This
is the very-nice-for-the-price Academy 1/72 P-47 D Razorback. I’m an
inveterate bargain hunter (or a cheapskate depending on your point of
view) and this kit is definitely a power-shopper’s dream! As
such, I’ve built several of them over the last few years, experimenting
with a variety of building and painting techniques. While the fit is quite
good with excellent molded in surface detail there are a number of glaring
flaws that need to be dealt with on a serious build. Among these are;
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1. a
very basic cockpit with somewhat poor detail and an instrument panel that
sits way too low in the fuselage,
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2. a serious and
very-difficult-to-correct seam/gap in the wheel bays precisely at the wing
roots,
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3. wheelbays themselves are very poorly rendered with the incorrect
structural pattern and no real detail molded in, and
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4. main landing gears
that are far too tall, thus giving the finished model an unrealistically
steep stance.
I
used the excellent (and cheap!) True Details resin cockpit that was
originally designed for the Revell kit; it fit quite well with a bit of
trimming and sanding and was a great improvement over the OOB pit. I also
purchased a set of Aires resin wheel bays specifically designed for this
kit, which require a fair amount of careful trimming and sanding to fit
properly but effectively solve all the major problems with the kit’s
sub-standard wheel bays. Placement can be rather tricky so care must be
taken to position and cement the bays just right. The kit’s landing
gears were simply cut off at the right point (using a pair of gears from a
Tamiya bubbletop as a guide) and the major difficulties were all dealt
with!
Click on
images below to see larger images
As
is my usual standard operating procedure, Polly Scale water-based acrylics
were used to paint everything on this model. Cockpit, wheel bays and
interior gear-bay doors were hand-brush painted with PS US Interior Green.
Polly Scale US Neutral Gray was airbrushed on the underside and PS US
Olive Drab topside. I airbrushed Polly Scale Reefer White (from their
Railroad Colors line) for the cowl. Two coats of PS Clear Gloss were
applied before and after the decals were put in place, and a couple coats
of PS Clear Flat to finish things off. An Eduard Kabuki-tape die-cut mask
was used for the canopy and windscreen.
Markings
on this razorback represent a P-47 C-5 RE; “Wela Kahao” flown by
Captain William Hollander 334th FS in May of 1943. These come
from the excellent Aeromaster sheet, Debden Jugs Part I, which I
highly recommend!
This
was a lot of fun to build; but next time I think I’ll shell out a few
extra bucks and spring for the Tamiya kit—now that’s a bargain!
Jerry
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