Introduction

Following on from Eduard’s earlier release, Jugs over Germany, Eduard have followed up with, Jugs over Italy.
The basic plastic is the Academy P-47D kit, which when it was first released was quite a decent kit, Hasegawa then released their version which improved matters slightly, but when Tamiya released their P-47 it eclipsed both former releases.
The Academy kit still is a decent kit, and a lot cheaper then both their rivals offering, and does make a good kit straight out of the box.
With this release Eduard have done what Eduard do best, take a pretty good kit and pile in extra’s, such as resin and photo etch cockpit, new props, photo etch and resin replacement parts, masks and a whole new set of decals.

In the box

The box is your typical top opening sort, with a painted picture of a P-47D that can be modelled from the available marking options. One side of the box lid shows the rest of the marking options plus the resin and photo etch cockpit, resin propeller and the resin wheels.
Five light grey sprues and one clear sprue make up the bulk of the kit.
A lot of the plastic parts are not used, as the entire cockpit is replaced, the wheels and propeller have resin parts, and the external rockets are not used.
The plastic parts of the kit, exterior wise, have some nice recessed panel lines with some raised areas for plates, which have recessed rivet detail.
The wheel wells have some very fine detail engraved in the wheel well floors, and various pipes and strengthening struts are present to give it a busy look.
The wheel struts have PE oleos added and the main wheels are replaced with resin parts. The resin wheels are well detailed with a diamond tread pattern and separate resin 6 spoke hubs.
The tail wheel has PE hubs added.
The Academy kit does come with the gun bays in the wings as separate parts, so you can have the access panels off, which is good, but they are not well detailed, as they are comprised as one moulded piece, with separate gun barrels, which isn’t very good. Eduard haven’t added any resin or PE for these parts, which is a little disappointing.
The whole of the cockpit as already stated gets replaced with a resin one. The resin cockpit comprises of two sidewalls, floor, rear armoured plate, firewall, seat, pedals, control column, gun sight, instrument panel, and a oxygen hose.
The resin parts are very crisp, with only a little clean up required to remove the casting blocks.
The cockpit has several PE parts, with the seat harness’s and various switches and plates for the side walls. The instrument panel is a three piece affair, with the resin back plate, the instrument dials, then the instrument facings. All the cockpit PE parts are pre-coloured.
The sliding canopy mechanism is replaced with a very intricate and multi pieced PE assembly, which does require a lot of folding and bending of the PE parts. This does look like the hardest part of the kit to build.
The resin and PE cockpit is the crowning glory of this boxing and is very well detailed.
The engine block is fairly decent and Eduard have supplied the wiring harness, but once you have the cowling and the great big prop is on the front, that’s about all you will see.
The propeller in the kit is replaced with a resin substitute, and Eduard have supplied the two different types of blades that the P-47 used. The instructions do tell you which marking option uses which type of prop.
Eduard kindly supply a jig for the correct placement angle of the blades in the prop hub.
External ordinance is various drop tanks and free fall bombs. The 500lb bombs have the arming screws and fins replaced with PE parts.

Instructions

The instructions are a 16 page colour A4 size book.
The build sequence covers 9 pages, and starts with a parts call out with the unused parts shaded in blue. The build itself is simple to follow with the resin parts highlighted with the Brassin type set in the corner of each sequence. Interior colours for the Gunze Mr Color and Aqueous paints range are given for each part that needs painting.
The last build section of the instructions are for the placement of the Eduard masks, which cover the main canopy edges, so a masking fluid will be required to fill in the rest of the canopy, the front windscreen and the tyres, so the hubs can be painted. Masks are also provided for the clear section on the gun sight and the navigation lights.

Decals and markings

The decals come on two sheets, with the larger sheet having the decals for the main markings for each decal option. The smaller sheet is for the various stencils that cover each aircraft.
The decals are printed by Cartograph, have very little carrier film, and i personally have never had any problems with Cartograph decals in the past.
Six marking options are provided, which are as follows,
1 – P-47D, 86th FS, 79th FG, Fano Air Field, Italy, February, 1945.
2 – P-47D-25, flown by Capt, Eduard F Jones, 64th FS, 57th FG, Grosseto AB, Italy, early 1945.
3 – P-47D-25, 527th FS, 86th FG, Pisa Air Base, Italy, 1945.
4 – P-47D-27RE, s/n 42-26960, flown by Lt. Sylvester ‘Bud’ Hendricks, 65th FS, 57th FG, Grosseto AB, Italy, Fall 1944/1945.
5 – P-47D- 27RE, s/n 42-27277, 315th FS, 324th FG, Early 1945.
6 – P-47D- 27RE, s/n 42-27277, 314th FS, 324th FG, Dole, France, winter 1944/1945.

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