P-47 Thunderbolt
in Detail and Scale

Detail & Scale Volume 17

Printed and Digital Books

Reviewed by Floyd S. Werner Jr.

This book is dedicated to my friend, Jerry Crandall, aviation artist, historian, author, and scale modeler.  His painting appears on the cover of the ‘book’.

When I say Detail & Scale you automatically think of a series of books that set the standard for books for modelers.  Excellent historic research, beautiful photos (including walk arounds), gorgeous drawings, and the modelers section.  This book is no different.  The format has changed since the early days of D&S, but the content is even better now with the digital format. 

Bert Kinzey and Rock Roszak are a winning team when it comes to putting these books together.  This book is available either in digital or printed format at Amazon, however, this review will only look at the digital format.

Why digital?  Well you can include so much more information and photos for no additional cost.  You can take you library wherever you go and it weighs next to nothing.  Just needs power.  The other thing is that you can enlarge the text and the photos.  The text to make it easier to read for us old farts and the photos so you can pull up the details.  Also when you buy the book, if it is updated on the website you will get the updates.  True you don’t get to flip through the pages but the benefits are worth the lack of paper.  So it is more environmentally friendly too. 

This ‘book’ has 173 pages compared to the 102 pages of the printed version.  There is one more photo and five more illustrations in the digital book.  There are 268 photos, with most of them being in full color from wartime sources.  The detail and clarity is phenomenal.

So what’s in the book to make it worth the price of admission?  Like most D&S books, it starts out with the history of the P-47 and then it addresses the variants from the XP-47B to the P-47N.  With the release of the new early P-47s, this section will be a boon for modelers. 

Some interesting highlights are the car door and flat windscreen on the XP-47B, as well as, the small windows on the P-47B. How about the Air/Sea Rescue P-47s having their guns cut down to two guns per wing?  The two seat trainers are interesting as well.  The amount of detail that Bert has turned up in his research is remarkable  It is also explained in a clear and concise manner and often illustrated with line drawing pointing out the differences.

After covering each version in depth, D&S does what it does best, walk around photos of the variants.  Starting in the cockpit, fuselage, wings, props, engine, armament, and such.  Another interesting note here is the change in cockpit colors from the different manufacturers on the B to the N.  Very useful stuff for the model builder.  The armament is really neat as well, including a close up of the smoke generator and rocket pods. 

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Then comes the part that sets D&S apart from the other references, the Modelers Section.  Starting in the itty bitty scale of 1/144th up to the gargantuan 1/24th scale.  I love how they really get down and dirty with what is right and what is wrong with each kit in each scale.  The Dora Wings P-47B in 1/48th scale is included.  Unfortunately, the MiniArt P-47s are not as they weren’t released as of the publication date.

This is another stellar example of everything Detail & Scale have been known for, just in a different format.  For those old school modelers, you can still get it in print, but why not embrace the new technology for all the reasons mentioned earlier.  If you were going to have one book on the Thunderbolt, this is that book. 

Great job Detail & Scale.   

Thanks to Detail & Scale for the review copy.  You can obtain yours by going to the Detail & Scale website, https://www.detailandscale.com/detail-scale-publications.  There you can find a link to the printed edition as well as the iBooks and Kindle versions of it. 

Thanks to Detail & Scale or the sample.

Review Copyright © 2023 by Floyd S. Werner Jr.
This Page Created on 24 July, 2023
Last updated 13 February, 2024

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