This particular kit from Hasegawa is their Nose Art kit, a fairly old one compared to the modern Tamiya bubbletop P-47D but it is still a very nice kit. Of course it is not as detailed as the Tamiya kit but it is well made with fit and finish being excellent and is a better kit in my view than the Academy kit (including the Eduard P-47`s (which use the Academy kit) with more realistic oil cooler and intercooler exhausts. The kit allows you to make a D25 block aircraft but the instructions would have you more so make a D30 block with the landing light on the outside of the wing rather than near the landing gear doors (D25 block) and dive brakes. The kit actually has a couple of photo etch pieces for these dive brakes which is a nice touch. The kit  also gives you the option of adding the dorsal fin/fin fillet which was a D30 and later feature.

For upgrades I used the Ultracast P-47 wheels which are excellent as well as the Quickboost landing gear covers and doors,  intercooler and oil cooler inserts and Master P-47D gun barrels. The pictures of Coffey's Pot show it had a Hamilton Standard 4 Blade propeller and 108 Gallon drop tank on the centerline mount. The kit only includes the Curtiss electric props (standard and paddle blade) but no 108 gallon drop tank so  I pinched a Hamilton Standard Prop and drop tank from my Tamiya P47D Razorback kit in order to get these parts. One word about the Quickboost intercooler and oil cooler inserts. Frankly, I was dissapointed with these parts not because of the actual parts which are fine but I couldn't see them once I added them to the kit. In the future I won't use them.

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Accuracy features added: Iron sight just forward of the windscreen, tail drag antenna on rear lower fuselage, raised antenna mount on fuselage by the vertical mast.

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See Build Log and Completed Pictures here.

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