1/72 Revell F-47D

by Josip Žagar

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SOME HISTORY:

The Republic P-47D Thunderbolt was the most numerous US fighter airplane in WW2. Although it wasn't as succesful as the P-51 Mustang (at least as an escort fighter) it was far more rugged and really came into it's own as a fighter bomber during the final two years of WW2 in Europe.  After the war it quickly disappeared from USAAF inventory, but numerous surplus Thunderbolts (renamed as F-47Ds) saw extensive service with several European and Latin American air forces.  France, Portugal, Italy, Brazil, Yugoslavia, Turkey, Greece, Mexico, Peru, to name a few, all used them as fighter bombers well into 1950s, when they were finally replaced by jets. 

Those who are interested to find out how a Communist country like Yugoslavia got it's hands on US military equipment should check my previously published article on Academy F-84G Thunderjet here on ARC.  In short it was a bizzare Cold War affair which lasted until the early 1960s.

In 1951 a group of handpicked Yugoslav fighter pilots were sent to USA to train on F-47s.  Some alegedly impressed their American instructors with their quick learning and spirited flying.  So in 1952 a US Navy cargo ship docked in the Yugoslav port of Rijeka (previously Italian Fiume) and unloaded the first F-47Ds, disassembled and stored in wooden crates.  Thus the type begun it's long and succesful service with the Yugoslav Air Force (JRV) which lasted for 10 years. They were a welcome replacement for a rag tag war weary collection of Spitfire Vc, Hurricane II, Me-109G, Yak-9/3 and domestic S-49 fighters. To quicken the pilot transition to the F-47D a number of AT-6 Harvard trainers were also acquired from the USAAF.  Yugoslav F-47s serving as fighters were rather quickly replaced by F-84 Thunderjets and relegated to fighter bomber units where they lasted until early 1960s.  It is estimated that a totall number of 150 F-47Ds saw service with JRV.  The majority of them were ex USAAF aircraft while some were later received from the French AF.  Several Yugoslav F-47Ds survive to this day.  At least two were fully restored in JRV repair shops in the 1980s and sold to private collectors in the USA where they keep on flying in US WW2 markings.  There are also two interesting examples preserved in domestic museums.  One is on display in the Museum of JRV in Belgrade, Serbia.  This is a fully restored aircraft which represents the standard and rather dull JRV Thunderbolt in overall NMF with black anti glare surfaces.  The second F-47D is displayed in the Technical Museum in Zagreb, Croatia.  This is a leftover from the final years of service with JRV when surviving F-47s were painted in standard JRV 3 colour camouflage.  This example lacks wing armament and some cockpit equipment.  Rumors say that in 1991 this WW2 fighter was seriously considered for full restoration and rearmament.  It was to fly ground attack missions against Serbian forces in the bloody and savage civil war which lasted from 1991-1995.  Luckily this never happened and it remains on museum's display to this day.  However numerous other Yugoslav WW2 armament was widely used on the battlefields of former Yugoslavia along with far more advanced equipment from 1970s and 1980s.  I really hope that it was THE LAST WAR in this part of the world.

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THE KIT:

This lovely and inexpensive Revell kit dates from the late 1990s.  It is widely available in European toy stores and supermarkets and can be found in the D or M version (the only differences between the two packages are slightly different engine and different sets of drop tanks).  Also the D is moulded in silver and M in white plastic.  It's only visible fault are somewhat thick and often badly moulded/fogged clear parts. The detail for this scale is superb and overall acuracy and shape is far better than with Academy P-47D kit which has seriously misshapen canopy, weird engine, too long undercarriage, wrong machine guns and weird proppellor.  Even the old and somewhat basic Hasegawa kit has better shape than the Academy kit. Of course the Revell kit is now surpassed by the newest Tamiya kit which, in my opinnion, is waaay too expensive for it's size and worth.

If one wants to build a model of a postwar or a very late WW2 P-47D then this is the definite kit to go for.  It even comes with an optional dorsal fin!

 

BUILDING & PAINTING:

So far I have built several of these kits.  This build dates from 2004.  There is nothing special about it.  One only has to sand off  some of the rather prominent "belly" and maybe a single mm or so off the vertical tail which is rather high.  The cockpit is very detailed as is the engine.  Both are superb out of the box.  Undercarriage detail by far surpasses Academy and even the tiny supercharger exhaust doors can be displayed open or closed.  The only area which requires some filling is the lower wing to fuselage joint.

Unfortunately I didn't have much luck with this one since at the time I seriously lacked the knowledge on NMF effect. It was overall airbrushed with Model Master Aluminium while some pannels were highlighted with Humbroll Gloss metalizer. I even managed to grab it by the fuselage with bare fingers wett with thinner and that really made a mess of the paint job. Cockpit and undercarriage greens were expertly home mixed by myself.

I chose to represent the somewhat  famous #64 with cirylic inscription "Hajduk" (a Balcan folk bandit who supposedly robbed only Muslim Turks while protecting local Christian population).  Markings and JRV roundels came from excellent Czech-Serbian "Lift Here" decals.

All in all not my finest effort but I hope that you like it. 

Josip

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Photos and text © by Josip Žagar