Miniart 1/48 P-47D-25RE Thunderbolt Basic Kit (48009)

This article is dedicated to Miniart 1/48 P-47D-25RE Thunderbolt Basic Kit (48009). As you remember, new aircraft was announced some time ago, and now finally we have it available for everyone. Famous P-47 doesn't need an introduction, but somehow there were no new alternatives to the old offering from Tamiya. Well, now it should be fixed, and Miniart promised a lot of features out of the box. Note that we get so called "Basic Kit", so there will be only two markings and no PE parts. Packaging is typical for this brand, and all frames come in several bags. Let's open them and take a closer look together.

By the way, here you can read review with useful book about this aircraft.
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Watch this video where I show all parts even closer.

In case you wonder what is the difference between this and Tamiya kit, watch the video above.

First frame is dedicated to the tailwings, wing mechanisation and some of the cockpit sections. Note that tailwings come as single-piece element.

Cockpit parts feature a lot of premolded details. For example, pilot seat comes with premolded seatbelts. For aftermarket PE belts you will have to cut off those.

External equipment comes on two similar frames. Here you will find several types of fuel tanks as well as rockets and bombs.

Kit features three types of landing gear wheels. Moreover, you can also copy aircraft legs under load or in full length. Such thing might be useful for even more realistic appearance.

More cockpit parts come on the separate frame. As you can notice, even without PE it should be an interesting thing to work on.

It is nice to see engine included as fully detailed copy, not just some simple insert. I have no doubt that aftermarket brands will try to add even more features here.

Each side of the wing should be glued out of two halves. Note that cowling panels are separated according to panel lines, what will make appearance more realistic.

Inside you will find guiding elements as well as wing edges which will also help with positioning. Overall molding quality looks great.

External features include recessed panel lines and rivets. The look fine for 1/48 scale.

Miniart supplies Thunderbolt fuselage halves on the separate frames. Some of you already noted in the video that such design should make it easier to copy other versions of the famous P-47.

Inside you will find only guiding elements. As you remember, cockpit should be assembled separately and inserted in between fuselage halves.

Clear frame comes in the separate plastic bag. It looks okay for out of the box build, but I hope that we will see some aftermarket with even finer parts. Masks are not included in this kit.

Decals are printed in Cartograf, so overall quality looks great. On the first sheet you will find main symbols and even some cockpit decals.

Stencils come with segmentation, what should make application process a bit easier. Both markings can be seen on the photo below.

Assembly manual is typical for this brand. I show all pages in the video-review.

New Thunderbolt should be already available and I can say it was worth waiting for such nice kit. In one box you will get a lot of features which are not included in kits from other brands, for example, Tamiya. Moreover, it is great to see assembly options and even version with folded landing gear can be built. We can agree that there are not that many brands which actually try to copy in-flight position on their models. In this scale such model build should look impressive, and I have no doubt that we will see aftermarket add-ons quite soon. :)

Get this and other kits in Modelimex webshop.