Academy Republic P-47 ("Pride of Lodi")

Today’s completion is another one of the clutch of P-47 razorbacks that have been winding their way through the 72 Land production line during the great mojo revival of this spring. I do have a P-47E Doublebolt conversion in the early stages, but I think that once the last of these is completed I’ll concentrate on other types for a little while. I do have kits for the main (plastic) variants of the Me-163 that I haven’t already completed, and at least a couple of Eurofighters. Also, a couple of Northrop flying wing prototypes (N1M and XP-79) are having their cockpits built and painted. And there are the usual workbench queens (Beech Starship, a Eurofighter whif, Norseman airliner, and Yak-130) that seem to be taking their sweet time moving along the production line.

This P-47 was one of four I purchased from Scale Hobbyist, since I had been having trouble finding them in stock at other retailers. The Academy kit presented no problems during the construction phase, and since I still have sufficient Olive Drab and Neutral Grey Xtracolour tins – though the stock is starting to run low - painting was no great challenge either. I did manage to not notice the White wing leading edges during the first round of painting, but that was quickly rectified.

Decals came from Kits-World 72-132. The “Pride of Lodi” set is especially attractive since it not only has a presentation name but nose art as well. I was not aware that there is a Lodi Ohio; I was only aware of the California one from my days living in that state. The plane belonged to the 342^nd Fighter Squadron, 348^th Fighter Group, 5^th AF, and was piloted by Commanding Officer Lt Col Robert Rowland in 1943. He survived the war and was credited with 8 aerial victories.

This is completed aircraft #476 (9 aircraft, 2 ordnance, 7 vehicles for the year 2017), finished in June of 2017.