MPM 1/72 Republic XP-47H

MPM 1:72 REPUBLIC XP-47H THUNDERBOLT

Reviewer: Mark B (SMAKR Webmaster) (smakr1@optusnet.com.au)
Kit Built + Review Submitted: October 2009

Kit Details:

MPM #72017 1/72 -- REPUBLIC XP-47 H

Aircraft History:

Over 15,5000 P47s were manufactured, of which over 12,5000 were P-47Ds. The two XP-47Hs were simply P47D engine test beds for the Chrysler X1V-2220-1 inverted V16 engine. The two aircraft, 23297 and 23298, modified to take this engine that included a General Electric CH5 turbo supercharger in the rear fuselage and a 13ft four blade propeller. No armament was fitted and due to the problems with the engine the aircraft didn’t fly until July 1945. By this time the war was over and everyone was more interested in jet engines and so no further development was carried out.

The Kit:

This is an early MPM kit [as denoted by the kit number] which surprised me as I thought this kit came out much later, and although I can't find any reference to it, I had also thought it was released in an "enhanced" version with an etched fret and acetate film for decal but I may be wrong. This would improve on the minimal amount of parts found in this kit, which totals less than 35 including the vacform canopy. There is one sprue of dark "mission" brown limited run parts bagged separately from the decals and canopy. The parts have engraved panel lines and restrained surface detail and show all the shortcomings of limited run parts, including very thin flash around the edges. The most notable trait is the massive sprue gates where they seem to be well integrated into the parts themselves which will require delicate and almost surgical like removal from the sprue. MPM later kits are much better, they have come a long way, but this early offering clearly shows all the short run challenges of the build ahead.

Instructions:

My rather yellowed [with age] instruction sheet is simply a photocopied A3 sized sheet folded to make an A4 booklet, and generally covered in English, Czech and German. A brief history with specs on page one is followed by a supposedly 1/72 scale planform (side, top and front views), then comes a page split between a sprue map with numbered parts and the one assembly drawing [which shouldn't present too many problems for those who have tackled short run kits before] and finally two-view [top and port side] color/marking information for the two aircraft on the back page. The only painting information provided is on the back page for markings and quotes the USAF national numbers (eg: Neutral Grey 43; ANA numbers, etc).

Construction:

It has been some time since I tackled a limited run kit, particularly one very short run such as this one - thanks mainly to the move to country life and the inability to set up a permanent [even semi-permanent!] home to do my modelling; meaning mainstream kits have had to be worked on in case they needed to be put away for a while. And I was looking forward to getting my teeth into this one, but was also daunted by the job ahead of me. The sprue gates as mentioned are large and it can take quite some time to carefully remove the parts from the sprue, clean up the excess of the "gate" left behind, slice off any small bits of flash (without gouging the plastic) and then sanding down all the mating surfaces and edges, to ensure a flush fit, as there are no alignment tabs or locating pins in this kit. Ejector pin stubs were also removed from various interior side parts because these will only hamper construction later. There is also the need to really study the instructions. Because there is only one assembly step you want to make sure you scrutinise it carefully, lest you put together the fuselage halves, only to find something has been missed within!

The cockpit is very basic, just clumps of plastic to make up the floor, rear bulkhead, bucket seat, control stick and instrument panel (the latter having a decal supplied). Experience with many limited run kits in the past had me test fit the bulkhead inside the fuselage and then the floor, using masking tape to temporarily fit into place (so I can make sure everything fitted as it should) before they were glued into place. Too many times I have been caught out by larger width parts than cockpits, especially when there are no guidelines or assistance from the plastic to tell you where to affix stuff. Once I was happy, I glued the bulkhead into the fuselage half and then the floor and left to dry test fitting the other fuselage over it, and surprised to find a pretty good fit. This also meant that the Interior Green painting and assembly of the fuselage parts had to be done inside the fuselage half (rather than a separate cockpit sub assembly if that makes sense). The seat and control column were added later along with the instrument panel, all having their mating surfaces sanded to aid in adhesion. I've long held the theory that Humbrol tube glue works best with short run MPM kits for some reason.

I spotted that the undernose intake radiator needed to be installed inside the fuselage and this was such a pig of a fit, I started to see if it installed on the outside. Like the cockpit above, positioning and test fitting first but in this case a fair bit of trimming was needed before it would fit adequately. Having carefully done all the test fitting, the fuselage halves were closed together, and without alignment pins they need to be lined up very carefully particularly knowing the underside intake was to come, but otherwise fit well. Afterwards the join lines needed sanding down.

The main wings are upper and lower halves, needing very delicate removal from the sprue and then their inner surfaces cleaned of ejector pin stubs and sanded. They then go together quite well but are a bit thick at both the leading and trailing edges. Both the wing root and fuselage mating surfaces were given a vigorous sanding before the wings were carefully affixed and manoeuvred into position. While a reasonable fit, there is no escaping a small step nor the joins needing a thorough sanding down to blend it into the fuselage. The tailplanes, again sanding the respective mating surfaces, fit quite well after carefully lining them up and allowing them to dry in the correct position overnight. On an accuracy note with the main wings, there is no port wing tip pitot tube supplied nor discussed in the instructions so one has to be fabricated from scratch.

For wheels up modelling the gear doors are not a great fit, but with continual test fitting and trimming it is not too hard to achieve one. The propeller comes in one piece, already attached to the spinner, which is glued onto another round part which I will call the spinner back. These were sub assembled and painted prior to attaching onto the model. A round base is affixed to the front of the nose, but the latter requires a fair bit of opening up before the base can be affixed into place. It has a hole which the propeller sub assembly goes into, which also needs enlarging to fit. None of this was difficult, but is a typical short run trait.

Finally the vacform canopy, of which only one is supplied in the kit, had to be cut from its base carefully and affixed into place on the model. I really did not like this at all, while I got a reasonable fit, it took a lot of patience and steady hands cutting around the hard to see frames to get the result I wanted. It's been quite some time since I used a vacform canopy and I certainly don't mind if I don't have to use one again for a while!

Colour Schemes:

The two XP-47H experimental/demonstration aircraft are catered for in the kit finished in an upper Olive over Neutral Grey undersides. As already mentioned in other reviews, the instructions and boxart have different and conflicting versions of demarcation lines and the only real way is to an internet based search for photos (eg: National USAF Museum or World Aircraft Information Files sheet 242/04). Neither instructions nor boxart are quite accurate for the demarcation lines of either aircraft and the one I chose to replicate "223297" has a straight line forward of the wing and sharp wavy patterns rear fuselage. The instructions say spinner is to be half black/white, the picture I have of this aircraft with props turning just indicates a white or light coloured spinner.

In terms of painting, Olive Drab 41 (roughly translated to Humbrol 155) is quoted but my resources indicate this colour was changed to Olive Drab ANA 613 after 1943. If you want to be technical and you know your colours then you can try Tamiya's XF:62 which I understand is the right shade. Who cares, I still went with Humbrol 155!

Neutral Grey (FS 36173) is an enigma colour because no one, so far as I know, does it as one paint in their range, you usually have to mix up a concoction! I've learned to just accept that equal parts of Humbrol 106 Ocean Grey and Humbrol 34 Matt White is pretty close, and good enough for me! This colour has always been a bit of a bugbear of mine, not being able to pick a paint tin up and apply it to the aircraft.

Decals:

The main sheet is very small containing only a serial number, not used for this kit (presume it is a XP-47 prototype from another MPM release), and USAF roundels. A small extra sheet contains the two correct serial numbers for this kit, so there certainly is not much to put on. Early MPM kits are notorious for hard to work with propagteam decals but this sheet was produced by Techmod, so with a bit of care, I found it absolutely superb to use. The decals bedded down very well on a gloss surface with Gunze Sangyo setting solution, so I was pleasantly surprised. The decalling took all of about 10 minutes because there are so few decals to put on so you may want to research the various photos and decide whether you want to add your own small stencils and badges.

Accuracy:

The basic outline and shape is pretty good, although I thought if anything perhaps a bit fat in the forward fuselage area giving it a blocky look rather than a sleek look. The measurements are pretty close, well within acceptable limits, for what is discussed in the instructions. The only real missing part I can see is the pitot tube on the port wing. Other than that it does lack that detail you like to see on models (vents, panel mesh etc).

Overall Recommendation:

If you approach this project with the mindset that it is a limited run kit and you need to test fit and have a bit of patience then you should find this kit fairly straightforward, especially with a few other limited run kits under your belt. The only real let down for this kit is that it lacks that oomph as a replica, with virtually no detail really visible under a couple of coats of paint and no cut outs for vents, exhausts etc you often find in mainstream kits. Having said that, I really enjoyed this project, I felt like I had built something and it really was a pretty straightforward limited run project. Since there is no other game in town, you have to recommend this kit but not for beginners!

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