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Jugs over Germany - 1:48 Eduard


Mike

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"Jugs over Germany" P-47D Thunderbolt
1:48 Eduard


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The Thunderbolt came developed from a series of less-than-successful earlier designs that saw Seversky aviation change to Republic, and the project designation from P-35, to P-43 and P-44, each with its own aggressive sounding name. After a realisation that their work so far wasn't going to cut it in the skies over Europe, they went back to the drawing board and produced the P-47A that was larger, heavier and sported the new Pratt & Whitney R-2800 18 cylinder radial that would also power the B-26 Marauder, P-61 Black Widow and F4U Corsair. With it they added eight .50cal Browning machine guns aligned along the axis of flight in the wing leading edge.

The D model was a complex moniker, covering the original razor-back high fuselage sides as well as bubble-top variants, which also saw alterations to the basic components to deal with problems found in the field to improve reliability and performance. The P-47D-25 carried more fuel for extended range, including piping for jettisonable tanks on the bomb racks for even more fuel. Taking a cue from the British designers, the bubble-top was developed and that improved all-round visibility markedly, although like the later mark Spitfires, later models incorporated a fin extension to counter the yaw issues that resulted.

The Jug was used extensively in the European theatre as an escort fighter, where it performed well in its ideal high-altitude environment. Later in the war when the Luftwaffe was a spent force, it also went on to become a highly successful ground attack fighter, straffing and bombing targets of opportunity, and eschewing camouflaged paintwork to add some extra speed over a smooth (and shiny) bare metal finish. As well as flying with the US forces, many P-47s were flown by the Allies, including the British, Russians, and after the war many other countries as the remainder were sold off as war surplus.

The Kit
This is one of Eduard's Limited Edition kits, and as is often the case, the basic plastic inside is Academy, which is no bad thing, as until the Hasegawa and Tamiya kits came along, it was the best around in 1:48. It is only partly eclipsed by its opponents however, and is a good modern tooling that is easy to build from the box. The green top-opening box has a fetching painting of a bare metal P-47 on the front, with profiles of the decal options on one side, and the included aftermarket parts on the other. Inside the box are five sprues of Academy's medium blue/grey styrene, one of clear parts in its own bag, a large bag of resin parts, a pair of frets of Photo-Etched (PE) brass, kabuki tape masks, a small sheet of stencil decals, a large one of markings, and of course Eduard's familiar glossy A4 instruction booklet.

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The first thing that I noticed on unbagging the sprues was that the kit designers at Academy have gone to a lot of trouble to give the skin of the airframe a three dimensional look. Inspection panels are slightly raised from the surface, the panel lines are well defined without being too wide, and rivets are small. Some of the rivets around the tail stiffening plates and under the belly are larger, but they have a slight raised section in the centre that gives them a more refined look, and adds to the appearance of detail. Two of the sprues are identical and contain rocket tubes, bombs, drop tanks HVAR rockets and wheels, all most typically found in pairs. The wings have removable covers to show off the main armament, although the gun parts aren't massively detailed, so would be better off left closed unless you have plans to improve them. I believe that the parts fit well, so that shouldn't be a problem with the aid of a bit of test-fitting. The extras in the bag of resin and the PE sheets are supplied to improve the modeller's lot in the departments of the cockpit, the prop and the wheels, which although fairly nicely moulded on the sprues with a choice of flattened or unweighted, can't compete with resin replacements.

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Construction starts in the cockpit as you'd guess, and with a combination of resin and PE the kit parts are consigned to the spares bin, with a highly detailed instrument panel of resin and PE laminated parts that are pre-painted with dials and instrument faces, a very fine seat in resin that gets a set of pre-painted belts to finish it off, and highly detailed sidewalls. The resin parts are further detailed with PE parts, which includes instruments, placards and of course the throttle quadrant. A pair of rudder pedals are mounted on a cross-member and the sidewalls are attached to the floor part, with a corrugated front bulkhead and bulkhead and seat armour combination at the rear. The floor part has a thick casting block that will require a substantial sawing session to remove, but other than that, the casting blocks are sensibly placed and won't require the effort of the floor part. The seat is especially nice, and is so thin in places that you can see through it when held up to the light, and an oxygen hose adds some additional realism that should look great once carefully painted, while the resin back of the instrument panel has cylindrical instrument backs moulded in.

The cockpit assembly is all that is needed before the fuselage is closed up, and here it will pay to ensure you've got the floor thin enough not to baulk the retaining cradle moulded into the fuselage. Behind the pilot is a little strengthening beamwork that should be removed if you feel up to putting in the PE replacement, which is much more detailed, but will need some crisp folding of the parts to do it justice. Following quickly on, the wings and tail planes are added, all of which are built from upper and lower skins. The main planes have the aforementioned opening gun bay panels, which are too thick to accurately show open, and as mentioned, the gun detail isn't up to modern standards, so I'd pose them closed, applying them before closing up the wing halves to ensure a good fit. The instructions show the holes drilled out to accept the hard-point pylons, but it's easy to miss, so scribble a note for yourself on this part of the instructions before you forget! The wings and tail attach by the usual tab-and-slot method, and careful alignment will pay dividends here. There is an insert in the wing leading edge around the gun barrels, because Academy correctly moulded the guns aligned horizontally, rather than with the wing. Again, careful alignment will reduce any remedial work here, and note here that the outermost and shortest gun is moulded into the insert, so will need painting up to match the other barrels at some point. You can also choose to model the exhausts for the superchargers on the side of the fuselage open or closed by using the same parts in a different orientation. You might want to thin down the edges if posing them open to better resemble your references.

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The ever-optimistic instruction designer tells you to put on the fiddlies such as the pitot probe and landing gear at this stage, but that would just lead to swearing later. The kit gear legs are updated with a nice PE oleo-scissor link before the beautifully detailed resin wheels are added. The tread is a diamond pattern, and the outer hub is a separate part with a web of resin flash over the gaps between the spokes that will need removing with a pin or sharp blade before you install them. The Goodyear logo is moulded in relief on the sides of the tyres, and I cannot detect a weighting bulge at the bottom, but that's an easy fix with a sanding stick when you're removing the small casting blocks from them. The gear doors are kit parts, and have retractor jacks on the inner parts, while the outer parts are attached to the gear legs. You'll need to put your own brake hoses on if you plan on detailing them, so again, check your references. The small tail wheel gets a pair of PE hub parts and installs in the single-piece wheel bay that has three small ejection pin marks in the recess.

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Moving forward, both rows of cylinders of the Twin Wasp are replicated in the kit, and Eduard have added a wiring loom to add some extra detail, with a scrap diagram showing the correct orientation of the wires. The close-fitting cowling is made up from two halves split vertically, with an insert on the lower inner face that has a pair of PE filters added from the fret, and once assembled and painted, can be slid onto the previously installed engine, mating with the fuselage front. The cowling flaps are moulded in the closed position, but plenty of detail will be seen through the front of the cowling due to the small prop boss. The kit includes a single prop that is moulded as a solitary part with the central boss, but for the marking choices you may need one of the two resin props that are included with the upgraded kit. Both the sets of four resin blades are cuffed, while the kit part isn't, and they are built up on the supplied resin jig into which you place the boss, then glue each prop in turn, resting it on the support before turning it 90o for the next one until all four are done.

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The canopy is in two parts, and is clear and thin, as you would hope. A strengthening hoop links the bottom frame sides around half way along, and you are told to remove a tab that would foul the new PE rear deck before you install it. A PE gunsight is attached in front of the windscreen, then it's on to the weapons.

Two underwing pylons with sway-braces are included in the kit, with the following generous supply of munitions and tanks are provided to fill them and the crutches under the belly:

2 x 1000lb Bomb
2 x 500lb Bomb
1 x 200gal tank
2 x 150gal tank
2 x 108gal tank
2 x 75gal tank


A diagram shows the likely locations of each item, but do check your references if you're going for ultimate realism of your chosen marking option. The 1000lb bombs are attacked with a knife to remove the chunky spinner on the nose and the over-thick stabilising empennage at the rear. These are replaced by PE parts plus a little plastic rod from your own stock.

Markings
Firstly, the painting part of building this kit is made that bit easier by the inclusion of Eduard's highly successful kabuki tape masking set (not pictured), which contains pre-cut masks for the cockpit canopy as well as the main wheel tyres and tail wheel hub, with a trio of circular masks for the three formation lights on the tip of the starboard wing. The last two circular masks are for the gunsight glass, which is a nice addition.

From the box you can build one of five decal options from the European Theatre of Operations (ETO), as follows:

  • P-47D-28-RA Lt. Talmage Ambrose, 410th FS, 373rd FG, Venlo Airfield, Netherlands, March 1945 - Bare metal with olive drab upper fuselage and anti-glare panel. Red heart and Dorothy K on the cowling.
  • P-47D-25-RE Capt. Fred J Christensen, 62nd FS, 56th FG, Boxted AB, Summer 1944 - Bare metal with olive drab upper fuselage and anti-glare panel. Red cowling front, Miss Fire naked lady motif on rear cowling, D-Day stripes on lower surfaces and yellow tail.
  • P-47D-26-RA Maj. Donavan Smith, CO of 61st FS, 56 FG, Boxted AB, early 1945 - Ocean Grey/Dark Green over Medium Sea Grey with heavy over-painting of upper surfaces with white. Red forward cowling and tail, D-Day stripes on lower surfaces. 'Ole Cock motif on port cowling.
  • P-47D-28RA Capt. Robert Blackburn, 509th FS, 405th FG, Saint-Dizier Airfield, France, 1944 - Bare metal with olive drab upper fuselage and anti-glare panel. Chow Hound motif on cowling and forward fuselage. Black forward cowling and tail band, D-Day stripes on lower surfaces.
  • P-47D-28-RA Lt. Harold Cox, 512nd FS, 406th FG, Y-29 - Asch Airfield, Belgium, Feb- April 1945 - Bare metal with olive drab upper fuselage and anti-glare panel. Sweeping yellow cowling, red & yellow tail bands and olive drab rudder, Lil' Tuffy and boxing gloved baby in a top hat on cowling.

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The main decal sheet is printed by Cartograf, and as usual is superb, with good register, colour density and sharpness. The nekkid lady on Miss Fire is nicely shaded, as are the other characters. The smaller decal sheet is printed in-house and contains a full set of stencils, which are covered on a separate page of the instructions to avoid duplication and over facing the modeller. This sheet is also very well printed with minimal thin carrier film.

Conclusion
A good kit made better by the inclusion of Eduard's trademark - resin and PE goodies! If I had to be harsh, the landing gear bays could do with some work, but that's just me being picky. A good choice of decal options with colourful artwork on the cowlings, plus a myriad of stencils to add detail to the airframe all contribute to a well-rounded package.

If you still want more, look out for my review of their Photo-Etch update set here, that is specifically aimed at this kit, adding even more detail to the package.

Highly recommended.

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Review sample courtesy of
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Have one on order from Relish.

Cant wait to see it now.

Have most of the other Eduard Special Editions and glad this one is up to standard.

J.

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Per your opening paragraph, the B-29 was fitted with R3350's, rather than R2800's.

Nice review, and interesting strategy by Eduard: reboxing these Academy kits. Having already got two Tamiya kits and a Hasegawa one, I'll likely not be tempted by this one though!

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