1:32 P-47D Thunderbolts

Thunderbolts of the 405th Group

The Republic P-47 was not only an escort fighter. With the units of the Ninth Air Force it was above all a fighter bomber, which from June 1944 attacked transport columns, artillery positions and bridges in Normandy and then all the way to the Rhine. This sheet in the large scale covers two such machines of the 405th Fighter Group.

The aircraft with the code G9-E and serial number 42-27210 carried the humorous name Look NO Hands on its fuselage; the second, coded 2Z-E with the number 44-32747, boasted the name Eight Nifties. The pair of letters at the start of the code identifies the squadron within the group, so here too these are machines from two different squadrons of one formation and the finished models can be set up side by side as an illustration of the markings of the whole unit.

A bulky fuselage and large surfaces

The Thunderbolt has a massive rounded fuselage and a large code letter on it has to follow a markedly double curved surface. Here nothing can be achieved without a decal softener: it is brushed onto a motif already settled and left to act without your touching the film, for at least forty-five minutes, because softened film tears at the slightest pressure. Once dry the motif settles even into the panel lines.

The invasion stripes on the undersides of the wings and fuselage, which machines of the Ninth Air Force wore in the summer of 1944, are usually sprayed and the markings applied on top of them. The order of work is therefore: camouflage, stripes, intermediate gloss coat, decals. Anyone who reverses the procedure risks masking tape lifting the printing off along with the edge.