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Print Scale 1/72 Republic P-47 Thunderbolt Part 2 Decals

By Matt Bittner

It's interesting to see what markings one can find for P-47 Thunderbolts. There were over 15,000 produced, so if one looks hard enough, one can find a scheme never before made into decals. So it's never a surprise to see any decal producer make a sheet of Jugs, even if some of those schemes were already covered before. This release from Print Scale contains six P-47s:

• P-47D-30-RE, "Torrid Tessie", 346th Fighter Squadron (FS), 350th Fighter Group (FG), 12th Air Force (AF), Italy 1944: natural metal overall with an olive drab anti-glare panel; rudder was finished in black checks
• P-47D, 86th FS, 79th FG, Italy, early 1945: natural metal overall with Olive Drab anti-glare panel, bottom section of cowling red
• P-47D, "Ole-Miss Lib", flown by Lt. Thomas W. Smith Jr., 63rd FS, 56th FG, 8th AF, early 1945: two-tone blue camouflage on top, with natural metal undersides, cowling front red and rudder mid-blue
• P-47D-30-RE, GC II/5 "Lafayette", based at Corsica, 1944: natural metal overall, olive drab anti-glare panel, red cowling front and French roundels in six places
• P-47D-30-RE, flown by Capt. Gerard de Pins, commander of GC I/4 "Navarre", January 1945: olive drab/neutral gray scheme
• P-47D, Soviet Air Force: olive drab over gray

All P-47s are "bubble tops". Decals are a little flat, but appear to be in register and decently printed. My biggest complaint is with the instructions as they contain port-fuselage-side views only; no uppers, no starboard, and no underside views. You may want to track down more references before using the decals to be sure of where they are placed on the non-port fuselage sides.

Thank you to Print Scale for sending these to review.