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Wolfpack Design is to rebox in September October November2021 the Academy 1/48th Republic P-47D Thunderbolt "MTO - Mediterranean Theater of Operation" kit - ref. WP14812 Sources: https://www.facebook.com/wolfpackd/posts/3847980635295113 http://www.wolfpack-d.com/catalog/htm/wp14812.html V.P.

Dora Wings is to release Republic P-47B/C & D (early) Thunderbolt kits in 1/48th and later in 1/72nd. Source: https://www.facebook.com/dorawingsofficial/posts/3084255388471684 3D renders - 1/48th Republic P-47B Thunderbolt V.P.

A recently finished build, this Tamiya P47D was built for a good friend. Finished in the colours of the Brazilian Air Force, it represents a machine flown by Ten. Cel. Nero Moura in 1944. Build was OOB and straightforward..well it IS a Tamiya kit The only aftermarket used was an Eduard instrument panel. Finished with Tamiya Laquers and lightly weathered, per my friends wishes. Decals are from the excellent FCM Decals and they went down without any problems. I must admit to having no knowledge of these machines being used by the BAF, but a bit of research brought up some interesting reading. Thanks for looking Gary

Thanks Stephen ! Rumour: there's a new tooling 1/48th Fairchild Republic A-10C Thunderbolt II reported in the pipe line. Candidates: Wolfpack Design (too big kit for such a small producer IMO), Academy (dubious as not mentionned in the catalogue 2021, but in 2022 as the rumour source is M. Jung from Wolfpack Design who has close ties with Academy), Great Wall Hobby (is supposed working on a new tool 1/48th F-14 family, but considering the numerous new tool kits from the Tomcat... So why not a A-10), AFV-Club (after the 1/48th U-2...), Meng (after the 1/48th F/A-18E...), Kinetic (a surprise kit like the 1/48th (T)F-104, Wolfpack Design - so M. Jung - being the Kinetic distributor in Korea). All bets are off. Source: Reid Air Publications Facebook page. If you go to the link about the new A-10C decal sheet, there's a comment from Gustav Jung (aka Mr. Wolfpack Design - link) about a new tool 1/48th Thunderbolt II kit - see herebelow. https://www.facebook.com/177633712268219/posts/4024256017605950/ V.P.

Hello everyone! First topic on WiP and hope it goes well! The kit is the Academy 1/72 A-10A Thunderbolt II. When I bought it I thought it was a real bargain! Only 12Euros, nice engraved panel lines with some rivets on, plenty of weapons, nice plastic, what could possibly go wrong? Well, when the built started I realised that the kit has very poor fit in almost all the important parts (upper and lower wing parts, engine base with rear fuselage, wings with fuselage, etc). I have heard (but it was too late) that the decals are trouble as well... Anyway, I don't like being grouchy so I will continue with positive thoughts and energy to my built! I started with the landing gear bays and struts. At this point I need to mention that I had decided to do this strictly out of the box, without any improvements and aftermarkets. But when I started with the front landing gear bay I realised that it looked seriously wrong comparing to reference photos. So I changed my mind and proceeded to some limited improvements with what I have on my bench. Aftermarkets are still banned due to severe budget restrictions... So the inner structure of front bay was enriched with some plastic strips and cables just to look busy enough. Weight was added at the front in order to avoid tail sitting when everything will be in place. Some work was done to the landing gear bays on the wings. They were painted black and then white. Some wiring was also added to the rear struts. The cockpit was kept as it was from the kit. Only the side panels were scribed to outline the panels of switches and buttons when the decals would go on them but didn't do any difference. The cockpit was painted with Humbrol 140. The seat on the other hand received more love from me. I added the cushion at the back of the seat made from metal foil, wiring and few details at the sides, few details on the headrest, harnesses and ejection handle. Here is the cockpit before the decals... ...and here after the decals. The engraved lines were not necessary but it was not much trouble anyway! Here is the seat, painted awaiting an oil wash... ... and after the wash. I didn't want to over do it. It's only an advanced and super expensive chair after all! That is all for now. I will come back to you soon with an update as the built has proceeded a bit. Hope you find it interesting. Fire at will if there is something that you think goes wrong with the built! Take care everyone and stay safe!

Having just finished up on the 1/72 XP-72 Super Thunderbolt, I am trying to stay on a roll by starting on a model that I have always wanted, but heretofore could not figure how get. I THINK that I have finally figured out how to do it, because I'm just tired of waiting for all you lazy people out there to do it for me! So, with great hope, and no guarantee, here we go... First up, the famous bird, the very first of the actual P-47 line to be built, the XP-47B. Both the proposed XP-47 and the XP-47A proposals were never built, as they would have been under powered and totally unsuited for war. Here is what the beast looked like: Among the most notable differences between the XP-47B and the later XP-47D variants were: (1) 8" shorter nose section (2) totally different rear side view windows, and (3) the fewer cooling flaps on the cowling. These are all obstacles to be overcome if we are to model this variant. The kit I chose to hack up was this one: the Academy 1/72 Razorback kit. I have the slightly better Tamiya kit on hand, but as I don't have a razorback "D" in the collection yet, I will save the Tamiya kit for it's intended use. I also have several of the old Hasegawa kit (parts of which were used in the XP-72 build, mentioned earlier) but they didn't meet the simple criteria that the rear-view glass on either side fit snugly into the window cutout. This kit does, and we will eventually see why this is important. While the Academy kit has a decent cockpit, I will use the True Details P-47D-M set instead. We begin by holding the two kit fuselage halves together, and gluing ONLY the two rear cockpit join lines indicated by the arrows, below: Middle above, the rear cockpit interior is cut away from the fuselage halves, using a razor saw, the thinnest one I could find. Next, above right, the rear canopy molding is taped along the rear vertical panel lines and scribed a few times, in preparation for cutting the rear parts off: Next, after adding some .005" plastic card to make up for the razor saw kerf, the rear side windows are glued to the fuselage halves: Above right, after drying the entire front of the turtle-deck, including the rear side windows, is then sawn from the fuselage halves, as shown. OOPS -- BEFORE that, the door part of the left fuselage side was cut out and glued to the center part of the kit canopy, shown loosely setting in position, below: Above right, the white plastic card spacer is cut down flush to the inside and outside of the canopy, and the whole thing is sanded very smooth, including areas of filler, shown in red. More sanding, filling and a couple of dips into the old bottle of Future will hopefully yield masters suitable for making new clear parts with casting resin. WE will see how that turn out. More later. Stay tuned for more butchery, and possibly, foul language, suitably blanked out... Ed

Hello Friends! Thunderbolt P-47D-28-RA I decided to do some improvements to the kit Worked with the engine and undercarriage bays Machine guns made from injection needles I selected the serial number according to the reference literature Enjoy watching! I wanted it as best, it turned out as always...

After the 1/24th P-47D Thunderbolt "Bubbletop" (http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234957632-124-republic-p-47d-thunderbolt-by-kinetic-ex-vintage-fighter-series-released/) Kinetic is to release another variant from this big fighter, the 1/24th Republic P-47D Thunderbolt "Razorback" - ref.K3208. Source: https://www.facebook.com/Kineticmodel/posts/409563222544128 V.P.

Hello and Welcome to a collection of my builds that I'll fill up as this CraZY year progresses. Hope you enjoy them. Johnny Messerschmitt Me 262B-1a/U1 by Airfix 1/72 WIP RFI The Mighty "JUG". P-47 N Thunderbolt by Academy 1/48 WIP RFI De Havilland Sea Venom 1/32 by Revell / Matchbox WIP RFI Dr Spadgent's House of Horrors . ( Multitudinous modelling ) Horton Go 229 1:72 Revell WIP RFI Bell AH-1 / AB-47 1:72 Italeri WIP RFI Polikarpov I-16 Zvesda 1:144 WIP RFI Bristol Blenheim Mk.1f Airfix 1:72 WIP RFI The Mi-24v “HIND” 1/48 by Zvezda WIP TO BE CONTINUED........................................................

Inspired by my visit at Hendon I decided to built five British Thunderbolts. The two Mk I kits are Academy whereas the Mk IIs are built from an Academy, a Hasegawa and a Hobby Boss Kit. I just took every Thunderbolt that I still had in my stash and made good use of the XRTADECAL Thunderbolt sheet. Some of the drop tanks were sourced from Hasegawa P-38 kits. Each of the planes was brush painted. Thunderbolt Mk I HB492 D 135 Squadron based at Chittagong, India 1944 Thunderbolt Mk I HD648 NA C 146 Squadron based at Kumbhirgram, India 1944 Thunderbolt Mk II HD196 GQ B 134 Squadron, Burma 1945 Thunderbolt Mk II HD295 NA F 146 Squadron flown by Squadron Leader Weir based at Kumbhirgram, India 1944 Thunderbolt Mk II KL339 FL O 81 Squadron based at Kemajoram, Java 1946 CI MG2538 by Martin Pelz, on Flickr CIMG2537 by Martin Pelz, on Flickr CIMG2542 by Martin Pelz, on Flickr CIMG2539 by Martin Pelz, on Flickr CIMG2562 by Martin Pelz, on Flickr CIMG2551 by Martin Pelz, on Flickr CIMG2543 by Martin Pelz, on Flickr CIMG2576 by Martin Pelz, on Flickr CIMG2546 by Martin Pelz, on Flickr

Republic P-43 Lancer (DW48029) 1:48 Dora Wings via Albion Alloys Ltd The P-43 Lancer was a work-in-progress in the mid-30s, and bears more than a passing resemblance to the pinnacle of its design, the P-47 Thunderbolt. Republic’s name was changed from Seversky, and it was their P-35 that was the jumping-off point for a number of designs in the period when it wasn’t yet certain that the US was going to join the war in Europe. The P-43 was one of the more successful designs, but it was an aircraft with some limitations, only performing at its best at higher altitudes where it was fast enough to catch and kill high flying reconnaissance aircraft. Lower down it wasn’t so great, so while it went into limited service with the US Air Force and other operators in small numbers it was soon obsolete thanks to the speed of technological progress during war. Some aircraft found their way to the AVG, flying against the Japanese before the US entered the war officially, where they were well-liked enough that when they were withdrawn, petitions were made by the Flying Tigers to keep them. They also served as high altitude reconnaissance with the RAAF who received a few airframes, and to intercept the aforementioned reconnaissance aircraft, but with only just under 300 built they were never destined for fame, and the P-44 Rocket that was to replace it didn’t even reach service, as the P-47 was just so good. The Kit This is a brand-new tool from our friends at Dora Wings, who have a short but interesting history of producing unusual subjects in various scales. I built their P-63E KingCobra kit when it was released, and thoroughly enjoyed it, despite a few trials, some of which were of my own making. Perusing the sprues of this kit gives me the impression that the moulding has moved on somewhat since then, and detail is good too, with decent transparencies, instrument panels with decals for each one, and a well-moulded engine, some PE parts with an alternate instrument panel and even some masks. That’s a pretty good package. The kit arrives in a small top-opening box, with six sprues in grey styrene, a clear sprue, a sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, a small pre-cut vinyl mask sheet and a medium sized decal sheet, with the colour A5 instruction booklet that has painting and decaling instructions in the rear completing the package. Moulding is neat, and while there are loads of sink marks on the sprues, there aren't any visible on the parts, although there is a small amount of flash on the parts that make up the supercharger, but that won't take more than a few scrapes to remove - the logo on the photo covers it nicely though Construction begins with the cockpit, starting with the instrument panel (IP), which can be either built with moulded-in dials and decal over the top, or with a flat panel to which you apply the decal then the PE panel to allow the decals to show through more realistically. Rudder pedals are fitted to the back of the IP, sidewalls are detailed with additional parts, then the sections are joined together on a floor panel and rear bulkhead, strengthened with the side panels and with the seat and PE belts glued in place and a short control column in front. The cockpit is put to the side while the firewall and engine mounts are made up, then the tail wheel bay, supercharger assembly, landing gear with 2-part tyres and separate scissor-links, and finally the engine. This is well-detailed, with both cylinder banks fully replicated with push-rods, reduction housing bell at the front, ignition harness and finally the close-fitting cowling added. The initial cowling comprises three parts plus a PE grille in the bottom, with the cowling lip added to the front and the PE cooling flaps inserted into the gap at the rear, giving a scale look and a view into the engine, so you’ve not wasted your time painting it. The prop is also made up, with all blades moulded together, a spinner at the front and a tiny ring at the rear. All of this makes for a very fast final assembly, and is akin to the process many modellers take when building a model – you can tell Eugen and friends are modellers first and foremost. The cockpit and firewall are joined together first, then trapped between the fuselage halves along with the tail wheel bay, while the full-width lower wing has the two bay parts inserted then closed over with the upper wing halves, filling the gap in the middle with the fuselage. The ailerons are also separate parts, which is also the case with the tail feathers, giving you some options for a more candid pose. A clear gunsight, headrest and the rear canopy section are fitted first, then the rest of the canopy and windscreen are added to close it over, while the engine cowling assembly is glued to the front of the fuselage onto its mounts. Flipping the model over, the supercharger, cooling flap, pitot and wing guns are installed along with the prop, which you’ll probably leave off until later, then the main gear assemblies, bay doors and tail wheel with bay doors added while it is still inverted. Job done! Markings You get a generous four decal options in the box on a medium-sized decal sheet that is bright and colourful. From the box you can build one of the following: YP-43 Lancer, US Air Force, 1941 P-43A Lancer s/n 40-2920, 55th Pursuit Group, Portland Air Base, Jan 1942 P-43A Lancer s/n 41-6721, US Air Force 1942 P-43A Lancer s/n 41-31496, Aug 1943 Decals are by DecoGraph, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin matt carrier film cut close to the printed areas. On the rear of the booklet is a colour table decoding the letter codes given throughout the instructions in Mr Hobby, Tamiya, AMMO, Hataka and Life Color codes, plus a key for the instruction icons that are also seen within. The vinyl masks are ready for application to the canopy, taking some of the work out of that aspect of the build, which is always welcome. Conclusion Dora Wings are to be lauded for their efforts to widen the subjects covered in all scales, and with the improvements they have made so far in their successive products, we’re going to be treated to many more interesting and esoteric kits in the future in differing scales, and I really like this one, which will look great next to my old Academy P-47D I built a number of years back. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of UK Distributors of

Republic P-47D Thunderbolt - WZ-P - No.226551 As flown by Lt.Col. Benjamin Mayo, 84th FS, 78th FG, Duxford Air Base, 1944 Kit: 1/48 Tamiya "Bubbletop" Paints: Citadel, Humbrol and Revell - all applied by brush. Built mostly OOB apart from a few bits of scratch-built plastic and wire in the cockpit and wheel wells. This was built as part of the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt STGB Work In Progress: Here This build represents a number of firsts for me. It's the first non-Spitfire aircraft build since getting back into making kits again a few years back (I'm not counting the Captain Scarlet Angel's Interceptor here!). I'm pretty sure I only made one American aircraft when I was a child which, I think, was a Hellcat. This is also the first time I have attempted a brush painted NMF on such a large area. With regards the NMF paint - I got a lot of advice from fellow Britmodellers, thank you, and did some practicing on some scrap bits before deciding to use Citadel's Runefang Steel - I've not really used much Citadel paint in the past either. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed building this kit - it is a well detailed kit and the fit is excellent. Some photos: The detail in the cockpit was excellent but I couldn't get any decent photos yesterday so here are a few from during the build: Photos of the undersides added 04/04/16: Edit 04/04/16: I have now added some photos of the detail on the undersides (above). I'll also do some more B&W versions when I get chance. Edit - B&W photos added 09/04/16 As always: comments and suggestions welcome. Kind regards, Stix

I present this RFI

Sword is to rebox its 1/72nd Republic P-47N Thunderbolt in a 2in1 kit - ref. SW72121 Source: http://swordmodels.cz/en/home/140-sw-72121-p-47n-2-in-1.html V.P.

Hello everyone... With my RF-4B Phantom shelved due to unforeseen circumstances. I decided to go dig in my stash. I found three Kits that would fall under the rules, though two of them are slated for the Corsair STGB. That left this kit, Monograms classic P-47D Thunderbolt from 1983. I first built this very kit in junior high about the time it came out in this boxing, so ‘83-‘84. I would build three more of these before I was 21. https://www.scalemates.com/kits/monogram-6838-thunderbolt-p-47d--159066 I found this kit by chance last November at the one local swap meet here in Chicago and grabbed it. A gentleman was selling his late fathers collection. I grabbed two kits this one and the Monogram P-51B for a total of $7. Both were bagged kits this one still in a shrink wrapped box. So for the obligatory sprue photos. Now the kit is not difficult as its only about 40 pieces total. Here are the Kit Markings, “The Turtle #10 509th Fs., 405th Fg, 9th USAAF based somewhere in France summer 1944. The other option are these two Jugs. These are also from the same 405th Fg. The 509th and 510 Fs. I have a fourth and fifth option but would need custom decals printed for that plane, and it would be from the 12th A.F. 57th Fg. in Italy. If I can find someone to make them for me it would definitely move up to the front. The last one would be to cobble the markings to make a RAF Thunderbolt II from the CBI Theatre. Please feel free to ask questions, post comments, and or thoughts. Dennis

P-47D Wheels (648484 for Tamiya) 1:48 Eduard Brassin In 1:48 we have a choice of Thunderbolts from Academy and Tamiya, both of which could do with a set of nice crisp resin wheels, which is exactly what you’ll find in this set. Arriving in the new low-profile flat-packs that Eduard are using for their small resin sets, there are two wheels with highly detailed hubs, two hub caps that have flash between the spokes, and a small white tail wheel with moulded-in strut. There are also flat hubcaps on the accompanying Photo-Etch (PE) fret, and a sheet of pre-cut kabuki-tape masks for all three wheels. Detail is exceptional, as you can see from the photos, and they are a huge improvement on the kit parts from either camp, with sensibly placed attachment points on the slight flat-spot that gives the tyre some weighting as appropriate to the weight of the machine. Review sample courtesy of

Good morning everyone I’ve recently joined Britmodeller and this is the first of two recently completed 1/72 scale builds - well not really ‘builds’ as they were more ‘restoration’ projects! A friend gave me the (Revell I believe) P-51B Mustang without propeller, canopy and landing gear, and in olive drab camouflage. I used a spare Malcolm hood and a set of Techmod decals to recreate this Mustang III flown by Squadron Leader Eugeniusz Horbaczewski of 315 Squadron, RAF in June 1944. The second aircraft is a restored Republic F-47N (P-47N until 1948) Thunderbolt of the 198th Fighter Squadron (Augmented), Puerto Rico Air National Guard, 1947-53. This model (probably Revell too) is a P-47M and also came in olive drab with a damaged undercarriage, missing canopy and propeller. I used Blue Rider Aircraft decals, a Quickboost propeller and a Falcon canopy; I also used the project to experiment with Tamiya AS-12 Bare metal silver finish. On a note of historical accuracy the subject aircraft - ‘Wild Hare’ 44-89425 which resides in the Peterson Air and Space Museum, Peterson AFB, Colorado - is a ’N’ version with slightly longer wing span (to hold more fuel for Pacific missions) while the kit I restored is an ‘M’ version. Thanks for looking! Mike

Hobby Boss is to re-box (with new decals ?) its 1/48th Republic P-47D Thunderbolt kit as ref. 85811 Release expected in China in late September 2019. Source: http://www.hobbyboss.com/index.php?g=home&m=article&a=show&id=143&l=en In box review of the 2012 original boxing - ref. 85804: https://www.cybermodeler.com/hobby/kits/hb/kit_hb_85804.shtml V.P.

Another old kit, this time a Hasegawa P47D Thunderbolt. Circa 1972 I think. Part of the stash I bought from the family of an avid modeller who passed away. The stash is in another post. The decals are useless as they are stuck fast to the backing and crumbles when soaked and I tried to tease them apart. So for this one I tried printing my own decal. More of it later on.

Hi! Some of my Thunderbolts on the working table... From top to bottom... Revell P-47D, 509th FS, 405th FG, 9th Air Force. Academy P-47D, 509 FS, 405th FG, 9th Air Force. Revell P-47M, 63rd FS, 56th FG, 8th Air Force. Cheers / André

Hi Guys, just finished this one, it was built for a GB on another forum. It's only the 2nd aircraft I've built, so plenty of mistakes and still a lot to learn.

Hallo again This is my P-47D Thunderbolt. 1/32 Kit is Trumpeter. Stencils are from HGW as wet transfers. Happy modelling

Pics by Nick Cronin 44-90464 (ex-Yugoslav AF 13056) - Museum of Aviation, Belgrade

Hi everybody, my recent completion: P-47D 42-7937, 62nd Fighter Squadron, 56th Fighter Group, 8th Air Force, Lt. Anthony R. Carcione, late 1943. The stereotypical USAAF aircraft as we imagine it carried some nose art, so when I decided to do a P-47, I was looking for one with either a cartoon figure or a pin-up. Finding a meaningful photo and the corresponding decal sheet can be frustrating at times, but finally, I settled for this aircraft that even displayed two dames, one more appropriately dressed than the other. This particular aircraft is quite well documented; apart from several photos it was also captured on film and appeared in the wartime documentary „Ramrod to Emden“ (www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_5ELQhzrPA). You can see LM-Q at about 32:05 in this clip. Part of the cowling with the nose art even survived to this day and apparently can be seen in a museum in Suffolk. This aircraft is representative of the moment when the 8th Air Force’s strategic bombing campaign against Germany was still teetering on a knife-edge, and the P-47s and P-38s struggled to protect the bombers during the most crucial points of the campaign. The puny P-51 only took over the role of the Thunderbolts and Lightning later. This is Tamiya’s 1/72 kit, and it is, of course, of the highest quality. The fit of the canopy is actually so tight that I couldn’t remove it again after test-fitting. The decals were included in the booklet Nigel Julian/Peter Randall/Zbigniew Kolacha, 56th Fighter Group. Part 1 (AJ Press), which I highly recommend. The red-bordered stars neither come with the kit nor the booklet, so I used a separate decal sheet by Experts Choice. One of the nice things about modelling is that you really learn new things about your subject. In this case, I learned that early and late D-models differ regarding the cooling flaps. On the later production blocks (and most likely the majority of all Thunderbolts built) the lower two flaps on each side are cut back and therefore narrower than the other flaps. The Tamiya kit and I guess every other kit has this later variant. 42-7937, however, was one of the early production blocks. Unfortunately, I discovered this only when I had already started airbrushing the model. So some meticulous last-minute cutting, puttying, adding of plastic sheet and sanding was due. Otherwise, this aircraft also needed a whip antenna instead of the antenna mast supplied with the kit. Now somebody should build an even earlier 56th FG P-47C with the yellow-bordered insignia without bars. Every comment welcome.

I built this kit oob , the kit coming along very nice , minimal fitting. I have the problem when i masking to paint over the decal, when i take the masking tape out it rip the decal i have to masking again and the decal is brittle and very thin, the most time consuming part is the decal. I use Ammo Mig Aluminum color for the whole aircraft and masking panel on the wing and paint with different shade of metal to break the mono-tone of the color. Overall this kit is very nice and easy to build, beware of the thin and brittle decal . Here is the video how i build the model : Youtube link removed And here is some photos of the model :