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P-51B Mustang China/Burma/India (70075) 1:72 Arma Hobby The P-51D was developed by the North American Aviation company as a fighter for Great Britain, but due to the poor performance of the engine that was initially fitted, it wasn’t all that good at higher altitudes. Fortunately, they slotted a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine into the airframe and it brought out the best of its design, which included the energy efficient laminar flow wing that gave it the potential to escort Allied bombers all the way to Berlin with the addition of drop-tanks and a lean fuel mixture when not in combat. It was flown in this guise as the Mustang III in British service, and as the P-51B/C in US service, then as the P-51D with a bubble canopy and cut-down aft fuselage, with an additional fin-fillet added later to improve stability that had been reduced by the new shape and fuel tank location, which was often retrofitted to older airframes due to its positive influence on the flight characteristics of the aircraft, regardless of whether it had a bubble canopy or not. The Kit This is a reboxing of Arma’s original 2021 release to depict various razor-backed Mustangs, and it depicts Mustangs in the Pacific Theatre of Operations (PTO). It arrives in a sturdy end-opening box with an attractive painting of a low-flying Mustang with rocket-tubes slung under its wings on the front, plus profiles of the decal options on the rear. Inside are three sprues in grey styrene, a clear sprue, a sheet of pre-cut kabuki tape masking material, a decal sheet, and an A5 portrait instruction booklet with full colour profiles on the rear pages. Detail is stunning for the scale, and the finish of the exterior surface is a pristine satin texture with some areas left glossy, an example of which are the lenses of the underwing identification lights on the starboard wing. Construction begins with the cockpit, which will be familiar to anyone who has built a Mustang before. The stepped floor has the tubular-framed seat, armour and support frame added to the front section, plus decal seatbelts. The rear of the cockpit is filled with the original fuel tank with radio on a palette on top, and decals are included for some of the radio boxes, of which there are a choice of two styles. The pilot has his control column added and two dial decals applied to the floor, with more decals for the highly detailed instrument panel that is fixed below the coaming and has the rudder pedals glued to the back as shown by a scrap diagram. The cockpit sides are also detailed with additional parts, a copious quantity of decals to portray the equipment faces, radiator and its trunking, inserted into the starboard fuselage side along with an insert for the tail-wheel bay, and a corrugated hose that is applied to the side of the cockpit area. The port side is prepared with extra parts and decals including another tail-wheel bay insert, adding the assemblies beginning with the instrument coaming, then the cockpit and finally the tail wheel itself, closing the two halves to complete the task. The wings are next, beginning with the centre divider of the main gear bay and a section of the spar. This is inserted into the upper wing half, and a detailed diagram shows how the bay roof should be painted correctly, which is best done before closing the wing halves and inserting the separate flap sections, which you are advised to paint before insertion, as they also have a decal around the halfway point of the curved leading edges. Unusually, both wing surfaces are full-width, in much the same way as the real aircraft, and after adding some internals and using a pair of supplied jigs to drill holes for the bazooka tubes, the wings are closed and mated with the fuselage with an additional part with a pair of jacks inserted from above before joining with the fuselage. The decal options given have the earlier un-filleted tail, which you add above the elevators with moulded-in fairings. An optional D/F loop on a fairing is applied to the spine for some decal options, and a panel behind the exhausts should be scribed using the masks supplied, and this might be easier done before adding the wings. The main gear consists of a strut with single wheel and a captive bay door attaching to the leg, which slots into a socket in the outer end of the bay, with a pair of inner doors fitted to either side of the centre-line bulkhead, detailing the two colours commonly found on those doors. The airframe is ostensibly complete, but some small parts and assemblies are yet to be added, such as the radiator cooling flaps under the rear, L-shaped pitot probe under the starboard wing, a pair of bomb-shackles outboard of the main gear bays, and a lip insert for the chin and main radiator intakes. The perforated grille panel on either side of the lower nose is slotted into its aperture, with a choice of shrouded or un-shrouded exhaust stacks, and two types of antenna masts on the spine behind the cockpit. The prop consists of four blades moulded as one, with a two-part spinner hiding a small washer that can be used to hold the prop in place and retain the option to spin if you so wish. The canopy has the option to portray it open or closed, all fitted with the older straight hood that consists of the fixed windscreen with a section of the fuselage moulded-in, the canopy and the two scalloped rear-view panes, with the optional parts provided to display the canopy opened to one side, assisted by a couple of scrap diagrams nearby and a warning decal for the inner lip. There are masks included for the individual panes of the canopy, with additional masks supplied for the wheels, and some of the panels that are amended for this boxing. The final choice is to hang metal fuel tanks or bombs, or the new triple bazooka tubes under the wings, the tanks made from two halves each that have stencil decals supplied from the sheet. The bazooka tubes are built from two tubes at the bottom with another laid on top, creating a triangular unit, which is fitted with end caps, and additional braces alongside the moulded-in brackets that have pins moulded into their upper ends. It was good practice NOT to have fuel tanks under the wings when carrying the bazooka tubes however, as Mustangs are acknowledged to fly much better without their wings blown off by the detonation of the fuel tanks. Markings Decals are printed by Techmod, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. From the box you can build one of the following: P-51B-15-NA Pilot: Capt. B H ‘Butch’ Ashmore, 26th Fighter Sqn., 51st Fighter Group, Kunming, China, 1944 P-51B-10-NA Pilot: Lt. Wilbert McEvoy, 529th Fighter Sqn., 311th Fighter Group, Burma, Summer 1944 P-51B-7-NA Pilot: Capt. Burton N Rodier, ‘Jeanne III’, 26th Fighter Sqn., 51st Fighter Group, China, 1944 It’s worth noting that each page of the profiles has a QR Code that takes you to a blog maintained by Arma, which provides much more information on the decal options and how to build their models than is possible in the instruction booklets, often including photos of the real thing and background information. Conclusion Another superbly well-detailed kit from Arma that offers some less mainstream decal options than a great many boxings of this perennially popular aircraft, with the bonus of bazooka tubes to suspend under the wings. Detail is excellent throughout, and the instructions are concise to help you with your build. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

I'm caving and entering a second build in an effort to reduce the P-47 stash. It will be another early Razorback, with the subject being "Boise Bee" flown by Duane Beeson of the 4th Fighter Group. I'll be using most of the same extras as my other Jug but decals for this one will come from Fundekals. Beeson is an interesting figure in that he lacked the USAAF's required two years of college to be come a pilot, so he went to Canada, joined the RCAF, and shipped out to England as part of 71 Squadron, one of the three Eagle Squadrons. When they were handed over to the 8th Air Force and became the 4th Fighter Group, Beeson then became an officer in the USAAF and had a very decorated career. He accumulated 17.333 aerial victories, most of them in this P-47D-1-RE named for his hometown of Boise, Idaho. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Silver Star, and six Distinguished Flying Crosses before his P-51B was downed by ground fire in April 1944. He spent the rest of the war as a POW and returned home, but unfortunately developed a brain tumor and died when he was only 25. I'm a sucker for the red bordered national insignia so I'll be doing his plane how it would've looked circa October 1943 when he had six victories to his credit.

I started a thread for this project in the WIP section several months back but the project never took off, so this is a good time to get into it. I only got as far as snipping off the fuselage halves, so almost nothing has been done. This will also take me back to my first ever experience with Tamiya, which was 14 or 15 years ago with this very kit. I was in college and after building nothing but Revell and Monogram kits as a kid, this was my first venture into a “higher end” kit. I never quite finished but it definitely made a lasting impression. So…here we are again now with the same kit. Since I’m on a bit of a Pacific kick right now with a P-40 on the bench and a Pacific B-24 on deck for the B-24 GB, I will be backdating this kit to represent a P-47D-4-RA from the 348th Fighter Group. Specifically, the first mount of Wisconsin ace Marvin Grant. Grant was an original pilot of the group and went on to score seven kills between Dec ‘43 and June ‘44. I’ll be adding lots of extras and will have to piece together the markings since the only ones available are for his later natural metal D-23, but that will be simple enough. His D-23 carried over his old cowling, so I have decals for the names on the nose and then I’ll either make masks or come up with the rest from other sets.

While waiting for a replacement windscreen from Zvezda for my 1/72nd C-130, I built the Tamiya 1/48th P-47D Razorback. I've had this kit in the stash for many years but something else always pulled me away from building it. Since I am not sure how long it will take for Zvezda to get the part to me to continue the C-130 build, I wanted something that would be "quick". This one was fairly quick, for me, but painting took quite a while, even with the relatively simple color scheme. I painted on the stripes and tried a new metal finish (for me). I also had an Eduard color PE set for this one. Overall, I am happy with the result. Of course there are some things I think I could do better with. I used an aftermarket seat with molded on belts, Quickboost I think. Paint is the Vallejo Metal Color Aluminum with a few panels in a mix of Aluminum and "Silver". The paint set had 4 colors included, but the other 3 were quite a bit darker than the aluminum. The darker panels are a 60/40 mix of aluminum and silver. The white stripes are the undercoat of Tamiya spray can Fine White Primer. The black stripes are Testors flat back, and the forward antiglare panel is Model Master Olive Drab. Decals are a mix of kit stencils, Eagle Strike, and Superscale. I painted the cockpit in my version of Dull Dark Green, an ancient tin of Humbrol 88 (pushing 25+ years old and still working well.) However last week, on Hyperscale, a discussion erupted concerning P-47 cockpit colors. I don't think there was any confirmation on colors for various P-47 models (C, D, G, M, N). Interesting food for thought... Background on this one: While researching the 23rd Fighter Squadron, 36th Fighter Group, in WW2, I always thought that they started D-Day carrying bombs for close air support or battlefield interdiction. Most, if not all, USAAF fighter wings were tasked with air superiority for the first missions of the day. The 36th was no exception. In reading pilot accounts, most flew 3 or even 4 sorties on June 6, 1944. The first 2 sorties were air superiority, and following tasking was for air to ground. I wanted to show this aircraft ready for it's first mission that morning. I choose tail number 42-26043, a P-47D-22-RE. This ship was lost to flak near Mortain, France on 7 Aug 44. Pilot James "Mose" Cole was KIA. I wasn't sure of the in-squadron letter so I chose "J" because I had a J on the decal sheets and my wife's name starts with "J". It wasn't until after the 36th moved to the continent that colorful engine cowling and tailplanes appeared. Even though it's just silver, black, and white, mostly, it still has some color pops here and there. I kept weathering to a minimum since the aircraft were fairly new, having only been in operation for a few weeks before the invasion, and the stripes had been painted only hours before the first sorties on D-Day.

I'd like to join in with this please; The Airfix P-47 is neither a new kit, nor an uncommon one, but this particular boxing took me a while to track down. I'm an Eighth Air Force nut (collecting diecast models, books, and trying to visit all of their former airfields), and when I saw that Airfix had chosen one of the Thunderbolt formation monitors as the subject, I had to have it. A random choice, especially for a starter set, but I like the look of it. Not as well known (or, indeed, as colourful) as the assembly ships, war weary P-47s were used by a number of bomb groups to help with the formation of the vast armadas of bombers in the very crowded (and often murky) skies of Norfolk and Suffolk, with the former fighters often painted in the same markings as the bombers they were assisting. Such is the case with this one, representing "Ginny", used by the 458th Bomb Group at Horsham St. Faith (now Norwich Airport). Here's the painting guide; And the kit itself. According to Scalemates, the kit originally dates from 1966, and the simplicity of it certainly suggests that. This particular boxing dates from 2009, so at least the decals are a bit newer! Not a huge amount of decals; A whole 6 steps of instructions. Not seen the space for modellers notes before. The painting guide is pretty good, but also got this as a help, which has a nice black and white photo of "Ginny"; Not sure exactly when I'll get started, as I'm currently also in two other group builds, but it's not a big kit, so I'm sure I can squeeze it onto the creation station!

My possible final one, 1/48 Monogram P-47D Razorback [/url If theres time I may try to do one more, a the Superbolts sibling, the XP-47H . But I', still wrapping my head around doing that on. It's a Poor resin casting that will need ALOT of work before even attempting assembly. So I'll start with the "easy" ones first.

Hi all! This is my first WWII build. OOB Tamiya, lovely kit. Aftermarket decals SuperScale Decal No. 72-811. Tamiya acrylic base coats with Tamiya enamel pin wash and some weathering with Abteilung 502 and Mig Oil Brushers. A very loud shout-out to Seamus whose P-47 inspired and served as the model for this build. Thanks for looking!

After asking the BM community for painting suggestions about two years ago, this Razorback is now done. Probably could have improved it a bit more, but I'm calling this one finished. Cheers, Luka

Hi All; Here's my recently completed P-47. I was quite happy with how it turned out though I did bugger up a couple of things, and to be honest I lost my nerve in the end on going all out on the weathering. Critiques are always welcome, cheers; Mark.

Hi all just finished this one today, this is my take on a Gulf racing version of the Razorback from the TV show the expanse. Thanks to @xvtonker for the decals. Cheers Brian.

Hello all; Here's my finished Jug for your perusal. I made about as many mistakes and miscalculations as it's possible to make in painting and marking this one. The full story and many more pictures of the debacle(!) can be found within the build article on my website. It's build as a workhorse of the 365th Fighter Bomber Group and was intended to be weathered as such. Overall I think it turned out ok as a reasonable representation of my subject and my ability. Some of it I'm really happy with and some of it I just decided I would have live with because I couldn't face the third, fourth, fifth [seventh!] touch-up or re-paint. Among a lot of things, the eagle-eye among you will spot the missing pitot tube - it has been installed, just not before I took the pics! Anyway, I did start (but failed to keep up with) a WIP thread, so here's the result.

Dear All, Having just bought this kit and read the glowing review from a while back can anyone confirm which version(s) it represents as the P47D had so many. I've just bought the Squadron Signal book on the subject plus perused the internet and now even more confused given that some of the changes between variants were either internal or quite subtle externally. I see that the kit offers a choice of propellers but again I think there were more than two types used at various stages, plus the excellent instructions don't actually say which variant they apply to only the A or B build options. Kind Regards Colin.

This is HB981, a Republic P-47D-22-RE Thunderbolt attached to 135 Sq. RAF in Burma during 1945. At 04:45 on 2nd May 1945 it was taking off from Akyab Main to provide "cab rank" support for the Operation Dracula landings at Rangoon, when it lost power and ground-looped off the end of the runway, tearing off both wings in the process. Its relevance to me is that the aircraft contained my father at the time it performed this unplanned evolution. After the aircraft had come to rest, he popped out of the cockpit unharmed, then popped back in again to retrieve his parachute, since it was a chargeable offence to lose a parachute. Then he jogged back to the end of the runway, sat on the parachute, and waited for a vehicle to come and get him. At which point he cadged a cigarette off the driver. Shortly after that, he had his photograph taken, posing on the wreckage. (The photograph, you'll see, also had a fairly hectic later life.) The story is retold amusingly in Roger Freeman's Thunderbolt: A Documentary History Of The Republic P-47. (The squadron number is wrong - 135 Sq. didn't renumber to 615 until slightly later in the war.) Paints are Tamiya, LifeColor and Alclad. The 150-gallon (US) drop tanks are filched from a Tamiya P-47M kit, but the Hamilton prop (and its decals) came with the Razorback kit, although it's not required for either of the aircraft detailed in that kit. SEAC roundels, flashes and the tail number come from an Xtradecal "Yanks with Roundels" sheet. Eduard photoetch detail and placards, Squadron wheels, and an HGW Sutton harness which I found almost unusable. Finally, a comparison of the Thunderbolt and Hurricane, showing what a brute the Jug was in comparison. (My father used to take great delight in relaying the old RAF joke about how the easiest way to avoid enemy fire in a Thunderbolt was to release your harness and run around in the cockpit.) Possibly the drabbest Jug ever modelled. Sorry about that.

I was wanting to try some 3D weathering and opted to try Vallejo's Chipping Medium as the method. The subject is a 1/48 scale 1967 tool P47 Razorback from Revell. Although, this build was really just something of a 'test-bed' for my weathering self-tuition. I liked the end result and thought I'd share it with the forum.

Hello everyone Just a quick question: was the P-47D wing the same on both the earlier 'razorback' the later 'bubble' canopy variants of the P-47D? Ta! Simon

Hi guys This will be my offering from the Tamiya 1/48 kit, I've gone for the steed of Lt. Paul Conger 61st FS-56th FG out of Halesworth Dec '43 Any tips or links to ref pics welcome

All done!

Hello all. This will be my contribution to this group build. Republic P-47D-15-RA Thunderbolt of 58FG, 69FS serial 42-23224 - "A23" in 1944, flown by Lt. Herbert B. Emrich The kit: The subject: I'm planning to do it OOB at this point. Cheers Jimmy

Hi all, These are some pictures of my new OOB (or not so OOB) project: Thanks for coming by :-)

This is the 1/48th scale Tamiya P47-D Thunderbolt Razorback. The model was painted with Aeromaster acrylics with the exception of the canopy frame, which was painted with Xtracolor enamel. Artist gouache was used for weathering and to highlight the panel lines. The seat belts are from Eduard. The decals are Eagle Strike set number 48054. American Jabos. The markings are for Yankee Tarheel. Flown by Lt. H. I. Price. 510 F.S. 405 F.G. Thanks for looking, Joe

Hi all I haven't felt motivated to build anything since my Hasegawa P-47D Nose Art Collection Set in August 2014. However, I recently bought the Academy D-day set from those wonderful people at Creative Models and decided to add to my occasional RAF Boxted/USAAF Station 150 (here and here) collection by completing the Razorback in the set as "Spirit of Crawford Missouri", using the included decals. I found a colour photo of the subject taken on September 21st 1944 at Boxted, which was the day that this machine was lost near Arnhem, killing pilot 2nd Lt. Oscar L. Cagle Jr. This model was built last weekend as a "duck-breaker" straight from the box with ANA (Absolutely Nothing Added - not even tape seat belts!) The model was ideal to rekindle my enthusiasm, as it was a delight to build, with no and I mean NO filler used anywhere! The kit decals were intended to depict the aircraft on D-Day, but I wanted to show it roughly as it would have looked in September 1944, which meant not applying the wing stripes and cutting out the fuselage "Stars and Bars", as the invasion markings around the upper part of the fuselage had been removed by then. ​I used LifeColor Olive Drab and Neutral Gray applied in a deliberately blotchy manner, as this machine would have been relatively well-used by then, but a study of all the photos in the Roger Freeman/Osprey book "56th Fighter Group" shows that the airframes were clean and well-maintained at Boxted. I applied some minor chipping with a silver pen and gave the whole model a light Raw Umber wash, which was dragged in the direction of airflow. I used a tiny amount of Mig Black Smoke Pigment on the wing surrounding the .50 cal with the shortest barrel protrusion and a small streak to simulate exhaust staining on each side of the lower fuselage. All in all, this was great fun weekend build and the only criticism I would make of the kit is that the main gear legs seem too long, but I haven't measured them and made any comparisons with plans. Thanks for looking (please excuse the dust and the unattached windscreen as well as the poor quality images!) And here she is with the Hobbyboss kit on the left of the images and the Hasegawa kit on the right: