1/72 Airfix P.47 Thunderbolt

Gallery Article by Paolo De Sanctis on Aug 11 2010

 

The aircraft: the Thunderbolt was the heaviest fighter-bomber used by Allies during WW2; with a top speed of 400m.p.h. and a service ceiling of about 40,000 feet the P.47 could out-perform some of its contemporaries but few people believed that it would ever become a satisfactory combat aircraft. The Thunderbolt went into service in 1943 and this was the major production version, almost 14,000 of which were produced.

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The model: as often happens to me, I bought this series 2 kit in the far 1978 and I built it OOB.  I brush painted it in the quite poor standard of that era and I realized the box suggested version, "Penrod & Sam".  This was an overall natural metal finished machine of 62°FS, 56°FG based in England.  Some thirteen years later, in October 1991 I decided to rescue and restore the subject, for the sake of my youth remembering.  So I totally dismantled and rebuilt it.  This kit is very important to me because I tried new modelling techniques with it, firstly the use of the display stand.

A dear friend of mine introduced me to the use of this precious option thus giving me a "new", fun and very useful idea to finish some of my models.  This P.47 has a completely scratchbuilt cockpit with a decal-dashboard, the cloche, the figure-pilot, etc. The engine and its interior was carefully painted altogether.  It was finished as a 319°FS, 325°FG, 15^ AF "Dallas Blonde", flown over Italy in 1944.  A Superscale decals sheet was used.  Colours were O.D. 41 (no-faded) FS.34088, O.D. (faded) FS. 34086 and Neutral Grey 43 FS. 36173 which became, in the Humbrol range, respectively: H.108, H.155 and H.64.

Many greetings from Italy!

Paolo De Sanctis

Photos and text © by Paolo De Sanctis