The wheels are not weighted and are simply added to the main gear struts. The wheel wells have acceptable plumbing detail in them, but the tail-wheel bay is rather sparse. Building wheels up also proved to be fairly painless as the gear doors fitted nicely, aside from another few dabs of hobby glue for small gaps.
The engine cowling was then affixed to the nose of the aircraft, and like the engine block inside, only really goes on the aircraft one way. This is easy to work out, but like pointed out above with the interior, make sure you attach it correctly as the smallest margin for error either way would result in an off-centre looking cowling! The resulting collar appears acceptably accurate when measured against reference material. For stores you can chose between either bombs or drop tanks on the single pylon under each wing. Since the pylons were already molded onto the aircraft, you don't have the option of displaying a cleanly configured Thunderbolt. I chose the bombs as my options (although the version I chose to replicate should really have had the tanks added) and painted them in olive drab.
Versions/Decals:
Two examples are afforded by the kit with suitably excellent registered decals
supplied and markings instructions. The first is an overall Olive Drab
with Neutral Grey undersides of the 57th FG, 65th Fighter Sqn, Italy 1944, and
yellow/tan (decal) ident stripes on the upper and lower surfaces of the
wings/tailplanes. The second version which I chose is finished in overall
natural metal, with yellow/orange cowling containing black around the collar and
anti glare panel plus olive drab spine from cowling to fin. This is Major
GT Eagleston's aircraft from 345th Fighter Group, 353rd Fighter Squadron, based
in France 1945. His aircraft was also emblazoned with the infamous flying
skull and crossbones, a golden eagle, blue/black ident stripes, his 39 kills
marked below his cockpit and of
course invasion stripes.
The invasion stripes are only for the fuselage, and are split into a number of pieces, and this is to allow you to put the components over and around the exhaust outlets, however, I would suggest trimming the carrier film so the decal is flush with the edges. This is a bit of a jigsaw process, following the right decal placement according to the numbered instructions, naturally allow one to set before applying the next so they don't all move around. The decals go on quite well, however, be wary of the insignia, a portion of the black invasion stripe can be seen through the bottom point of the white star when the USAF insignia is placed over the fuselage. I also found there was some imperfection in the colouring of the white on the insignia.
Accuracy:
You can't really fault it much for accuracy, it is almost spot on in dimensions
and is as good as you are going to get in replication in this scale. This
is a robust model with enough detail to satisfy the avid "Jug" fan and
very acceptable in this scale. While another reviewer on this site boasts
the Academy kit (see link below) as the better of the two, I am certainly very
happy with Hasegawa's offering.
Overall:
Highly recommended! You can't really fault the kit. It builds very
quickly, the type of kit you could build plenty of if you wanted to 'churn out a
production line of P-47D's'!! With many of the smaller fiddly components
already molded onto the model it makes the project all the more quicker.
This is an excellent rendition of one of the most robust and successful fighters
of WW2 and would suit all modelling skills.
Related Reviews:-
Revell 1/72 P-47M Thunderbolt [revised 99' tooling]
Related INBOX Reviews:-
Revell 1/72 P-47M Thunderbolt [revised 99' tooling]
Revell 1/72 P-47M Thunderbolt ['99 tooling]
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Photo Credit: Dave Stewart - taken from
alt.binaries.scale newsgroup
An example of a P-47D in natural metal finish, invasion stripes (note the model only has stripes on the fuselage) and the ident stripe which can be seen on the fin and tailplane.
