Republic XP-47H

by Jerry Soetewey

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The Republic XP-47 H was originally intended to be used with the big inline Vee-12 engine Chrysler had produced.

This is my model of the Republic XP-47H  in 1/48 scale. 

All of this started when I made my first Hyperscale trade with Michel “Borderline” Beekveld from Holland a few years ago at the Dutch IPMS Nationals. He gave an old vacuum formed XP-47 H conversion set from a German company called Air-Model as a bonus.

The kit only consisted of two vacuformed fuselage halves and a spinner and was intended to be used with the old Hawk/Testor's P-47 Razorback/Bubbletop kit. 

Since I’m not that fond of the inaccurate Hawk/Testors kit, I opted to use the old Monogram P-47 Razorback, which I picked up at an earlier model show. This kit is far more accurate representation then the ancient Hawk kit and has nicer detail.

I began construction by cutting out the Air-Model vac formed fuselage halves. I then soon realized that these lacked a lot of detail and that some panel lines and most prominent, the intercooler doors were the wrong shape and at the wrong place.  

After a Google search and an inquiry at the Plane Talking board, I got a e-mail from a nice HyperScaler with pictures and side view drawings of the XP-47 H. I then soon realized there where more problems with the Air-Model fuselage.

Action had to be taken, since I told Michel “Borderline” I would build this kit in no time. This I would deeply regret later on. So up came the razor saw and of went the Monogram P-47 nose. The rest of the fuselage was laid aside and I started cutting up the Air-model fuselage and only kept the nose and belly. This was then carefully matched with the monogram fuselage, et voila, an XP 47 H fuselage with correct outline. Unfortunately I was not done here (sigh) I had to remove the intercooler doors from the Monogram kit and replace them with the correct doors from the XP-47 H. The Air-Model fuselage was of no help, so some scrachtbuilding. had to be done. Luckily I had the drawings, which I scaled up to 1/48^th. I also cut out some of the detail of the Mongram P-47 Belly and glued and used them on the Air-Model part.

I spent the following evenings applying loads of putty and did a lot of sanding and rescribing. Now I really started to regret what I said to “Borderline”.

But after a while things started to take shape and I felt a great relief. It was at this time AM Tech announced their XP-47 H. So now I had to finish this project.  

The rest of the construction was pretty straight forward. The Monogram kit is an amazingly easy build and the fit of this kit is not bad at all. Since I recribed the whole fuselage I had to do the wing and tailplaines as well. I used an Olfa P-cutter for this job as I find it easy to work with and there is less sanding involved. 

I decided to drop the flaps as well since the XP-47 H is always pictured with it’s flaps dropped.  I cut the kits flaps, added some plastic rod an repositioned them.  

I used the Monogram windshield on a rebuilt Hasegawa Razorback, so instead I used a Falcon P-47 canopy from their WWII fighter set. I also reshaped the propeller blades as the XP-47 H was fitted with uncuffed propeller blades (among others used at various experimental flights).

At last I reached the painting stage. I first sprayed a good layer of primer and got rid of the small blemishes.

The XP-47 was olive drab over neutral grey , so I applied these colors from the Model Master range with my Aztek A470 Airbrush. The usual pre-shading was done and I did some experimenting with post shading as well. I used paper masks for the demarcation lines of the olive drab.

I really liked  XP-47 H serial No.223298, since it had the big air intake at the intercooler doors and the nice demarcation line. I also had better pictures from this aircraft as well.

I used markings from various sheets and a very kind Polish Hyperscaler helped me out with the serial numbers. I owe him a lot of thanks.

The data stenciling came from on old Superscale sheet. Weathering was done with oil paints and pastels. 223298 had a worn paintjob and this was what I tried to recreate.

This was not an easy build, but I learned a lot from it. What started out as a joke, kept me busy for over 4 months. And as the real thing, this model was a test bed for me as well to use different building and painting techniques.

I could not have done this without the help of the HyperScale discussion board as it proved to be of great help. And I would like to thank all those who helped me out on numerous occasions and with numerous questions and parts. Thank you guys!

The model is by no means 100% accurate as my skills and my knowledge over this aircraft type were not that big, but I really enjoyed it.

Click on the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Model, Images and Text Copyright © 2004 by David Vanhoucke
Page Created 11 January, 2004
Last Updated 17 March, 2004

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