1/72 Revell P-47D Thunderbolt

by Rick Reinbott

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This is my Revell 1/72 P-47D Thunderbolt.

Construction  

 

Overall, this was a nice kit to build.  The biggest issues consisted of the rear bulkhead in the cockpit being too wide, requiring a lot of filing to get the fuselage halves to close,  and the cowling to firewall fit being poorly designed (at least in my kit), resulting in a larger than normal gap between the cowling and fuselage. 

On the plus side, the kit is well detailed and includes the fin fillet as a separate piece, making it much easier to paint the fillet and the surrounding fuselage area. 

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Painting & Detailing

 

Model Master Olive Drab was used for the anti-glare area with Testors Flat Red being used for the cowling band, windscreen and canopy framing, propeller tip, fin fillet and vertical tail band.  The painting guide called for the wing tips and middle section of each horizontal tail plane to be painted red and the area cowling area behind the “Balls Out” decal to be painted white; however, my research as well as part the attached picture that I found on the internet didn’t show any of this, so I chose not to follow that part of the painting guide.  Humbrol Matt Aluminum Metalcote was used for the natural metal finish, which was sealed with Model Master Metalizer Sealer.  Testors Yellow Zinc Chromate was used for the wheel wells, inside of gear doors and strut covers, and engine interior areas and the cockpit interior was painted Humbrol Bronze Green (# 75). 

 

Minor scratchbuilding consisted of adding brake lines and fuel lines (for the drop tank) from beading wire and drilling out the gun barrels.  Since the cowling flaps as molded are somewhat “gap-toothed”, I added small strips of plastic card (about 1/16” wide) to the inside of each gap to reduce the separation.

Weathering & Decaling

 

I went light on the weathering and used black pastel chalk exclusively to shade some of the panel lines, gun stains, and exhaust/waste gate area.  An oil wash of Burnt Umber and some drybrushing was used in the cockpit and an oil wash of Ivory Black was applied to the landing gear /wheel well area.  The wheel treads were drybrushed using Humbrol Panzer Gray and Testors Flat White. 

 

The decals went on pretty easily (no solutions being used for the application), with the exception of the large "Balls Out" decal on the cowling, which would've been better off if designed to be applied in 2 or 3 pieces.

 

The Base

 

The base was obtained from a local craft store (Michael's) which I stained with two coats of stain & sealer.  The tarmac is from sheet plastic which I primed  and sprayed with very thinned Polly S "Old Concrete", which resulted in a lot of the gray primer showing through.  After letting it dry overnight, I drybrushed it with Old Concrete to cover more of the primer yet allowing some of the primer to show through resulting in more of a worn look to the tarmac.  The lines and cracks were made using a black pen and the vegetation is Woodland Scenics “Turf” sprinkled over Elmer’s White Glue applied with a toothpick with the excess blown off.  The tarmac was then glued to the base using Elmer’s White Glue, which was also used to glue the model to the tarmac.  Special thanks to ARC'er Dave Marshall for creating the label and to G & J for their assistance with the label's border.     

 

I finished this project on February 7th, 2007 and built it as a donation for the silent auction at my children's main school fundraiser on February 10th, 2007 , so I got it in just "under the wire"...whew!!  The bidding started at $15.00 with the winning bid going for $65.00.  

The model represents P-47D-30-RA 44-33813 “Balls Out” as flown by 1st Lt. Milt Thompson of the 509th Fighter Squadron, 405th Fighter Group, 9th Air Force in 1944-45. 

Happy Modeling!

Rick

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Photos and text © by Rick Reinbott