LPS Hobby is a Brazilian that recently added three more Republic P-47D decal sets to their 1:72 scale line. This set, # LPM72-16, provides markings for three P-47D Razorback Thunderbolts that sported Malcolm hoods late in WWII. The set includes two small decal sheets that provide all of the unique markings for the three aircraft and enough national insignias and stencil data to do two of the three (National markings from kit decals will be needed to do the third one).

As the photos below illustrate, the decals are nicely printed in vivid, opaque colors by Microscale and everything is well registered. They are printed on thin film like other Microscale decals, and should respond well to mild setting solutions such as Mr. Mark Softer. It is recommend that the decals be applied by ‘floating’ them in place with enough water to keep them from bonding to the surface before they are properly positioned…then gently blotted when they are in place.

The three aircraft are:

The Ship

Launched in April 1943 and commissioned four months later, USS Intrepid (CV-11) participated in numerous actions in the central and western Pacific from early 1944 until the end of the Pacific War, including Leyte Gulf and Okinawa. She was hit twice by kamikazes but was still on station at the end of hostilities. Intrepid underwent modernization twice during the 1950s, which enclosed her bow and gave her an angled flight deck. Reclassified as an Anti-submarine Carrier (CVS-11), Intrepid was the lead ship for the NASA’s Mercury Aurora 7 and the Gemini 3 splashdown recovery. From April 1966 to February 1969, she made three deployments to the waters off Vietnam. She ended her active career back in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, being decommissioned in 1974 with over 30 years of service. In August 1982, Intrepid was reopened as a museum ship in New York harbor.

Thanks to Neil at HK models for providing the IPMS/USA with this pre-release kit for review. We appreciate and value your contributions and look forward to more releases from your company. Thanks also to the IPMS leadership for trusting me to get this thing done!

As a pre-release kit, I received the HK Models Do 335 without instructions in a basic shipping box. This was a bit of a daunting challenge; could I do it? Of course I whined when I found out the engine compartments and some of the interior were a bit more complicated than I thought. I was subsequently sent a PDF of the basic instructions from the fearless reviewer corps leader, Dave, and I began to breathe again.