This
Academy kit was probably the cheapest 48th scale P-47 that I could
find in Australia which was surprisingly quite detail. I've
enjoyed building my 1/48 Academy A-10 Thunderbolt II (also in ARC gallery) so
much that I've decided to build its WW2 predecessor as well. Like most of
my models, it has been built right out of the box with no aftermarket parts.
The
radial engine is quite nice but I added extra fuel lines for each of the piston,
made out of thin copper wire and then super glued on. The cockpit is OK but some
sections are inaccurate. I had to add extra piping and cables
on the side walls to represent the real thing as much as I could. The gun sight
supplied by the kit is ridiculous and does not even half resemble a round
glass-piece. I had to cut out a piece of transparent plastic
as round as possible for the gun sight but it turned out alright.
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images below to see larger images
Sadly,
I cracked the front canopy in three places during construction and it was beyond
repair therefore had to custom build one myself. It’s quite
obvious that the front canopy is a bit out of whack but I guess that will just
have to do, considering that it was made out of a coke bottle. Extra
seat belts made out of plastic strips were also added on the bucket seats.
The
kit also comes with several weapons and fuel tanks combo which is a nice option
except that you had to file off the rocket pylons if you prefer the rocket
launchers instead which was what I opted for. I have also
added brake lines for the landing gears to make it look more complete and
dry-brushed the tyres with a sandy colour emphasizing the detailed thread
pattern.
I got
carried away with trying to make this bird as unique as possible by actually
cutting out the wing flaps and extending it out for displaying purposes.
This was definitely the dumbest idea because the flap control rods and
linkages had to be exposed on the under wing. After about
50,000 attempts to construct these parts out of plastic sprues, I gave up with
just a rough representation of the linkages which is quite lame if you look
closely.
Overall, this budget model is not a
bad kit (if you don't crack the canopy and saw parts off for fun!) with
well-defined panel lines and the parts fit nicely together. Other
pluses include the option to have the bubble canopy opened or closed and the
exposed gun bay on the wings adds the extra touch.
Jason Foo
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images below to see larger images
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