1/48 Revell-Monogram P47-D

Thunderbolt

by Andrew Wood

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The Kit

The kit is a Revell-Monogram P-47D Thunderbolt “Razorback". It is very nicely detailed, comes with 2 types of decals and includes 500lb bombs and bazooka rocket launches. It can be modeled as Pt Capt Charles Mohrle’s “Touch of Texas” or as Pt Major Herschel H Green flying in Italy, I chose to model Green’s machine.

History

The thunderbolt was made by the Republic Aircraft Company and came into service in January 1943.It was huge and housed a massive R-2800 Part & Witney radial engine which was the most powerful engine of its time. With 15,683 being built it was to be the largest ever production run for a US fighter in history. With a top speed of 429 m/ph and 8 .50-calibre machine guns it was the fastest and most heavily armed fighter at that time, it could also carry 500lb bombs and rockets, its performance and acceleration where not quite up to standards. Designed for escort bomber raids into Germany, it didn’t despite its large fuel capacity, have the range to escort the bombers all the way to Germany and back, but still escorted bombers and turned back and meet the bombers their return. The thunderbolt served in Europe, Italy and the Pacific theatres in many roles from intercepting aircraft to machine gunning ships.

Instructions

The kit came with a 4 page instructions with pictures, history and references. Showing what the plane looks like.

Construction of the Kit

The kit fitted together well and I only need to fill in a couple of areas. The cockpit was very nicely detailed and so was the instrument panel. I painted the cockpit interior green and the instrument panel black, then I dry brushed the details black and the instrument panel silver. The pilots armour was the same as the cockpit with a black headrest. Putting the fuselage halves together was no problem, everything fitting perfectly. After sanding, I went on to the wings, there was a bit of trouble when putting them together because the guns were off to the holes but I managed to fix it by sanding the holes out then gluing the wings together then filled it. Because it isn’t a low wing plane the wings were in 2 pieces instead of the 1,so I had to set the dihedral, but when I went to put the wings in, the top of the wing wasn’t at an angle for the dihedral's I had to sand it to the dihedral, something Revell-Monogram will have to fix. After the wings were set it I stuck the horizontal stabilizers, I almost didn’t have to set the angle right it was so precise. Now to the cowling and the engine. The engine piece was very finely detailed and looked good, I painted the cylinders and rods black and the middle section gray and the the inside of the cowling chromate yellow and a band around the front red. The prop was panted with a red spinner and the normal black and yellow tipped blades. Sticking on the cowling (without the engine) onto the plane with white glue for later retrieval then went to spray paint my plane in the standard paint scheme for the Italy theatre which was olive drab for the top and neutral gray for the underside, giving about 3-4 coats each side. The tail was different having to paint yellow for the checks. The wheel wells and the insides of the wheel doors were painted chromate yellow and the outsides being painted neutral gray. I now gave the whole plane a coat of clear gloss for the decals. I now took of the cowling stuck the engine in, stuck the cowling on again, painted the guns silver and the section in front of the cockpit black and put the decals on. After the decals dried, I then gave the kit another coat of clear gloss and then a coat of dull gloss. Unfortunately the check decals shattered so I masked the tail with squares and sprayed the tail black. Not as good as the decals but effective. I then went about sticking the wheels on, putting the prop on and gluing on the canopy.

Click on image below to see larger image.

 

Accuracy

The finished model compared to pictures look almost to dead on line.

Colour Options

There was no real colour option for this kit except for one had invasion stripes.

Decals

The decals are made by pro-modeler and I rate them very highly, the colour was sharp and the film was strong for the exception of the checks

Rating=9/10

Conclusion and Recommendation

I liked this kit from the start and I enjoyed building it and admiring the results. I look forward to building more Revell-Monogram kits because of their quality. I got this kit for around $20 (Aus). You will find this model anywhere in model shops even in toy shops!

I would recommend this kit to amateur  modellers.

Andrew

Photos and text © by Andrew Wood