Product #12222 (http://www.hlj.com/product/ACD12222)
from HobbyLink Japan (http://www.hlj.com/scripts/hljlist.cgi?rel=nav&GenreCode=Air)
Belief history of Francis "Gabby"
Gabreski
and the P-47D
Francis Stanley "Gabby"
Gabreski (Franciszek Gabryszewski) was born on January 28, 1919 in Oil City,
Pennsylvania after his parents had emigrated from Poland in the early
1900's. Gabby Gabreski was the top American Fighter ace in Europe during World
War 2. He also served in the Korean War as Jet Fighter pilot, and his career in
the United States Air Force span more than 26 years service. Gabreski was best
known for his credited destruction of 34½ aircraft in aerial combat and being
one of only seven U.S. pilots to become an ace in two wars with 28 kills during
World War 2 and 6.5 during the Korean War. Gabreski was also one of the Air
Force's most accomplished leaders, in addition to commanding two fighter
squadrons, Gabreski had six command tours at group or wing level, including one
in combat in Korea. Totalling over 11 years of command and 15 overall in
operational fighter assignments. Gabreski retired from the United States Air
Force on November 1, 1967. Per his USAF official biography, he retired with more
than 5,000 flying hours, 4,000 of them in jets. Gabreski died of an apparent
heart attack in Huntington Hospital, Long Island, New York on January 31, 2002.
Republic P-47 Thunderbolt, was
also known as the "Jug," it was the biggest, heaviest, and most
expensive fighter aircraft in history to be powered by a single piston
engine. It was one of the main United States Army Air Forces (USAAF)
fighters during World War II, and served with other Allied air
forces. The P-47 was very effective in air combat but proved especially adept at
ground attack. It had eight .50-caliber machine guns, four per wing. When fully
combat loaded the P-47 could weigh up to eight tons
Click on
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The Kit
Academy's 1/48 P-47 tooling has
been around for a few years now and most "Jug" fans would know what the Academy kits
looks like. Ok, well its not a typical Tamiya "Shake 'n' Bake" Kit,
but the kit does go together well and the quality and fit would be up there with
P-47 offering from Hasegawa. Academy P-47 features some neat designs with
open gun bays, optional wheels bugled and flattened or unstressed, covered or
uncovered hubs and tons of external attachments in the way of drop tanks, bombs
and tubular rocket launchers. The one addition included is the under wing
rockets, but these are not required for this boxing. The cockpit has some nice
crisp detail, but would look excellent with some additional aftermarket products
either being resin, photo etch or both.
Academy offers a few nice extras in
this Gabreski boxing. One dislike I have with some of the Academy kits are the
decals. Decals can be very thick and cause modellers a few problems trying to
get them to lay down nicely. The decal sheet in this P-47 boxing has been
printed by Catograf in Italy, so there should be no problems getting these to
lay down. The Decal sheet only has one option of marking for Gabreski P-47D-25,
42-26418 (HV A). The sheet also carries the stencils required for one aircraft
and the D-Day stripes that were applied to this aircraft.
Also a nice surprise included was a
small sheet of dry transfers for the serial number, squadron codes and the data
stencils for the propellers. These appear to have been printed by Hobbydecal in
South Korea. For first time users of dry transfers, it’s very important that
you apply them over a flat finish as they will not bond to a gloss finish.
Another addition to this boxing is a
resin figure of Gabby Gabreski that is casted in a dark gray resin. There is a
small amount of clean up required with flash that’s left from the casting
process. The sculpt of the figure is nicely done with crisp details on his
flight suit and gear. Unfortunately, the only gripe is that I don’t think that
the sculptor quite caught the resemblance of Gabby Gabreski with the facial
features, but they do look close. Still it’s a great addition, I do wish
manufactures would include resin pilots more often.
Overall the kit has a couple short
falls that can easily be over looked, it’s still offers a good deal for what
Academy gives you inside the box. The kit does go together well and would be
suitable for any level of modeller.
I would like to thank HobbyLink
Japan (www.hlj.com)
for this review sample.
Dave Johnson
Click on
images below to see larger images
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