Academy Republic P-47 bubbletop

Today’s completion is the latest in a long string of Republic P-47 Thunderbolts. I have completed something like 25+ of them already, and have decals on hand for 3 or 4 times more than that. One sheet I recently picked up was Kits-World 72-052, which has markings for “Eight Nifties”. I like Kits World decals; they work well and always feature some sort of nose art.

This particular P-47 was flown by Clyde Knisley while he was with the 510 Fighter Squadron (405 Fighter Group) in the ETO. He was killed in January of 1945 when flak set this aircraft on fire and he baled out at too low an altitude.

The kit is the Academy razorback. The Tamiya kit is better engineered and a delight to build, but the unit price is double that of the Academy version. As I’ve said before, if you’re going to build only one P-47, use the Tamiya. If you intend to put together a lineup to show off nose art, the Academy kit is more than adequate.

The biggest problem I had, as you can see from the photos, was the canopy. A bit too much glue to seal it to the fuselage, which caused some minor frosting around the bottom. I have since invested in a bottle of Pledge Floorcare acrylic clear finish, which will hopefully prevent this sort of issue in the future.

For the blue stripes, I used Xtracolour Oxford Blue (since I had that color loaded into the brush for the recent Bae Hawk T2). The metal finish is Alclad White Aluminum. I’m all out of any sort of wire, so the antenna line from mast to tail will need to be added at a later date.

This is completed aircraft #472 (5 aircraft, 1 ordnance, 2 vehicles for the year 2017), finished in April of 2017.