P47-D Thunderbolt ‘Kokomo’ 551st Fighter Squadron. 495th Fighter Group
Hi everybody,
I would like to present you my favourite fighter from WWII: the mighty THUNDERBOLT, THE ‘JUG'. I was building the model while reading Tail-End Charley from James. E. Brown, what a kick of motivation! I really recommend this book.
Built 2 years ago, here is the P-47d thunderbolt ‘KOKOMO'. As usual straight from the box, the build is the 1/48 Tamiya with some mistakes from my part.
The plane was flown by LT. GEN. William E. Kepner who was commanding the 8th fighter command as from September 1943.
The Tamiya kit was, as usual, not a surprise, well-detailed and well-fitting kit. There is 2 major mistakes on the model, can you find them?
Hope you enjoy and don't hesitate to leave comment and recommendation.
Great build, Yann.
Mistakes or not, it just looks awesome, even in full sunlight.
Not sure if it was used in reality, but I cannot recall to have seen aircraft with two US markings on the bottom.
Thanks a lot John for the comment see the remarks below for the painting and for the mistakes.
Actually two insignia on the undersides of P-47's in the ETO was fairly common. I think it had something to do with avoiding confusion between it and the Fw-190.
Great work again, and really nice photos. I'm partial to the eye-level shots but I really like the one with the P-51 alongside too.
All P-47s in the 8th AF carried that insignia, and all P-47s in the 9th AF before D-Day, when they often also flew escort to the 8th. It was for ID with the bomber gunners.
As Bud Anderson says of bomber gunners "those guys would shoot at anything and I don't blame 'em". Thanks once again for that info Tom.
Many thanks John for the comments and the updates on the US markings on the lower wings.
A nice build - well done!
Than you Greg for you comment
Nice work, Yann. It's hard not to get a great result with this kit. You've gotten the most out of what was in the box.
Thanks a lot Tom for the comment and the info for the US markings
Classic kit, classic model, don't know about the two mistakes but definitely liked.
Thanks George. For the mistakes, see my last post.
What mistakes ? She looks great!
Many thanks for the comment Robert
🙂 ... Greetings ... 🙂 :
Quite an appealing model Yann.
Very good clean modeling.
Thanks a lot DE4EVER
Nice model, Yann!
Loking froward to see the mistakes revealed!
Thank you very much Spiros, See my last post to find out what were the 2 mistakes
Good Day All !
Thanks for the interest!
1st mistake: the decal on the portside fuselage iwo of the windshield is upside-down.
2nd mistake: the actual plane was fitted with only 3 guns barrels on each wing.
Regarding US markings, you will see that the actual plane of Kepner was painted with the US marking on the lower part of both wings.
2 attached images. Click to enlarge.