Academy 1/48 Republic P-47D Thunderbolt

Background

There has been an abundance of history written recently for the venerable Republic P-47 Thunderbolt with the release of Tamiya's outstanding Razorback. As with many of the combat aircraft in service in Europe, the P-47 underwent a transformation to replace the streamlined razorback profile with a cut down rear fuselage and a 'bubble' canopy to significantly improve the pilot's field of view.

The Kit

This kit is actually a reissue of their 1/48 scale Thunderbolt with a new decal sheet. In light of Tamiya's Razorback release, it is nice to see Academy re-release this bubbletop.

This kit is molded in light gray styrene and features finely scribed details throughout. The basic Thunderbolt is extremely straightforward and poses no challenges in assembly.

Options in this kit are extensive in terms of external stores. The kit provides the 'flat' Republic centerline fuel tank, metal and paper external fuel tanks. Weapons include bombs, rockets & bazooka rocket launchers. In addition, the gun bays can be positioned open to reveal the 50 caliber guns inside. While the ammo bays are not open, Technics does offer this modifications if you want to reveal them.

Mimicking some of the other kit manufacturers, Academy has released this kit as a 'Nose Art' aircraft featuring the markings for 'Big Ass Bird' of the 513 FS/406 FG as flown by Major Howard Park, and for 'Chief Ski-U-Man II' of the 509 FS/405 FG as flown by Lt Duane Buholz.

So how does this kit stack up against the competition? One of the critical benchmarks for accuracy is the positioning of the guns - many earlier P-47 models had the guns horizontal to the leading edge of the wing, which is incorrect. This kit has the guns horizontal to the ground. Nice job Academy!

Next I pulled out my new Tamiya P-47 Razorback and my Hasegawa P-47 Bubbletop. Comparing the Academy and Tamiya kits, the wings are identical in span and shape. Ditto on the fuselages (ignoring the differences in the rear deck). If I didn't know better, I'd swear that Tamiya based their Thunderbolt kit on the Academy kit.

Comparing the Academy P-47 Bubbletop with the Hasegawa equivalent yielded some interesting surprises. The wings and fuselage of the Hasegawa kit are noticeably smaller. Does this make the Hasegawa kit bad? Not at all, I doubt that anyone could tell the size difference if the assembled Hasegawa kit was parked next to the Academy and Tamiya 'bolts.

Conclusions

The Academy P-47D Bubbletop Thunderbolt is a nice model and it is good to see it available again to accompany the new Razorback into scale combat.

My sincere thanks to MRC for this review sample!