1:72 P-47C Razorback Thunderbolts

Heavy fighters of the men from the Eagle Squadrons

The 4th Fighter Group of the Eighth Air Force held an exceptional position among the American units in England. It came about from volunteers who had previously flown in the British Eagle Squadrons, and when in the spring of 1943 it exchanged featherweight Spitfires for the massive Thunderbolt in the C form, it was a hard school for its pilots. The sheet brings two sets of markings from precisely this watershed period, both from the 334th Squadron with the code pair QP.

The first machine with the production number 41-6358 carried the letter G and on the fuselage the inscription California or Bust, that is, a saying about the journey west of the kind settlers wrote on their wagons. Captain Archie W. Chatterley flew it. The second aircraft, number 41-6538 with the letter B, had the Hawaiian saying Wela Kahao on its skin and its pilot was Lieutenant Stanley M. Anderson.

Both examples belong to the early razorback guise of the Thunderbolt, which you will recognize by the high fuselage spine behind the cockpit and the framed canopy. For the builder that means choosing a matching kit, because the later bubble canopy would shift the markings into a different period. Razorback examples moreover flew without the auxiliary tanks under the wing, with which the range of the group was extended only later.

It is enough to immerse the backing paper in lukewarm water and after a while to slide the motif into place. With the large letters on the sides of the fuselage it pays to work in sections and to draw the excess water off with a paper tissue, so that the film does not start closing in on itself. Dried printing will then stand up even to an ordinary matte overcoat.