Hasegawa 1/32 P-47D Thunderbolt

Kit: ST27
Scale: 1/32
Manufacturer: Hasegawa, from Dragon Models USA, 626-968-0322, Dragon Models USA
Price: $ n/a
Comments: Injection-molded, 204 parts (12 vinyl), decals
Pros: Great fit and accuracy; good detail
Cons: Some decal, painting inaccuracies

It took 40 years to see a replacement for the old Revell P-47 Thunderbolt, but the wait was worth it. Hasegawa's 1/32 scale P-47D is a beauty! It comes molded in medium gray plastic with nice, crisp recessed panel lines, and they're not overdone. The clear parts are perfect.

The kit provides plenty of elective choices: It comes with two types of props, a Hamilton Standard and a Curtiss Electric. You get wing pylons with a pair of bombs and long-range P-38-style fuel tanks. The fuselage supercharger vent doors come with parts to pose them open or closed. The landing flaps can be posed up or down with separate flap hinges for both. You get two canopies, the usual two-piece (windscreen and canopy) and a one-piece canopy if you want it closed. You also get a late D- or M-style tail fillet (predicting a future release of an M version). Finally, the decal sheet provides three sets of markings, two for Francis Gabreski's plane and one for Glenn Eagleston's Thunderbolt.

Everything is straightforward and goes together great, with only a few places that need a little work. In Step 5, parts No. D30 and 31, the pieces that attach to the leading edge of the wings with holes for gun barrels, sits just a tick high. A few swipes with a sanding stick takes care of it.

Another tricky assembly is in Step 6, the engine and cowling. The cowling comes in four pieces, not including intake pieces which attach to the bottom piece. But that's not the problem. The tricky part is trapping the engine assembly with the cowling. I assembled the cowling pieces, trapping the engine and letting it "float" until the glue set. You want to make sure the cowling is symmetrical when you look at it from the front. You can insert one of the cowl-flap rings (open or closed) in the rear of the cowling assembly until everything sets up. Then you can secure the engine in the cowling; there's room to get in there to glue things tight.

The only other thing that needs extra work is Step 7, in which the cowling assembly attaches to the fuselage. It sits a little high when you slide the assembly over the peg at the front of the fuselage assembly, but there is supposed to be a smooth transition from the cowling to the fuselage at the bottom. All I did was file down the top of the peg on the fuselage side and open up the top of the hole on the cowl ring that slides over the peg.

There were a few oddities in the decals. For invasion stripes, Hasegawa gives you white stripes and instructs you to paint the black stripes. Seems backwards to me: In the time it takes to measure the spacing so you can paint the black stripes, you could just paint and mask both colors - which is what I did. Also, the decal instructions have you paint the black stripes between the white decals for the underside of the fuselage. These weren't on Gabreski's plane (either scheme), just the white stripes with thin black outlines.

The only known photo of Gabreski's plane is a three-quarter shot from the port front, so the starboard side is pure speculation. I used Alfonso Martinez Berlana's article in the July 2004 FSM as a guide for the rest of the camouflage.

Overall, the kit seems pretty accurate, with minor discrepancies: the engine seems to be a hybrid; the gear reduction housing is the type used on P-47Ds; the ignition ring is the type used on M and N versions; and there are no seat belts.
The model took me about 25 hours. It was a real pleasure to build and to finally have a good 1/32 scale kit of one of the mainstays of World War II. Anyone with some building experience should have little trouble with this kit.

- Larry Schramm