Hasegawa 1/48 Republic P-47 D-25 Thunderbolt
Randy Colvin
P-47

Photo: Randy Colvin
Contents:
The Republic Aviation P-47D-25 "Thunderbolt" by Hasegawa (kit #JT40) This is a kit I have been looking forward to for a long time. After growing up building basically nothing but 1/48 scale Monogram kits back in the 70's and especially the two P-47 kits they had, now here it is years later and I was ready to do another one. But I was so used to recessed panel lines that I waited for someone to do another P-47 that was up to todays standards, besides there were a lot of other kits out there to build. Finally Hasegawa announced that they would release one and then Minicraft announced they would release both a Bubble top and a Razorback but we're still waiting on those two.

The Hasegawa P-47D-25 comes with 102 pieces molded in a light gray which is typical of Hasegawa and 14 nicely done clear pieces. Pieces for the dorsal fin on some D-30's and later models is also included along with a Curtis Electric prop with cuffed or paddled blades. Decals are included for "Angie" of the 512th FS, 406th FG (serial #226860) and "Saucy Susie" of the 513th FS, 406th FG (serial #229290).

Construction

Since I always wanted to do Francis Gabreski's aircraft from the 56th FG, I was going to do the D-25. Once I had all the cockpit pieces in hand and a Waldron placard set, that I bought years ago at a show in Virginia and have been dying to use, along with a foto-etch seat to replace the one that is to thick in the kit. I also added some foto-etch seat belts. I also replaced the throttle quadrant with a scratch built one that was more accurate than the kit supplied version. The instrument panel came with a decal which I used after painting the plastic piece and all the bezels lined up perfectly after cutting off the two end pieces from the decal sheet and applying those separately. They give you two gun sights and tell you to discard the K-14 version which is the one I used for Gabreski's aircraft. The cockpit went together with no problems and after adding all the usual missing items from a Hasegawa cockpit and the placards it looked very good.

The next step was the fuselage and main wings. The fuselage can be assembled and cockpit added later, even though the instructions show (okay, I looked at them) to add before assembly. There are two vents that show to be added inside the fuselage before assembly (J15 X 2) but I added mine after. The fuselage went together smoothly with little sanding to be done except on the bottom where there is a lot of detail such as three different vents, including some that are louvered, and the join seem goes right through it. This is what took the longest. The wings have a section where the guns are, that is angled up at a certain position to allow for the correct "step" of the gun barrels, but sanding again went smoothly with no extra work involved. The only real big problem that came up during construction was the mating of the fuselage and wings. Once the wings were attached with the wing roots lined up, there was a step all along the belly seem at the front and rear of the wings, and if you lined up the belly there was a step at the wing roots, so I was stuck sanding one or the other. I decided to line up the wing roots and sand the belly as I thought it would be easier than sanding wing roots. I basically had to build up certain portions of the belly to meet where the wings attached (about 2-3mm) underneath the fuselage and along the wing fillet. Once this was accomplished I had no problem with getting the dihedral for the wings, as they were slightly out of "whack" (technical term) by being bent down too much. A spacer was also needed inside the fuselage, just under the cockpit, to bring the width of the fuselage out about 1mm to meet the wing roots. Once all this was done I started on the landing gear and engine.

The engine was molded with the magnetos (G18) separate from the crank case (G17) and all you had to do was put the crank case, which was kind of molded like a shell that fit over the magnetos, together to give you one piece that fit over the front of the cylinder section (G11). Of course you will need to add the ignition wires but the push rods are already there. Again all went smoothly and the whole assembly including the intake duct work (F7) fit very snugly (technical term) into the cowling with just a press of the thumb. I also had to add a Hamilton Standard prop from a Minicraft F4U-4. The one neat thing you can do with the fire wall (E1) is since the cowl flaps are attached to it all you have to do is split them from each other without separating them from the fire wall and bend them out slightly and you will have the cowl flaps open. But you will need to add some detail inside of this area as the "real" fire wall is actually about a 1/4 of an inch further back and you should see engine and mounts. Next I added the windscreen and masked over this and the cockpit to begin shooting the paint.

Colors and markings

His fighter (serial #226418) is one I have built many times as a kid from the old Monogram kit, but I never realized just how wrong it was until research turned up several photos of the real thing. After I started to take the hobby seriously, I found that very few kit and decal manufacturers had gotten it right. The only exception was Testors with there 1/48 P-47 Razorback/Bubble top version that had a very accurate rendition of the photos. The decals alone are worth paying the money for this kit along with the painting guide also. Some may disagree with what Testors says is two colors of gray over a lighter color of grey but besides that, they have the invasion stripes on the fuselage correct and even Aero Master on their "Top Guns" sheet got that wrong. Testors also has the ID stripe on the lower portion of the horizontal stabilizer correct. I may not agree with the camo colors Testors says to use but who knows? I used a slightly lighter version of MM gunship grey and medium green for the top and primer for the bottom, because to me the pictures look like there are two colors of grey on his plane and not just one color covering both top and bottom like AM and many reference books call for. Most references also say that British colors were used which personally I believe is true, but who knows? His aircraft also had a natural-metal outline of the canopy on the fuselage which indicates it was masked and painted with the canopy closed.

I first shot the invasion stripes on the wings and then just the white on the fuselage. Next came the red rudder and the front half of the cowling. Then came the black ID stripe on the bottom of the horizontal stabilizer with the front section faded to the leading edge on the left one as one picture clearly shows this. It could be chipped or a new leading edge, but who knows? Next came the camo pattern which at first I thought would be very difficult, but it got easier as it went along, Some pictures show a paint job with no distinct pattern but it's only from certain views and resources say it was an angled line pattern from upper left to lower right looking at it from the top with engine forward. I sort of did both making sure I had it as close to the photos as I could and just "winging" (technical term) it from there on what I couldn't see and it came out very convincingly. After all this was done I added the black outline to the white parts of the invasion stripes on the fuselage, leaving the front lower section just below the star & bar of the last stripe next to the tail with no outline as photo's clearly shows this also.

Next came a coat of Future and then the decals. I found the AM code letters for Gabreski's aircraft to be too thick and sources say he had two 50" insignias on the bottom but photos show a 40" insignia on the bottom so I went with that. I also found an old Monogram decal sheet with his markings that were more accurate and they settled very well with a little Solvaset and they actually went into the panel lines better than the AM decals did. (This sheet has been sitting in my spares box for a good ten years.) I did use the "kill" marks from the AM sheet and the serial number. The Monogram one is spaced to far apart and even though the AM version isn't accurate either, it was closer to it than Monogram was. After all decals had set overnight, I shot another coat of Future and did my wash into the panel lines and wiped away the excess. Next I shot a coat of Gunze "smoke" on all the panel lines to give it a slightly weathered look and then a flat coat. Next came the pastels for exhaust, gun, fuel and oil stains, and finally another flat coat to seal everything in.

The landing struts in photos appear to have a black upper section and a natural-metal lower section so I went ahead and did mine this way. The kit parts (G9,G10) have sink marks in each one which had to be filled and sanded. I added brake lines, foto-etch "elbows" and then attached them to the wings. I used True Details wheels and had to add covers to the spokes as Gabreski's aircraft also carried these. I also sanded down the "bulge" some what on the tires as I feel that they are "to much". The gear covers went on without any problems along with the tail wheel. After all this was done I unmasked the canopy, windscreen and cockpit and added the antenna wire. I used "crystal clear" for the navigation and formation lights and then it was complete. I really do like the way this model came out and it is definetly one of my favorites.

Randy Colvin



Photo of Randy's P-47 Thunderbolt
Thunderbolt

Photo: Randy Colvin
USAF
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