Republic P-47D-5 Razorback

by Floyd S. Werner Jr.

images by Milton Bell

I know that this isn’t a German airplane, but I can build other aircraft. Just don’t tell my wife - she thinks that I only buy Luftwaffe stuff.

I’ve always liked the Thunderbolt so I thought I'd take a little detour from my usual Luftwaffe subject matter. The added benefit was that I could build another Don Gentile’s aircraft.

Have you ever built a model where you just had to have all the accessories? That is how I was with the Hasegawa P-47D Razorback. I’ve wanted to build Don Gentile’s “Donnie Boy” since I saw the 1/32nd scale decals from Superscale. I was going to have the Superscale decals shrunk down for quarter scale but decided to wait. At a show, I mentioned to Gaston at Aeromaster how much I wanted to build Gentile’s aircraft both his Spitfire and Thunderbolt, as well as, his P-51B in 1/48th scale. He just told me to be patient. Aeromaster finally released the decals about a year later. I was in hog heaven.

I was collecting lots of aftermarket stuff for the Monogram kit and kept right on collecting after the Hasegawa kit was released. It quickly became evident that I would spend about three times the kit costs on after market items. I just had to have it all.

I’ve always loved the P-47, even more than the P-51. As a little boy, I remember buying the Revell 1/32nd kit with a record in it and listening to it until my record player broke. I also stayed up late to see the movie “Fighter Squadron”. It was a great color film loosely based on the exploits of the Fourth Fighter Group, my favorite American unit. Of course, there was the great color documentary of Thunderbolts in Italy. I also enjoyed reading about the exploits of Don Gentile and his wingman, John Godfrey.

Gentile was an extremely good pilot with a colorful, almost gaudily, decorated aircraft. He flew with the Eagle Squadrons from the early days of Hurricanes and Spitfires through the P-51B period. He scored his first victories with the P-47 over Dieppe during the disastrous Allied landing.

By the time he left England he was the leading American ace, but like any great hero he was fallible. He crashed his beautiful “Shangri-La” at Debden following his last mission on a low-level pass for the camera crews. Following this, he went on a War Bonds tour in a brand new P-51D. Gentile was eventually killed in the crash of a T-33.

The kit started out life as Hasegawa’s 1/48 scale kit # JT58 P-47D Razorback ‘Southwest Pacific’. It represents the D-5 variant of Thunderbolt. The D-5 had an enlarged keel to carry more fuel but was not fitted with wing racks. It had straight cowl flaps all the way down. One of the things that made 4th Fighter Group P-47s slightly different was that they only carried six guns in the wings. There were fittings for eight but the logic was that a full load of fuel and more rounds per gun (longer bursts) were preferred. The early Jugs did not have that much excess power to carry full fuel and armament so a compromise had to be made.

Typical of Hasegawa releases this kit comes in light gray plastic with finely engraved panel lines, clear parts and some good quality, if not thick, decals.

Fuselage

I started with a KMC cockpit set in my effort to use as much of my after-market stash as possible. If you can find this set, it is beautiful. The parts are a marked improvement over the kit cockpit. Molded in light tan resin the KMC set is bubble free. The only trouble I had was one section of the wiring harness on left side broke off in handling and had to be replaced with real wire. The set is designed specifically for the Hasegawa razorback kit. Construction was straightforward and fit was exceptional. The entire interior was painted with Model Master Interior Green and Dry brushed with Polly-S Interior Green and Model Master Zinc Chromate. Finally the assembly was touched up with a light drybrush of Titanium white. Silver Pencil was used to simulate the wear patterns and chipped paint.

I wanted to reposition the control surfaces, but after checking the Verlinden set and the KMC set with the kit parts I determined that the rudder and the ailerons would not fit, either the shape or the hinge line was wrong. I added the horizontal tail assemblies after I removed the elevators from the kit. The fit was great and I added a tube to the elevator horn to complete the assembly.

I washed the entire model with Dawn dishwashing detergent and let it dry over night. I checked the surface for imperfections by painting the model with Alclad Aluminum. After I was happy with the results I preshaded the entire model with Polly-S Flat Black. Polly-S Flat White was painted over the areas where the identification bands would be. I then masked the stripes and the nose markings. Note that the identification band on the vertical fin is 12” and the ones on the horizontal are 15”. This is a small difference but a noticeable difference. Next the Polly-S neutral gray was added to the bottom. Finally, I used Gunze Olive Drab 2, which I thought looked correct. After letting the model dry a day I coated it with Future in prep for the decals.

I used the Aeromaster sheets for the Eagle Squadron: The Early Days and the P-47 Data Sheet. A hint here, cut the fuselage stars and bars as close as you can for the intercooler doors. This will aid in placement. I had some slight problems with the wing stars and bars, but they were quite acceptable to me after a few coats of clear. After letting the decals dry for a few days a coat of Future was applied and the next day a coat of Polly-S Flat was applied.

I started weathering with a light wash of burnt umber. I chipped some of the paint to get to the Alclad underneath and a silver pencil for more layers. Pastels were used on various panels and for the exhaust stains. I always weather more than I think I should then I cover the whole process with another coat of Polly-S Flat and this tones down the finish and weathering. Everything is blended and secured together.

I found the kit a real joy to build and will build more. That is the best compliment I can give a kit. The Thunderbolt will fit perfectly in my collection of Gentile aircraft. My thanks to Aeromaster for finally putting out the decal sheet, now if we can get his P-51D. The fit problems may cause some problems for inexperienced builders but well within most modelers’ capabilities.

The aftermarket stuff was superior. The Aires wheel well set, Teknics gear, KMC cockpit and True Detail wheels are definitely the way to go. The Verlinden set while nice was not really necessary. The kit engine was beautiful, but like the Verlinden engine was hidden. The Verlinden engine required lots of experience to build properly. I did enjoy the look of the Verlinden cowl flaps and the elevators are the only accurate ones available, but don’t think this justifies the cost of the kit. I’m sure that more of the set would be used in a bubble top P-47. I’ll build one later for sure.