1/24 Kinetic P-47D Razorback Thunderbolt

[Bonkin]

Having just completed my 1/24 Mustang I was inspired to build another American fighter, and what better than the mighty P-47D Thunderbolt? In my stash of 1/24 kits I've got both the Kinetic Razorback version and the Vintage Fighter Series (VFS) Bubbletop variant. VFS was a small, short‑lived UK model kit business that appeared in the early 2000s and then disappeared relatively quickly. As far as I know they only produced two kits - the P-40 and P-47, both in 1/24 scale. When it ceased trading Kinetic bought the moulds for the P-47 and re-released it, hence its availability.

 

Although this will be mostly an out-of-box build I'm not overly keen on the "Squirt II" markings for this kit and will therefore be looking at alternative markings - and probably something that was based near to where I grew up in Norfolk.

 

So here is the box on the bench. Like the kit, it is big:

 

And here is a little progress so far on the engine. The push rods don't quite connect in some places. I've placed the better of the two parts at the front.

 

Also it is important to get the cylinders the right way around. The instructions will have you do it wrong. You also need to be aware that the locating tabs for each part are not in the right place. The whole rear of the engine will be rotated by 90 degrees if you are not careful.

 

Like wise for this front ring...

 

From the front there should be a cylinder at the six o'clock position... but this will result in the ring being misaligned.

 

So I cut those parts off...

 

And will fit them later once the ring is glued into position.

 

I also built up this part rear of the engine but it is pointless really because it won't ever be seen... unless you plan to open up parts of the fuselage of course - which I don't.

 

Overall the casting of the kit seems solid. There is virtually no flash and the sink marks are minor. The plastic itself is very tough and at times I've found that a metal file has been a better option than a sanding stick. The instructions are also problematic. Many of the port/starboard or front/rear part numbers are transposed and so these need to be taken as a guide only. Plenty of dry fitting of parts is needed before committing with glue.

 

If I find during the build that I can remove the cowls to expose the engine then I may add further detail, otherwise I'll just add spark plug leads to the front and then close it all in. It's a start anyway.

 

As always, thanks for looking.

[Martinnfb]

Excellent choice, I started bubble top a while ago, but it end up on the back burner...   Will follow with interest.

Cheers

Martin

[Shoggz]

Following with interest.. 

[Jim Barry]

I have this kit. Also VFS Bubbletop. They both are almost always next but something keeps butting in line to get my attention 

[Kaeone57]

Your efforts are exemplary. The kit engine is just fictional at best. If you wish to go further, find Airfix 1/24 F6F-5 Engine sprues and scratch your distributors depending on variant. The VFS/Kinetic 1/24 so called P&W R2800 has always bothered the "look" of this kit to me! It's like an engine model from the 1600's! Lol

 

Nothing towards your build and likes at all... Please don't take it the wrong way! It's just something they should've got right from the start as it does "start" the aircraft!

 

Alfonso

[Dpgsbody55]

I built one of these in bubble top form in the days before I became part of this forum.  I had no end of trouble with the engine and you've just explained why.  I followed the instructions.  Silly me .  Had to commit butchery to get it lined up.

 

Anyway, I'll be following this one with pleasure.  Yours is already looking better than nine.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Bonkin]

On 6/15/2026 at 11:00 PM, Martinnfb said:

Excellent choice, I started bubble top a while ago, but it end up on the back burner...   Will follow with interest.

Cheers

Martin

Thanks Martin. Hope I can do it some justice.

 

On 6/15/2026 at 11:00 PM, Shoggz said:

Following with interest.. 

Cheers Richard.

 

On 6/15/2026 at 11:24 PM, Jim Barry said:

I have this kit. Also VFS Bubbletop. They both are almost always next but something keeps butting in line to get my attention 

Maybe this build will encourage you to bring it further to the fore in your build list Jim?

 

On 6/16/2026 at 5:26 AM, Kaeone57 said:

Your efforts are exemplary. The kit engine is just fictional at best. If you wish to go further, find Airfix 1/24 F6F-5 Engine sprues and scratch your distributors depending on variant. The VFS/Kinetic 1/24 so called P&W R2800 has always bothered the "look" of this kit to me! It's like an engine model from the 1600's! Lol

 

Nothing towards your build and likes at all... Please don't take it the wrong way! It's just something they should've got right from the start as it does "start" the aircraft!

 

Alfonso

Thanks Alfonso. Yes I'm starting to see what you mean about the engine. At this stage I may just button it all up.

 

On 6/16/2026 at 6:13 AM, Dpgsbody55 said:

I built one of these in bubble top form in the days before I became part of this forum.  I had no end of trouble with the engine and you've just explained why.  I followed the instructions.  Silly me .  Had to commit butchery to get it lined up.

 

Anyway, I'll be following this one with pleasure.  Yours is already looking better than nine.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

Cheers Michael. It's just a start at the moment - but I am impressed by the size of it!

[Bonkin]

A little more progress to show. Here are the cockpit parts. Much of the detail is moulded in but I figured it might be ok once painted up. Most of it will be difficult to see anyway.

 

I used the Yahu instrument panel. This includes a part for the switch box on the left side also. My suspicions the instrument panel would sit too low in the cockpit were confirmed... as the following set of pictures will confirm:

 

When assembled as per the instructions the panel sits like this: 

 

Whereas if you put it into the fuselage part you can see that it needs to be raised up to be underneath the glare shield.

 

This perhaps illustrates the gap better:

 

For info, the cockpit tub does sit nicely on the wing spar braces. There are some tabs which it fits into.

 

 

Here it is with the panel raised and the pedals lowered accordingly. Now of course I could be wrong on all this - and we'll see how it turns out when it comes to fitting the gunsight - but right now I'm confident that by raising the panel it will be better. One other thing... I found I had to trim the side panel fitting tabs (circled) in order to get it to fit the fuselage sides.

 

I appreciate the cockpit may not be totally accurate but I think it will be ok - and although there are some issues these are minor and easily resolved (so far). As I understand it, VFS was basically a one-man band - so I applaud the efforts made to bring us this large scale kit.

 

As always, thanks for looking.

Edited June 21 by Bonkin

[Bonkin]

A little more progress to show... although not too much because it has been so hot .

 

This was the fuselage before buttoning up. You can see that I couldn't decide to go with yellow or green zinc chromate. In the end I did opt for the latter.

 

As things were a little tight I glued it in stages... mostly with Tamiya Extra Thin.

 

Hopefully the instrument panel is at the right height now.

 

Then it came to the wings... through numerous attempts to dry fit them it became obvious that contrary to the instructions, the wings would be best glued in top and bottom parts separately - otherwise (at least in my case), they would not meet correctly with the moulded fairings at the wing roots on the fuselage halves. So I did the tops first and had to wedge in some plastic card to get the forward edges line up with the wing root.

 

Then I fitted the frosted (why?) wing panels...

 

... and the gun bays (which I'm not exposing). The bays themselves are lacking in locating pins/tabs so require a little effort/guess work to get into the correct position.

 

Then is was in with the primer colour - and more shims to get the front edge in position. Thankfully the spar that is fitted between the fuselage halves allows you to get the wing dihedral correct.

 

Next, the wing bottoms could be glued in... again in stages.

 

The final stage to glue in was the front edge joining the wing root. This will require a small amount of filling - for which I will likely use a bit of milliput.

 

The kit is nice and seems to build quite quickly at this stage. There are some inexplicable parts though - like this random wing panel with nothing to show beneath it. It's certainly a bit odd - especially when you consider that a large part of the engine assembly is totally hidden.

 

I also assembled the engine cowlings. I'm hoping this will be removable in one whole part, otherwise it will get permanently glued in. This is another part of the kit where the instructions have transposed the numbered parts - hence my sharpie pen numbering.

 

Finally there is this one piece cowl flap parts. My intention is to have the cowl flaps open - hence numbering them in case I end up cutting them off their mounts. This is an area I'll have to experiment with.

 

I've also started giving some thoughts to the aircraft I want to represent and have done a little research. More about this in the next post.

 

As always, thanks for looking.

[scvrobeson]

Very nice job!  I'm guessing this is the old Vintage Fighter Series kit reboxed by Kinetic? It must be gigantic in 1/24

 

 

Matt

[Bonkin]

16 hours ago, scvrobeson said:

Very nice job!  I'm guessing this is the old Vintage Fighter Series kit reboxed by Kinetic? It must be gigantic in 1/24

 

 

Matt

Thanks Matt. Yes it is the VFS rebox and yes, it is massive... probably the biggest 1/24 kit I've built so far.

[rtwpsom2]

This is one kit where aftermarket support is severely lacking. It really needs a cockpit and an engine upgrade.  I have a spare engine from the Airfix 1/24th Hellcat I plan to use in mine, if I can make it fit. And now I realize those cowl flaps are another good target for AM.

[Bonkin]

On 7/7/2026 at 5:10 PM, rtwpsom2 said:

This is one kit where aftermarket support is severely lacking. It really needs a cockpit and an engine upgrade.  I have a spare engine from the Airfix 1/24th Hellcat I plan to use in mine, if I can make it fit. And now I realize those cowl flaps are another good target for AM.

Indeed there isn't much. I did manage to get some resin tyres though to replace the awful kit vinyl ones.

 

And regarding the cowl flaps... in the VFS Bubbletop version of this kit I have in my stash there were some aftermarket parts including some cowl flaps made by a company called Cammett Ltd. Seems like they are no longer trading sadly. This is why when I see aftermarket parts I tend to buy them... you never know how long they will be around for, especially in 1/24 scale (which is my niche).

[Bonkin]

It's been much too hot of late to sit in the man cave hunched over my bench crafting away... but I have still made a little progress on the big bird. I've also been thinking about the marking scheme I want for it.

 

First up the engine. It's pretty poor for such a big kit and I've been undecided whether to have it displayable or just all buttoned up. I figured I would have a go at improving it to see what was possible... so first up was creating this ring between the cylinders through which the spark plug leads pass.

 

Once that was fitted and painted black I started wiring it, having first drilled more holes in the cylinders where needed...

 

Then painted them up. I think they'll need a bit of weathering but it is a slight improvement.

 

I then fitted the ring mounts, including the bits I'd originally chopped off. Comparison with photographs of the real thing show that these are way too big.

 

I fitted the assembly to the airframe and then it was a question of whether I could fit the cowl over the top - which thankfully it does, albeit with some persuasion and a wiggle in the right direction. It was at this stage however that I found another (minor) issue with the kit - the air intake fits too far back from the front of the cowl. This is where it sits if built out of the box:

 

Whereas it should really go here:

 

This was easily fixed however with about 4mm of added spacing .

 

It was around this time that the Trumpeter 1/24 P-47 kit became available in the UK and I couldn't help myself (or rather I convinced myself that it would be good to compare kits), so I put in an order from Jadlam (the best price at £99).
 

It arrived safely and looks remarkably similar to the Kinetic (VFS) kit, even in the way the parts are provided. One thing I did note was that there are some small differences in size. The Trumpy kit is 4.2mm longer and 27.2mm wider - which probably won't be too noticeable when side by side.

 

Back on the bench - these wheel covers will need some filling.

 

And this is currently where things stand. I'm almost ready for paint. The propeller (visible below) has been painted, the cowl flaps have been opened and the sink marks in the wings have been dealt with. I've also re-scribed areas where I've removed detail through sanding, which to be fair to the kit, are few in number. Next up will be adding the gunsight and canopy framing before I move onto a base coat.

 

I said at the beginning of the post that I had been thinking of a marking scheme. The colourised picture below is my inspiration.

 

You can get a better copy of this from the IWM American Archive. This is HV-A of the 61st Fighter Squadron, 56th Fighter Group as it does a low pass over 100th Bomb Group B17 Fortresses at Thorpe Abbotts. This is important to me because I grew up in the same area, spent a lot of my childhood on and around the old base and even worked the same land for a local farmer in my teens... so I feel like I have a bit of affinity with the place and the 100th.

 

I have been doing a little research into when this picture was taken in order to find the serial number of the P-47. Apparently the reverse of the picture indicates it was flown by Gabreski but we can't be certain. Notable however is that there are no underwing pylons so this could even be a P-47C variant. Anyhoos, I'll add my findings in the next post.

 

As always thanks for looking.

[Bonkin]

I understand from Facebook that Reskit are working on a 1/24 replacement engine set - upscaling their 1/32 set:

 

Link here:

https://reskit-models.com/p-47d-11-30-thunderbolt-propellers-3-pcs-engine-p-w-r-2800-engine-hood-for-trumpeter-kit-3d-printed-1-32?search=P-47

 

One to watch for future builds .