1/48 Academy Republic P-47D-25 Thunderbolt - 84th Fighter Squadron 78th Fighter Group 1944

 

Depicted as an aircraft flown by the 84th Fighter Squadron 78th Fighter Group England Autumn 1944.

I've always loved the P-47D, a big beautiful beast of a plane, Sadly and wrongly underrated when compared to the P-51D. IMHO the P-47D Bubbletop just looks cooler. The Thunderbolt destroyed more aircraft in air to air combat than the P-51D and despite it's size was very manoeuvrable.  But it's forte was ground attack, and along with the Hawker Typhoon it rates as may favourite single seater of WW2.

The Build

This kit is fairly good, although I had some trouble with the Decals (more on that later). Also the joints between the wing and fuselage on the underside were huge and required allot of filler. Still I paid $15 for this kit so I can't complain. 

I used a true details cockpit for this build.

I choose the unusual scheme of RAF dark Green and Sky. I had a picture of a 84 th Fighter squadron aircraft in a book that mention they were in this scheme.

As usual I agonized over the paints and ended up using Humbrol Enamels (149 for the green) and 64 for the underside. 

The Decals

I used the kit decals but completely screwed up the checkerboard decal on the nose, so much so that it was not salvageable . After much swearing and many attempts to paint the checks I put out a request on the Fine Scale Modelling Forums. A guy (thanks Daniel) replied saying that he would send me the decals for the kit. After e-mailing him my postal address we discover he lives 5 minutes away from me. Small world, anyway he also provided me with some valuable modelling tips when he dropped around. 

The kit was dusted in Tamiya smoke and a final coat of Gunze Flat clear and I'm pretty happy with the final result.

The Photos

Now it's been added to my Collection of WW 2 aircraft, which is slowly taking up all the spare shelf space in the house.