by Dale Slight

With the quality of Revell’s current crop of 1/72 scale aircraft, I eagerly awaited the newly announced P-47 Thunderbolt. At no time did I think that this kit would be a rehash of the early 1960's model, (I hoped), so I looked forward to seeing up close this new "Jug".

Moulded in light grey plastic with a very "Fujimigawa" feel to it, one is straight away taken with the wealth of detail. I mean Wow!, this is beautiful stuff type detail, but is it too good to be true?

With the parts out of the box, first impressions are very positive with a complete three piece engine and a cowling that when assembled will give an impression of a correct flow- through look complete with open cooling gills.

But something is not quite right. Your eye is drawn to the belly of the Fuselage. To say belly is really being polite as this is rather on the porcine side, a bit rotund, could do with six months in a "Jenny Craig" boot camp. Ok, so it looks fat, not deep? On comparison with the Academy P-47 Kit and 1/72 scale plans from the Aircraft Archives, drawn by G.R-Duval and plans from Aerodata International, drawn by A. Granger, it is in fact 6 scale inches too deep and 12 scale inches too long in the tail. Not much you say, but it shows. Both are very hard to cure faults but with this level of detail PR live with it.

The cowling looks very accurate although I’ll probably sand the intake lip down a bit to open it out. The tail planes are accurate but could be a bit too pointed. The wings are very accurate and match both plans in size and panel lines, especially those curved Ailerons and the under-carriage bays. The Fin and Rudder are spot on and comes with a separate Fin Fillet of the correct shape for this model. The many fuselage vents and exhaust exits are correctly placed and well defined but the Super-Charger Hood under the rear fuselage does appear to be a bit large.

Internally, this kit is furnished with a beautiful cockpit, floor, side consol, moulded instrument panel with rudder pedals, a seat with harness and a joystick with linkages, Just Marvellous! The canopy looks more accurate than many other P-47 Kits and has some lovely rivet detail around its base. The canopy and windscreen have a few blemishes on them but nothing that cannot be buffed out.

Other ancillary bits include terrific landing gear with weighted Oleo's, one piece landing gear doors that need cutting up and well detailed open spoked main wheels with bar tread, although 1 do prefer diamond tread tyres myself. The tail wheel and its bay are very good and your choice of open or closed, it just pops into it's hole in the fuselage. The propeller is a paddle-bladed Curtiss-Electric unit and even has lines for the yellow tips marked on it. The rest is all disposable stores which includes ten five inch rockets with separate, fine fins, two 150 gallon drop tanks and a pair of fantastically detailed bomb racks.

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