Writing in “Flight Journal, famed Grumman test pilot Corky Meyer - the last actual "airplane person" to head a major airplane company - named the P-47 Thunderbolt the "best fighter of World War II - ETO."  As he pointed out, it had high performance, yet a wartime-trained 200-hour pilot could fly it, with a well laid-out cockpit in which all the controls, switches, and instruments were handily located. It exceeded at three of the four performance parameters he established: air combat capability, fighter escort capability, ground support capability and photo-reconnaissance (it only missed on the latter).  With 15,683 Thunderbolts produced between 1941-45, it is the most-produced American fighter ever.  Republic delivered one in 1941, 532 in 1942, 4,428 in 1943, 7,065 in 1944 and 3,657 in 1945. 730 were operated by the RAF in Southeast Asia, while 446 flew for the French Air Force in Europe. The only theater of war in which the Thunderbolt did not fight was in Alaska; it is telling that the two top-scoring American fighter pilots in the ETO both flew P-47s exclusively, and all 10 of the top P-47 aces in the ETO survived the war. By D-Day there were 17 P-47 Fighter Groups stationed in England, and in the next eleven months, they swept across western Europe like an aerial scythe.

      The P-47 Thunderbolt acquired its name "Jug" when the P-47D-25 series appeared on operations.  With the upper fuselage cut down to make way for a teardrop-shaped "bubbletop" canopy, the fuselage took on the shape of a milk bottle, hence "Jug."  It was later claimed the name came from the word "Juggernaut," and in light of the career of the bubbletop Thunderbolts across Western Europe in the period between D-Day and V-E Day, that sounds reasonable.  But to Thunderbolt pilots who were there when the "bubbletop" replaced the "razorback," "Jug" meant milk jug.

      The first "bubbletop" Thunderbolt was the YP-47K, which began life as a P-47D-11RE, and was the second fighter fitted with a "bubble" canopy after the British Hawker Typhoon.  Originally scheduled for production as the P-47L, the "super 'Bolt" as pilots called it originally began appearing in England in May, 1944, under the designation P-47D-25RE. With an R-2800-59 or -63 engine putting out 2,300 h.p. under war emergency rating, and swinging a Hamilton Standard Hydromatic propeller of 13 feet, 1 7/8 inches diameter, the airplane had increased tankage and the ability to carry a 150-gallon drop tank on the centerline shackles.  At first, only flight leaders - group commanders and squadron commanders - received the new airplane. By the end of the summer of 1944, with the high losses sustained in ground attack missions during the Battle of Normandy, the "bubbletop" P-47D-25, -26, -27 and -28 Thunderbolts from Farmingdale (RE) and Evansville (RA) were the standard fighter bomber of the U.S. 9th Army Air Force.

 The 78^th Fighter Group:

     Established on February 9, 1942 at Baer Field, Indiana, the 78^th Fighter Group was originally the third USAAF fighter group to equip with the P-38.  The 78^th established itself in England in mid-November 1942, as part of the plan to use the P-38 as the standard long-range escort fighter for the 8^th Air Force.  This plan was disrupted by Operation Torch, the invasion of North Africa.  The 1^st and 14^th Fighter Groups - which had arrived in England over the summer and early fall of 1942 - transferred to the 12^th Air Force to participate in the North African campaign, and many of the qualified P-38 pilots and all of the available P-38s operated by the 78^th FG were transferred to these two units to make up for combat attrition as a result of North African combat.

      Lacking P-38s and trained pilots, the 78^th remained in England and was equipped with P-47s, joining the 4^th Fighter Group and the 56^th Fighter Group as the original units of 8^th Fighter Command.

      Along with the 4^th and 56^th, the 78^th began operations in late March 1943.  At that point, the P-47 could barely fly to the Dutch coast and was laughable as a long-range escort, given it had originally been designed as a high-altitude short range interceptor.  Over the course of the summer of 1943, the P-47 units managed to develop a long-range escort capability through the use of ever-larger and ever more numerous drop tanks, the groups were eventually able to make it as far as Dummer Lake by the end of 1943.

      Over the spring and summer of 1943, the 78^th began scoring against the Luftwaffe. The first “triple kill” was scored by MAJ Eugene Roberts, CO of the 84^th FS on June 30, 1943, while CAPT Charles London became the first 8^th AF “ace” when he scored a double on the same mission and the group returned to Duxford with a total of 16 victories, the highest score to date for an 8^th AF unit. Another first was scored on this mission, when 1^st Lt Quince Brown came home “on the deck” after evading a German attack and shot up an enemy locomotive he encountered west of Rotterdam; this was the first of many German locomotives that would be destroyed by P-47s in the next two years. On August 28, 1944, the 78^th claimed the first Me-262 shot down by the 8^th Air Force.

      As the 8^th Air Force transferred to the P-41 in 1944, the Thunderbolt-equipped groups found themselves frequently involved in support of ground operations on the Continent.  The 56^th and 78^th Groups were tasked with providing fighter escort to the troop transports for the airborne operation known as Operation Market Garden, and gave close air support to the American 82^nd and 101^st Airborne Division and the British 6^th Airborne.

      The 78^th Fighter Group transitioned to the P-51 Mustang in December 1944, leaving the 56^th Fighter Group as the last 8^th Air Force unit still using the Thunderbolt, and giving the 78^th FG the distinction of being the only fighter group in the USAAF to fly the P-38, P-47 and P-51.

     The first injection-molded 1/32 P-47d was released by Revell 30 years ago.  As with many kits from that era, it suffered from various inaccuracies, several of which - like the incorrectly-shaped vertical fin and rudder - were not easily fixable.  While Jerry Rutman released an accurate 1/32 P-47D in resin during the 1990s, until the arrival of this kit from Hasegawa, that Revell kit was it for mainstream modeling.

      This Hasegawa kit effectively makes the Revell kit irrelevant.  When this kit was announced, many modelers were afraid that Hasegawa would merely scale up their 1/48 kit, which suffered from its own unfixably-wrong errors.  There is no need to worry.  This kit is far closer to being a 1/32 scale-up of the highly-accurate Tamiya P-47D than to anything else from Hasegawa.

      Out of the box, the kit makes up most accurately as a P-47D-27 or later Thunderbolt, due to the fact that the cockpit provides only the smooth floor associated with later Thunderbolts.  The kit provides both the hydraulic Hamilton-Standard prop used by the P-47D-25/26 and the Curtiss-Electric symmetrical paddle prop used by the P-47D-27 and later.  If a modeler elects to use the later gunsight and the extended vertical fin part that are both provided but listed as “not to be used,” the kit can be turned into any bubbletop P-47D up to the P-47D-40.  A modeler who obtains Jerry Rutman’s resin asymmetrical prop, it will be possible to construct a P-47M. 

      The kit has separate flaps, which can be posed up or down.  In my experience, posable flaps are best displayed down, since fit to the wing can be problematic.

      Hasegawa dealt with the problem of having release pin molds inside the gear doors by the very nice expedient of having the gear doors come in inner and outer parts, with the release marks on the inside of both parts.

      The wing pylons are separate.  Surprisingly, the kit does not provide the more common (at least in the ETO) 108-gallon paper tanks, but does provide the 150-gallon “flat tank” for the centerline and the later “P-38 style” tanks used outside the ETO.  Underwing armament also includes two 500-lob bombs.

      A very well-molded pilot figure is provided, whose face looks strikingly like Gabreski’s.

      The only complaint I can find about the kit overall is that there are several long sink marks on the upper and lower wing halves, where there is internal detail.  This is similar to what one finds on the 1/32 Bf-109 wings and Fw-190 wings, and is easily dealt with using Mr. Surfacer 500 and a few minutes with a sanding stick.  Polish will have to be applied if a natural metal surface is going to be created.

      I first painted all the interior detail parts before further assembly.  The wheel wells and gear door interiors were painted “Yellow Zinc Chromate” which I created by mixing Tamiya Flat Black and Flat Yellow (the way real Zinc Chromate is created).  The interior of the cowling and the various turbo intakes were painted Tamiya flat Aluminum, while the pistons were painted with Tamiya “Titanium Silver.”  The cockpit was painted Tamiya Dark Green.

      I used the Eduard photo-etch detail set for the cockpit, which provides instrument panels and other detail bits, and a set of seatbelts that look very accurate when completed.

      As with all the new Hasegawa 1/32 kits, the Thunderbolt is very well-designed and a breeze to build.  That is, it’s a breeze to build if you recognize at the outset that the parts fit very precisely.  If you are particularly careful to cut off all vestiges of any sprue gates, and test fit everything, you can assemble this kit with a minimum of any kind of gap-filler.  I only used Mr. Surfacer on the centerline seam along the lower fuselage and on the upper fuselage behind the cockpit, and both areas could have been perfectly okay with a light sanding.

      I had one area of difficulty, and that was in assembling the engine cowling and then attaching the engine and cowling to the rest of the model with a completely accurate fit. If you do not test-fit the attachment of the engine to the forward fuselage, the result is a very noticeable “step” on the lower area of the cowling/fuselage joint. The solution is to widen the hole on the rear engine bulkhead, so that the engine and cowling attach correctly.  I personally think that the four-part cowling is at least as “fiddly” as the DML Fw-190A cowlings, so there is a lot of opportunity here for “operator error.”

      The spars insure that no one is going to misalign the wings on this kit.  I had decided to assemble the flaps down, and so left them off until after the model was painted.  One problem is that there is a considerable mold deformity on the upper wings over the area of the flap forward bulkhead, which needs to be filled with cyanoacrylate glue and sanded smooth.

      Since I was building a P-47D-28RE, I used the gunsight part that is listed in the parts diagram as “do not use.”  I also made sure to use the underwing inserts with the dive flaps and the landing light in the outboard position.

 Painting:

      I have long thought that the P-47s flown by the 78^th FG in the late summer and fall of 1944 were among the best-looking 8^th Air Force P-47s.  The airplanes were painted with RAF Dark Green upper surfaces and Sky lower surfaces.  While many 8^th AF units got rid of the “D-Day” stripes, the 78^th kept them on the lower fuselage, since the unit flew so many missions in support of ground troops where ease of identification was paramount.

      After painting the engine cowling and the ID stripes on the tail surfaces white and masking them off, I then did the D-Day stripes and masked them off, then used Xtracrylix “RAF Sky” and “RAF Dark Green” for the camouflage.  It is important to note that while Thunderbolts that came painted in camouflage from the factory had the entire flap painted in the camouflage colors, those airplanes that were painted “in the field” - as were all those used by the 78^th FG - had the forward area of the flaps in natural metal, along with the interior of the flap area of the wing.  I painted these areas with Tamiya “Flat Aluminum.”

Decals:

    I used the now out-of-production Cutting Edge decal sheet to do 1^st Lt, Frank Oiler’s well-known “Eileen”.  The decals went down without problem.

      When it comes time to attach the landing gear, the design here is such that no one can misalign the gear leg, since the tab is set at the correct angles - once in place, the gear is at the correct angles.  I then attached the flaps, and used the Curtiss “symmetrical” paddle prop.  With the canopy and windshield unmasked and the canopy positioned open, the model was complete.

      Hasegawa’s Thunderbolt can join the Tamiya kit as the most accurate P-47 kits available (which is unsurprising since it is obvious Hasegawa did their “due diligence” in examining the design of the Tamiya kit).  If I wasn’t already a fan of 1/32 modeling, this kit would be the “tipping point.”  If you have yet to do a 1/32 model, this is the kit to start with.  The production design is such that it will almost be “foolproof” in assembly as regards getting the various alignment issues right (I’d almost say “completely fool-proof,” other than for the potential problem of attaching the engine and cowling to the fuselage).  This should become one of the most popular 1/32 kits released.  It is excellent value for the money and highly recommended.

 Review kit courtesy of HobbyLink Japan. Get yours at “Japanese prices” at www.hlj.com

Tom Cleaver

September 2008