P-47D Thunderbolt

Easy, fun kit to build. Looks very nice on my shelf

Being away from modeling for a long time, I tried this kit as my first one back. I found it a pretty nice to build; decent kit, except for one thing. The decal sheet dissolved the instant the were wet enough to transfer. What made it worse is that there is no functioning customer service for the kit, either at the manufacturing or distributor levels. I went to an outside source for the identical aircraft (Mustang Hobbies, if I might mention), and got on with it. Turne out okay.

The Hobby Boss P-47 Easy Assemble Kit is just that – easy (and relatively inexpensive). If you are new to modeling or just getting back into it, this is a great starter kit. Molded in gray with good instructions you could easily build this kit in a weekend. That said, even a modeler with some experience can have issues. This model could be considered a snap tight kit so….be careful when you dry fit. I put the cockpit together which is fairly sparse and doesn’t include seat belts or a pilot. Wanting to make sure of alignment into the aircraft I tried to dry fit. Unfortunately, once you put the fuselage halves together, you are not pulling them apart. So, make sure you follow the instruction carefully, putting the pieces in before you put the fuselage together! Another potential issue is the decals. Mine went down perfectly, to include using micro sol/set. The problem is if you want to do Col Gabreski’s P-47, you better know how to do the invasion stripes as the decal sheet doesn’t have them. Additionally, I felt the blue on the national insignias were too light. As I am still not checked out in airbrushing, I used rattle cans (Tamiya AS-9, AS-32, and AS-7 for the bottom of the aircraft) and the kit comes with a great painting guide. I just happened to use Model Master Flat Black and Flat White for the stripes with absolutely no issues using two different manufactures of paint. Final product turned out great (looking to post some pictures soon) so I recommend the kit to anyone, even season modelers who need a break from tough kits.