1/48 P-47C “Half Pint”, 56th Fighter Group, 61st Fighter Squadron, June 1943

[Stikpusher]

I first read Robert Johnson’s autobiography when I was in grade school, probably when I was around 9 or 10 years old. One incident in his story always stuck in my mind and that was his near fatal mission of June 26 1943. On that sortie his aircraft “Half Pint” was badly shot up by FW-190s of JG-26 during a bomber escort mission. His description of the ordeal in the book has had me wanting to build a model that P-47 of his one day, but it was a P-47C, and nobody at the time was making kits of the P-47C, only D’s, M’s, & N’s. But then SuperScale Decals released a set of decals for all of Johnson’s P-47s, and Cutting Edge released a P-47C conversion cowling for the Hasegawa P-47D Razorback. I bought all of the above and eventually started the project, but then it was sidelined when I encountered some warping on the fuselage where it connected to the lower wing behind the engine. So it sat for many years on the shelf of doom until I recently decided to do knuckle down and finish this one up, no matter what. 
Without further elaboration, here is my build of “Half Pint”, as it would have looked, before setting out on that June B-17 escort mission.

Decals are SuperScale, paints used are primarily AK Real Colors and Tamiya Acrylics.

Thanks for looking, comments and critiques are welcome

[VMF211]

Awesome job on this Jug!! His June 26th mission was one of the first stories of WWI fighter pilots I read as a kid. I think maybe the book was Great American Fighter Pilots of WWII.

[Stikpusher]

Thank you! I wonder how many kids of that era, Boomers and early Gen X, read those books and tales? Had to be more than a few of us.

[ghodges]

Love it! That's a sharp looking build I'd be proud to have on my shelf!

 

Gil 

[Stikpusher]

Thank you Gil! 😉