Hobby Master 1:48 P-47D

[tmanthegreat]

Has anyone else gotten the Hobby Master 1:48 scale P-47D? These apparently just came out with the first release being Gabreski's aircraft from the 56th FG. My local Hobby Town USA store had 6 of them, so I picked one up there. Curious to know anyone else's thoughts...

Excellent pictures of the product can be found on The Flying Mule's website: http://www.flyingmule.com/products/HM-HA8401

While this isn't the first 1:48 scale diecast P-47, it is the first for Hobby Master. There are a ton of great P-47D schemes available, so they should be able to keep this tooling going for a long time. Overall, it captures the look of the plane quite well and the markings appear to be accurate to Gabreski's plane. The paint on mine is flawless. Tooling is sharp without looking clunky. I like the way the engine cowling flaps are flared, that the landing gear are correct, and that the canopy is the correct size (I've grown too used to the look of my 21c 1:18 and 32x P-47s...). Nice to have a P-47 model with the "flattened" drop tank as well.

My biggest beef with the model is the functioning of the canopy, or lack thereof. The canopy simply comes off and does not slide open or closed. Most other older Hobby Master 1:48 aircraft have sliding canopies (the F3F, F2A, Spitfires, FW-190, P-51, F9F) but not the P-47. Second biggest beef is that there are no other moving surfaces like flaps, rudders, or stabilizers. The lack of the functional parts sort of limits the ways one can display the plane. With the Hobby Master 1:48 P-51, for example, one can do a full landing configuration with canopy open and flaps down. With the Corsair, you can have the wings folded. If displayed on its gears, the P-47 sort of sits there not really able to do anything. The bomb racks were also a very tight fit and difficult to get on, at least on my plane. The lack of overall functionality makes the plane a little harder to justify in terms of price, given that it costs nearly $80.

However, again, I'm glad to add the P-47 to my 1:48 scale diecast collection and am very happy with Hobby Master's choice for the S1 scheme. They could have, after all, done something much more obscure like an RAF or other foreign user of the P-47, but Gabreski's was a good, classic choice.

[hworth18]

Great review Tristan! I also picked my Gabreski Jug up last week and share almost the exact same sentiments. The lack of functioning canopy is my biggest dissappointment because I like to display some of my aircraft with the gear down and canopy open. Also, they did most of the small stenciling on the plane but left the stencils off the prop? Anyway, it is a nice piece and I am glad to add it to my collection.

I am looking forward to the next release "No Guts, No Glory"..