Pacific Jug: 1/48th Hasegawa P-47D Thunderbolt

The 1/48th Hasegawa P-47D Thunderbolt reset the bar for the best Thunderbolt on the market upon its release in 1996. The kit featured well fitting parts with finely scribed panel lines and good details. The Hasegawa kit would hold this envious role as the best P-47 for a few years at least, until the arrival of the Tamiya Jug.

Notable Kit Features:

• Good fit of parts

• Nicely detailed cockpit

• Good wheel well and landing gear details

• Two separate main wheel hubs styles included

• Engine build up is nice with a back cylinder row half mould as well as a full row in front

• Clear landing and navigation lights provided

• 8-Guns are moulded separately (not attached to the wings so you break them off during the build)

• Separate wing pylons with anti-sway braces and bombs provided as an option

• Flat-style belly fuel tank included

• Two piece canopy glass is thin and clear

• This boxing is of a P-47D-28 (and later) version

Build Inspiration:

After reading an article in IPMS Canada (RT Vol.46 No.1, 2024) regarding Canadian pilots and crews operating in RAF squadrons in Burma, I had a new plan for a P-47D Pacific Jug that had been in the stash for a bit. As is typical with some of my projects, I ended up spending quite a while researching all the potential squadrons with Canadian aircrew and finally settled on RAF 79 squadron. I was able to find logbook references to a few P-47D aircraft flown by Canadian pilots in this squadron. The choices got narrowed down to aircraft which had both the aircraft letter and serial number referenced as well as the paint finish determined. As "Z" showed up in a few pilot entries I selected this aircraft (that and my son's name is Zachary so I figured this particular P-47 was a fitting choice).

Heads-Up Report:

• I had to sand down the horizontal stabilizers a bit at their join to the fuselage

• A bit of filler required however overall a good fitting kit

• Curtis electric (cuffed) propeller blades and pointed hub only provided (-28+ series)

• All control surfaces are moulded in neutral

• No separate flaps

• I seem to embed an error (or two) in many of my builds - This one was forgetting to first glue the propeller hub into the engine assembly. I ended up later sanding the hub down to get it to fit into the engine afterwards

Kit Additions / Modifications:

• As it was included in the second-hand kit, I used the provided aftermarket cockpit & engine detail set (Manufacture unknown)

• Decals were sourced from other SEAC aircraft examples and spares for the squadron lettering and serial numbers

Finishing:

The P-47 paint process started with a base coat of a faded underside RAF Medium Sea Grey (or the Dupont equivalent... so something close). This base gray was weathered by over-spraying close to true tones of the paint (2 or 3 shades were used) along panel lines or areas of wear. I also utilized an AK Flexible Airbrush Stencil and over-sprayed areas in a mottle finish as well. Reference photographs I had assembled showed the paint had taken an unusual beating in the Burma Theater conditions, resulting in this subtle tonal patch look in some areas. Once satisfied with this base, I taped off the areas that would receive the SEAC stripes and painted them next. The gray base would help show a bit of weathering in this thinly applied white finish as well (although I still used a couple of tones of near-white to assist here). Moving onto the topside I applied the RAF Dark Earth and Dark Green camouflage (again probably the Dupont equivalent which had a bit more bluish tone to the green) utilizing the same method as on the underside. I will definitely use this mottle mask again where a heavily weathered paint job is the goal, as I think this effect added nicely to the weathering results. Note: Any areas you have gone a bit too heavy on, you can give a distant over-spray with the applicable faded colour to tone it down a bit. All paints used on this kit were Vallejo Model Air. I left the paint to dry for a couple of days and then gave the aircraft a shot of gloss (using Pledge floor finish) to prepare for decals and washes. The SEAC RAF decals were scrounged from my spares, with the Squadron codes and serials coming from USAF 70's era tail codes pieced together. The serial numbers were assembled in similar fashion.

The After-Build Report:

The 1/48th Hasegawa P-47D Thunderbolt was arguably the nicest Jug out there until the release of the Tamiya versions in 2002 - 2003. I found the Hasegawa a straight-forward build with good detail, little hassle and minimal seam maintenance to boot. I have ended up picking up a few of these Hasegawa kits at very good prices. (Possibly as P-47 fans thinned their Hasegawa stashes to option for the Tamiya and MiniArt kits?) Either way I got a good build out of little investment and everybody's happy.

Completed build #285 - December 2025 using the 1/48th scale Hasegawa #09257 (JT157) kit.

Feel free to comment or ask any questions - Keep on building, gain experience, challenge yourself if you like, but try not to stress yourself out over the build - it is supposed to be an enjoyable hobby after all - Cheers