P-47D Thunderbolt; 61FS 56FG

P-47 was an American fighter produced by the republic from 1941 until 1945. Equipped with 8 0.50cal machine guns and several weapons pylons it could weigh up to 8 tons, making it one of the heaviest WW2 fighters. Designed around an 18-cyllinder R-2800 Double Wasp engine (like Hellcat and Corsair), it was a sight to behold off and quickly proved successful as both high altitude fighter and fighter bomber.

USAAF started P-47 combat ops in Europe in March 1943 and a month later, the Jug, is the aircraft was affectionately called, achieved its first air-to-air kill. By mid 1943, P-47s were also operating from Italy and New Guinea in the Pacific. Despite P-51s replacing P-47s in long range escort role, Thunderbolts retained a high kill ratio. 56th FG, the only group flying P-47s (by choice!) in the 8th Air Force until the end of the war, had the highest number of kills (677 1/2 kills) and created several legendary aces like Gabresky, Johnson and Zemke.

HV-U 42-26646

P-47D-25-RE flown by Lt. William R Aggers from Hubbard, OH
In service with 61st FS from 17.6.1944 – 24.10.1944
The aircraft was flown in these markings until mid-July, when the upper stripes were repainted. Lt. Aggers flew his last mission with this aircraft on 12th August 1944. The aircraft was lost on 24th October 1944 with pilot Lt. William J Osborne Waverly killed in action near Marken, Holland.

The kit

I've got this model as a gift from a fellow modeller quite some time ago but a quick Scalemates shows, the tooling of this model just reached a quarter of a century. I don't know what the state of the plastic is in the current kits (Revell also released P-47M which to my knowledge shares most of the plastic), so this is purely my review of the older (fresher) tooling from supposedly 2002. In general, it was a really nice model to build and would be good looking even out of the box. The engine is quite hidden from the view, same goes for the cockpit and probably just an addition of harnesses to the seat would suffice. Cockpit details are nice with raised details. The fit is good and there are mostly nice surface details (no full riveting though) but the panel lines on the engine cowling can be quite shallow at some points. Perhaps the only really negative point is that the landing gear is too short for about 2mm – you either have to extended it, or your aircraft will “sit” on a belly fuel tank if you install that. Oh and canopy could be a little thinner.

The good:

– good fit
– good surface details
– decals behaving well even after a few decades of storage
– nicely detailed cockpit

The bad:
– too short landing legs (cca. 2mm)
– included decals bull artwork not correct
– shallow panel lines on the engine cowling

Link to the in-progress article: https://vvsmodelling.com/2024/08/29/revell-172-republic-p-47d-thunderbolt-build-article/

Model Data
Company: Revell / 04155
Scale: 1:72
Aftermarket: Master AM72-145 P-47 Detail set, Quickboost QB 72 038 P-47 Engine, Yahu Models YMA7245 P-47 Instrument plate, CMK Q72263 P-47 wheels

Decals: AK Interactive (printed by Cartograph) from the sheet included with their 56th FG book; kit decal stenciling

Paints used: Mr.Paint
Camouflage: MRP-110 RAF Dark Green, MRP-112 RAF Medium Sea Grey, MRP-115 RAF Ocean Grey, MRP-42 Red
Metallics: MRP-008 Duraluminium, MRP-147 Burnt Iron,
Other: MRP-004 White, MRP-173 Tyre-Rubber, MRP-77 NATO Black, MRP-129 Zinc Chromate Primer, MRP-132 US Interior Bronze Green

10 additional images. Click to enlarge.