Academy 1/72 P-17D "Razorback" Thunderbolt

ACADEMY 1:72 P-47D "RAZORBACK"

Reviewer: Gavin Reed (rec.models.scale)

The P-47 Thunderbolt is a large and rugged World War II fighter that proved its worth on a number of occasions during the Pacific and European air wars. Affectionately known as the 'Jug' - given due to its outline if stood on its nose - the P-47 had a renowned reputation for returning home after absorbing more punishment that would generally down most of the other aircraft. The P-47D was one of the more common and definitive variants of this classic aircraft. The Razorback variant was given this nickname due to the more conventional canopy style of aircraft of the era.

This kit is much in the same vein as the other Academy "Bubbletop" variant released at the same time as this one. I have written a review and supplied it to this web site, please refer to the index (Ed note: link below) to navigate, but basically both kits are identical other than decals and their specific differences in variant.

This Academy kit depicts the 'razorback' variant of the Thunderbolt, distinctive by its cage-like canopy. It should be noted that the other variety, known as the 'Bubble-top' is also available from Academy as stated above. About 55 plastic parts and a two-piece canopy are included in the kit with a double-sided sheet of instructions. Panel lines are recessed and quite well defined. Wheel well detail is not too bad either.

Construction on this model starts with an adequately detailed cockpit that includes main panels, stick, seat and sidewall moldings. Internally I painted everything in interior green and used semi-gloss black for panels. Everything fits nice and snuggly inside the cockpit housing.

Fit of the major components such as fuselage and wings sections are excellent and I only needed a tiny spot of filler for gaps. The join lines did need a touch of sanding, however, but nothing that required much attention at all. The wing roots were a touch out of alignment resulting in steps visibile in the wing-fuselage join.

The engine cowling encases a nicely rendered Pratt & Whitney engine that is viewable inside the nose. Positioning was a touch difficult and it can be easily offcentered to the right if not careful. It needs to be given a dark aluminium finish - perhaps a gunmetal colour - with small black streaks to highlight a worked engine. I chose a dark metallic grey wash I have prepared myself especially for this component and it looks the part perfectly. The kit provides both Curtiss Electric and Hamilton Standard propellers depending on the example you wish to build. The only comment I make here is that the Curtiss Electric propeller unit seems a bit oversized.

The undercarriage went nicely together and the non-weighted tyres even had tread on them. I carefully filed the bottom of the tyres to flatten them and using my skills smoothed on some tiny bits of putty to give it a bulged and more realistic appeal. Of course the treads aren't visible on these makeshift components and the trained eye can tell the difference - but it looks good all the same. The main landing gear struts are a bit long and the trained 'Jug' eye will spot this easily. Also, the spokes are visible in the wheels but the majority of my reference material suggests the wheels should have hubs.

The rest of the construction process went basically without a hitch. Weapon options in the kit include choices for two types of drop tanks, underwing bombs and rocket launcher tubes. I chose to put on the rocket launchers (I left them off the Bubbletop variant) and the underwing bombs. Again (like the bubbletop review) I could see that the gun-barrel positioning is suspect but I still can't put my finger on it. They are, however, a bit too short and fat to scale. The two-piece canopy is excellent but I needed to sand behind the cockpit to display it opened correctly. The canopy also seemed a bit too narrow in my eyes (reminding me of their skinny Hurricane models!).

The kit allows reproduction of two camouflaged aircraft and very nicely coloured decals including the familiar black/yellow checkerboard fins from 325th Fighter Group. I painted the aircraft in the olive drab as depicted on the boxtop and the decals went on quite well with Decalfix. The only annoyance is that the red and white have a bleed through effect.

The finished product is very accurate to scale as far as measurements are concerned. There are, however, are number of small imperfections as touched on in this review, another is that my photos show the pitot tube on the port wing but the kit instructs you to attach it to the starboard side. But overall is still very acceptable and probably the best offering in this scale. Detail is excellent and beats Hasegawan varieties in both finish and price. This kit would suit all modelling skills because of its sheer delight and ease to construct and thus comes very highly recommended.

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