The Aircraft

What else is there to say about the ubiquitous P-47D “Jug” Thunderbolt?

Preamble

Having previously seen these kits “in the plastic” at a recent club meeting as part of an industry roundup by a representative of JB Wholesalers, I was looking forward to the release of this range of kits to the local hobby shops.

Hobby Boss have arrived on the market with a fantastic range of easy build kits designed for younger modellers and older modellers wishing to use their extensive decal sheets on quick builds. To suit junior modellers, the kit can be built with model glue or as a snap tite kit.

I purchased this kit along with a Corsair and a MiG-3 as soon as they arrived in the shop just before the rush began and they all walked out the door!.

The Kit

Unlike the traditional method of sprues, instruction sheet and decals revealing themselves upon opening the box, Hobby Boss have secured the parts into a plastic tray. The fuselage and wings are one piece castings with fine and sharp recessed panel lines the order of the day.

Cockpit detail is simple, with the tub moulded into the one piece fuselage. There is no instrument panel detail, or a decal provided on the decal sheet. I would have to source an instrument panel decal from one of my old Microscale P-47D sheets.

So what really is in the box? Parts count is minimum, with the one piece fuselage, one piece wings, canopy and two small sprues with the remainder of the parts completing the plastic contents. Hobby Boss offer options of uncuffed/cuffed propellers, underwing drop tanks or bombs. The major parts, being the fuselage and wings, only needed a scrape with a hobby knife to remove mould part lines.

Two decal options are provided, along with an instruction sheet with painting instructions for two aircraft printed on glossy and colourful instruction sheet.

Construction

Surprisingly construction started with the cockpit, with sidewalls, seat and tub painted Aeromaster US interior green. The supplied seat was only a basic representation of the real seat, but with the addition of Tamiya tape strips to represent harnesses, was more than adequate, especially as it was only going to be seen under the closed canopy. The blank wall of plastic that represented the instrument panel was painted flat black and Futured in preparation for a instrument panel decal, culled from a Microscale P-47D sheet. Once the decal was on and some dry brushing added, the cockpit looked perfectly adequate.

The one piece fuselage was then offered up to the wings. I found it easier to remove the locating (snap tite) pins and then glue the wings to the fuselage. The result was very good indeed, with only a small amount of liquid paper needed to remove the join line.

Thus in less than 2 hours I had a model kit almost ready for painting

It was then a simple matter to paint the radial engine with Vallejo flat black, dry brushed with Citadel Boltgun Metal. The engine gear housing was painted with Aeromaster Neutral Grey and then treated with a black wash. Once dry the engine was added to the front of the fuselage and the cowling added. This was a tight fit but snapped into place quite well with no trimming required.

The remainder of assembly proceeded smoothly and rather quickly, with only moderate amounts of filler required to smooth out the horizontal stabilizer joins. The moderately detailed wheel wells were also painted Aeromaster cockpit green and treated to a grime wash.

At this point I cleaned up, polished and masked the canopy. Due to the snap type nature of the kit, the pre masked canopy needed a little persuasion to sit neatly once in place. However a drop of CA solved the problem followed by a quick application of white glue, with excess wiped away with a wet mk1 finger, smoothed out any remaining gaps.

Painting and Decaling

Now that construction was finished I could settle down to painting. I decided to use a spray can of Tamiya AS-12 BMF as it lays down thin and smooth and can be masked over very well.

While the fuselage was set aside to cure, I turned my attention to the underwing stores, consisting of three drop tanks which clipped neatly into their respective underwing pylons. These were assembled, cleaned up and sprayed with AS-12. I then gave them a quick buffing with SnJ powder.

Once the fuselage had dried, I masked the antiglare panel with Tamiya tape and applied several thinned coats of Vallejo flat black. It was at this point that I grew a little concerned about the instruction sheets accuracy. A flurry of last minute research confirmed that the black was in fact supposed to be Olive Drab. It was too late to change the black, so I left well alone.

Got to show that you should never, ever take the instructions to be 100% correct. Why do I need to be reminded of this….again?

I painted the red nose cowling panels and wing flashes using thinned Citadel Blood Red. I cannot recommend Vallejo and Citadel acrylics enough. Once thinned with distilled water, they brush paint with out leaving brush marks. Highly recommended.

The kit decals performed flawlessly, being thin, dense and in register. They did however have an annoying ability to fold on themselves which necessitated careful remedial work but settled beautifully without solution being needed.

Finishing Touches

Minor detail painting followed as well as the attachment of the drop tanks, undercarriage and undercarriage doors.

I did attempt to apply a thin wash through the panel lines, but was unsuccessful due to the shallow nature of the recessed details as well as the cumulative affect of primer and paint. I will though, attempt to use a sharp 6B pencil at a later stage.

Suddenly, and only after 26 hours of construction time spread over a couple of months, the P-47D was finished.

Overall

The end result? Looks like a P-47D and if I wanted to build an accurate one, then the Revell 1:72 P-47D is sitting in my stash for just that purpose. This was a fun build with no real vices. Perfect for time challenged modellers and kids.

Note that the finishing and decal placement instructions can be a little vague and also possibly inaccurate, but for a more experienced modeller building this kit, then aftermarket decals are the way forward.

If you can get hold of this kit, grab it and enjoy the build. Recommended!

References

World Aircraft Files
P-47D Thunderbolt in Action
Internet

Don’t you love digital photography? I realised after the pictures were taken that the undercarriage doors needed some “touch ups”…oops….

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