HELLER 1:72 REPUBLIC P-47N THUNDERBOLT

 

Reviewer: Peter Kwong  (rec.models.scale)
Kit Review submitted:  29 July 2002
Photos by Dan Lee/Peter Kwong

Kit Info


More recent boxtop of the same kit

History

The P-47 had been a big hit in the European theatre, especially once they had enough fuel to fly the long distances. Over in the Pacific theatre, the long stretches of ocean between the airbase and the targets posed a problem for the still limited range of the P-47s. The P-47N solved this problem with a much larger wing giving an additional 22 square feet of wing area to hold 570 gallons of internal fuel. The easily discernable physical characteristics of the P-47N were that the landing gear bay was moved further away from the fuselage and the wing tips were blunt rather than tapered. Despite its increased size, it was the second fastest of all production variants, capable of 470 miles per hour at 32,000 feet.

All P-47Ns saw combat service in WW II in the pacific operating with the 318th, 413th, 414th and 507th Fighter Groups operating out of Ie Shima. A total of 1,816 P-47Ns were built. Some P-47Ns served post-war with a few fighter groups.


© Dan Lee/Peter Kwong 2002

The Kit

This 1970s kit is the only injection molded P-47N available that I know of. Although the box art is extremely, I was extremely disappointed when I opened the box after seeing what Heller was capable of with their F-86 Sabre kit.

Inside are 45 parts molded in silver styrene. The panel line detailing is made up mainly of raised lines and lines of raised rivets that would make an armoured vehicle model kit proud. The engine, landing gear, wheels and tires are quite simplified. The kit does come with a fairly complete cockpit, however: pilot, seat, floor boards, control stick, fictitious instrument panel with a notch for the gunsight (but no gunsight is provided) and even decent rudder pedals. The propeller blades look warped, however. Bombs and rockets are provided, with the respective racks molded onto the bottom of the wings.

Inaccuracies include inverted airfoil shape (flat on top, curved on the bottom), location of the wheel wells too close to the fuselage, incorrect shape of the engine reduction gear box and warped looking propeller blades.

The instruction sheet is typical of Heller for that era – single sheet with one exploded diagram and written in French with translation to several other languages on the back of the sheet. Names of all the parts and the part numbers are listed in all the languages.

The decals have a slight yellowing of the white areas and the national insignias appear a bit small. The markings are for the yellow tailed aircraft #127 of the 463 FS based at Ie Shima. One blue triangle is provided for the left horizontal tail plane but this triangle appears small when compared to that seen in a photo of a P-47N taken from above the plane. Painting instruction does not call for a yellow band around the wings where the guns are the aforementioned photo showed a yellow band.

Construction

To start, the interior was painted Gunze interior green and assembled together. The fit of the instrument panel to the floorboard and the fit of this whole assembly into the fuselage sides are a bit vague. You’ll have to fiddle with the fit of this subassembly before final gluing.

The engine was painted Humbrol flat black and highlighted using a white colouring pencil. If installed as is, the engine crankcase will protrude out of the engine cowling so you must sand the engine firewall from the back until crankcase remains inside the cowling.

The fuselage halves are then joined, trapping the engine and the cockpit. The fit is quite good and required only sanding along the joint line. I thinned out the intercooler doors on both sides of the rear fuselage halves to improve the looks. The upper and lower wing halves for the left and right wings are then cemented together. Some filler was used to make the seam line (which corresponds to the aileron and flaps) less noticeable. The wing leading edge seam needs to be sanded which poses a problem around where the gun barrels are. To get at the seam lines at the leading edge, you really need to chop off the guns, which is just as well since they are not aligned parallel to the ground and the molding doesn’t look very nice. I drilled out the gun barrels but did not try to position them parallel to the ground. I had to replace 2 of the gun barrels (lost them) with the spine antennas that Heller provides (yep, they were round like gun barrels and of the right diameter!). A good magnifying glass would have been very helpful when drilling out the 8 barrels!

The wings have a tab which fit into a slot in the fuselage, but the fit is a bit loose. You will have to approximate the wing dihedral. Some filler is needed to blend the joint line once the wings are attached securely. The tail planes and wings were then glued to the fuselage and again the fit was pretty good. With the basic airframe in place, it was time to paint.


© Dan Lee/Peter Kwong 2002

Painting and Markings

The airframe was brushed with Tamiya flat aluminium as this colour can be brushed quite easily without leaving brush marks, but requires several coats to cover properly. Next the yellow tail areas were masked off and Model Master acrylic flat insignia white (the old formula) was airbrushed as an undercoat for the Tamiya flat yellow. Paint seepage under the tape was touched up using a fine brush.

The anti-glare panel was masked off and sprayed Gunze olive drab. After completing the model, I realized my anti-glare panel was not correctly shaped. The width of the panel should be basically the same from the front of the cowling to the windscreen, whereas mine tapered towards the cowling. The instruction sheet did not indicate a yellow band needed to be painted on the wings so I didn’t paint the band, although I suspect there should be one (based on a photo of an unidentified P-47N from the same squadron).

The propellers were brushed with black while the tips were sprayed insignia white followed by flat yellow. The interior of the wheel wells and gear doors were painted interior green. With the anti-glare panel masked off, the plane was then sprayed with unthinned Future in preparation for the decals.

I didn’t notice the whites in the decal had yellowed slightly until I compared the insignias with another set. If I had known, I would have tried to bleach it out with sunlight before using them. That aside, the decals went on without any problems. Decalset was used to soften them to make them conform to the raised surface details. The triangles seem undersized in comparison to pictures. Once all the decals were on, more Future was sprayed to seal the decals.

For the fuselage insignia, I cut the part of the insignia that goes over the intercooler doors so that part of it folds into the fuselage. Then I cut a section from a spare insignia and placed it on the outside of the doors.

Final Assembly

The landing gears and main gear doors were glued on next. The fit of the gears is very loose so you’ll have to guesstimate the proper sit of the plane. The smaller gear door was attached first with Aleene’s tacky glue, but because it moved too much, I finally slathered some gap filling superglue to make it really stick. The upper rear fuselage antennas were replaced (recall I used the kit supplied poles for my gun barrels) with ones cut from sheet plastic and glued to the fuselage using tacky glue. They look much, much better than the original poles. There should be antenna wires but at this point, I decided to omit it and just get it finished.

The propeller, pitot tube (replaced with stretched sprue shaped to a point) and canopy were attached next with tacky glue. The canopy is too wide for the fuselage so you will see a gap between the clear part and the fuselage sides if you look from below. I left the plane in a clean, glossy finish because it just looked so nice like that, even though it is not realistic, considering the hot, dusty, coral environment where the P-47N operated.


© Dan Lee/Peter Kwong 2002

Conclusions

From 4 feet away, my P-47N looks like a clipped wing –N Thunderbolt. Replacing the antennas, drilling out the gun barrels, thinning the side exhaust ports on both sides of the rear fuselage really enhances the appearance while the shiny yellow tail makes it standout in the shelf of shame.  Adding gear door retracting arms would be another a simple thing to do to further improve the appearance. The incorrect wing airfoil shape is not noticeable unless one looks for it. The warped looking propeller blades, however, stand out even from a distance. Overall, I would have to say the best part about this kit is the box art. This kit is definitely not one of Heller’s better efforts.

There are 2 after-market decal sheets available from Superscale but it really would be a waste of a good decal sheet using it on this kit. If you don’t already have this kit, hold on to your $, or else get the 1/48th scale ProModeler or Academy P-47N kits. If you want it in 1/72, there is always hope that a company like Revell of Germany, SIGA, Sword or MPM does one.

References

 

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