Hobby Boss 1/72 P-47D “Thunderbolt” By Norm Filer

History

There are more books about the history of the P-47 Thunderbolt than the average guy could read in a month. Since this is a pretty simple build, you should have time to sit down and read one and still do this kit in a couple evenings. You will have a much better understanding of the Thunderbolt history than I could do in a few short paragraphs, and a nice model to go with it.

The Kit

If you have read the In-Box reviews in this issue, there really isn’t a whole lot more that needs to be said. There is mostly good news with this kit. It is inexpensive at about $9.00, it is very simple to build, and when you get it done it looks like a very accurate 1/72nd Thunderbolt. I only found a few minor things to complain about and those were mostly things that I wished they had done a bit different or just did not include in the kit at all.

The parts are few, but that does not mean they lack details or crispness. These are NOT toys in spite of the comparatively low prices. The Jug comes with a one piece fuselage that matches up with a single wing/lower fuselage part. The join line is right at a line extending forward and aft from the wing leading and trailing edges. There are four very sturdy large pins on one part that push into holes on the other part. Once they are pushed together firmly, they are almost joined forever. I “test fitted” this joint without glue and it took some serious work to pry the two parts apart.

The joint is pretty darn good for such a noticeable location. I used a small amount of filler along this line and it disappeared quickly.

The fuselage part is a rather hefty solid part with some of the underside hollowed out and a rather simple interior in the cockpit area. No separate cockpit parts to install, no instrument panel and the seat armored headrest and control stick are already molded in place. I had some reservations about the lack of detailed interior at first, but when finished and the closed canopy in place it is really not a big issue. The vertical fin is molded with the fuselage, but there is a separate cowling and firewall and even a two row radial engine. Another plus is that the kit comes with a choice of two different props, a Hamilton-Standard and an early Curtiss prop. The big late D and M series Curtiss prop. is not included.

Also included is a choice of paper drop tanks, or bombs and a flat center line tank.

There are some things I wish they had done a bit better or options they might have included. The late asymmetrical prop. would have been nice, and they did not include the fin fillet either. The lower cowling intake is not in the kit and this might be the biggest drawback as that is a very noticeable item when you see the front of a Thunderbolt. Last item is there is only a closed, one piece canopy. With the simple interior that is probably a good thing, but some of the other Hobby Boss kits do offer both open and closed canopies.

As I pawed through my embarrassingly huge stack of Thunderbolt decals trying to decide which one to build, I kept coming back to one of the 56th Group M models with the odd paint schemes. As it happens one of the Group’s survivors lives here in the Seattle area and I had access to photos of a contemporary model of his aircraft. So a dark Blue Thunderbolt it became.

That posed some problems as I did not have the fin fillet, big prop. or the lower cowling parts in the kit. But I did have a couple Revell kits laying around and those parts were there so the migrated from the Revell box to the Hobby Boss box and onto the build. I had to put a new shaft on the prop, but the cowling part and the fin fillet fit fine. And yeah, I know, the R-2800 Crankcase should be a later bolted version, but that didn’t happen this time.

One unexpected thing I found annoying was that the bottom portion of the windscreen is a tab that fins into a corresponding notch in the fuselage. When you attach the canopy last after everything else is done you end up with a serious grove right under the canopy forward part that at that late stage is pretty much impossible to fill and paint.

It took just about as long to decal the thing as it did to build and paint it. And the end result sitting on my display shelf alongside several other Thunderbolts looks like it belongs there with the big guys. The lack of a detailed interior just does not show. The scribing, fit and details are as good as most of the others. Of course they are not Tamiya kits, and if you love the details, that is still the way to go, but if you want quick and simple builds with very little compromise on details, you might want to consider these.

These things are perfect for the guy that wants several different P-47s in his collection. I sat down to see what this kit was like by playing with the part and in about 45 minutes I was ready to start painting the model. They are that quick and simple.

These are simple but accurate kits at very reasonable prices. Almost like having a big sale at the local hobby shop.