1/72 Italeri P-47N Thunderbolt

by Igor Cernisevski

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Mighty P-47 happened to be one of my favorite World War Two fighters. It looks like raw power! With the release of Italeri's P-47N, I was hoping that I will be able to complete my P-47 collection of  major versions of this great warplane, and have N of similar quality to Tamiya and Revell offerings. Boy, was I wrong! 

  Upon opening the box, I found parts that reminded me of some of the best works of "Matchbox Mad Trencher". I was hoping that the kit itself is fairly accurate, so I was ready to forgive Italeri for surface details, but when I laid the parts on scale drawings, I was even more disappointed! To get to the point, fuselage is to narrow, resulting in too narrow cowling, fin fillet is too small but way too wide, horizontal tailplanes are too big and wrong in shape, wings are too narrow, canopy is looking wrong, prop blades are wrong... I was pissed off and determined to give the kit the right look of the real thing. Having spare parts from old Hasegawa Razorback, I begun construction. I widened the front part of the fuselage, behind the engine, for 1,5mm. The cowling and horizontal tailplanes came form Hasegawa kit, prop is Revell. Gun barrels are replaced with injection needles, and I have also corrected their position, making them parallel to the ground. Interior is OOB, added only masking tape seatbelts. The fit of the kit was poor and lots of filler was used, especially on the wings to fuselage joint. The canopy comes in two parts so I opted to leave mine in the open position, but not to show off the nice cockpit, but because it looks less wrong if it's in the open position.

Click on images below to see larger images

I finished the kit using ModelMaster Olive Drab, various Humbrol and Revell Silver and Aluminum and Revell Insignia Yellow. I used custom mixed green for the cockpit. The wheel wells and cowling interior are Model Master Yellow. The main gear legs are painted not primer but silver. The decals are from the box and represent the P-47N from 464th FS, 507th FG at Ivo Jima in 1945. The decals were good, printed in perfect register and laid down well with the use of Mr. Mark Softer and Future.

  This was a painfull build. I would recommend this kit to anyone who doesn't  mind paying Tamiya quality prices for piece of junk. 

Igor

Photos and text © by Igor Cernisevski