Model Tech: P-47D Thunderbolt

Model Airplane News, Dec 2002 by Onorato, Jim

A great-looking, great-flying warbird

Republic Aviation's P-47 Thunderbolt, affectionately nicknamed the "Jug," was one of the largest, fastest, most rugged and most heavily armed fighters of WW II. The fighter/bomber had eight 50-caliber machine guns plus rockets and bombs. It flew bomber escort missions over Europe and the jungles of Burma, and it escorted B-29s to Japan. Now, Model Tech has come up with a 1/7-scale reproduction of the big and beautiful P-471).

WHAT'S IN THE BOX?

When I opened the box, I first noticed how great the covering looked; it was smooth and tight. If yours has wrinkles in the covering, use an iron set to medium heat to smooth them out (at this heat, it won't melt the covering).

As I inspected the various components, I could see that the kit was of high quality and that the overall appearance and quality of workmanship was topnotch.

The P-47D features a fully sheeted fuselage that's made of balsa and lite-ply and has a true-to-scale, built-up elliptical wing. The foam-core, airfoil-shaped tail feathers are also balsa sheeted. The kit includes a beautiful factorypainted fiberglass cowl, a fiberglass belly pan, an engine mount, fixed and retractable landing gear, wheels, a fuel tank, clear molded canopy, plastic wing fairings, machine-gun fairings and wheel-well cups plus all the necessary hardware and decals. You need to supply a 4- or 5-channel radio, an engine, a propeller and fuel tubing. The kit even includes a beautifully polished aluminum spinner hub that's custom made for this aircraft.

The 68-page instruction book includes more than 110 photos and drawings to guide you through assembly. The instructions are very well written and contain a list of the kit's contents as well as a list of the additional items, tools and supplies needed to complete assembly; nothing was overlooked.

ASSEMBLY

Wing. After reading the instructions, I realized that the assembly sequence was not critical, so I decided to deviate from the instructions somewhat and to assemble the wing first. A plywood dihedral brace that slides into pockets in the wing panels is used to join them.

One of the panels has a hardwood dowel in the root rib that mates with a hole in the opposite root rib for perfect alignment-a nice touch! After making sure that everything fit correctly, I glued the panels together with 30minute epoxy.

The provided CA hinges for the control surfaces are only 3/4 inch square. I didn't think this provided a sufficiently large gluing surface, so I replaced the hinges with larger 3/4x1-inch hinges; it's better to be safe than sorry, and this model is too beautiful to risk damaging it in flight. I installed a Cirrus CS-60 aileron servo in each wing panel; they're attached to hardwood blocks that are epoxied to the servo hatches. I hooked up the servos to the ailerons with the provided hardware. Two 12-inch servo extensions are needed to extend the servo leads to the center of the wing. Paper tubes installed in the wing make this a simple task.

The retracts are installed next. The mounting rails are already installed, and the cutouts for the wheels and struts have been made for you. I had only to remove the covering from the cutouts, bend the pushrods to shape and bolt the retracts into place. The instructions include a photo that shows how to bend the pushrods to get the proper clearance for smooth operation-another nice touch. To operate the retracts, I used a Cirrus CS-100 retract servo. For modelers who have 4-channel radios, the kit includes hardware for fixed landing gear and a rather clever mounting block that you bolt right onto the retract mounting rails. With the installation of the moldedplastic wheel wells and the landing-gear covers, the wing is complete.

Fuselage. Instead of using the provided Smm machine screws, I attached the wing to the fuselage with 1/4-20 nylon bolts threaded into the plywood wing-mounting block. I did this because I didn't have a Smm tap, and I thought the larger nylon bolts would be stronger. I removed the covering from the underside of the wing where the fiberglass belly pan is located and then epoxied it into place.

I glued on the fin and stabilizer with 30-minute epoxy and then hinged the rudder and elevators. As with the ailerons, I used the longer CA hinges instead of the shorter ones provided. The rudder is covered in red and white stripes with a black vertical stripe at the hinge line. I removed the black stripe and replaced it with an Insignia Blue one. The tailwheel on the P-47D is in a scale location and is controlled by a separate pushrod from the rudder servo.

The tailwheel assembly is attached by screwing four capscrews into blind nuts that are already installed in a rear former. A removable hatch allows easy access.

I installed the die-cut servo tray on the support rails inside the fuselage and positioned the two closest servo cutouts toward the left side of the fuselage. I then installed three Cirrus CS-60 servos and assembled the pushrods (two for the elevators and two for the rudder/tailwheel) using the provided hardware.