Lifelike Decals

1/72 North American P-51 Mustang, Pt. 1 decal sheet

Decal sheet product # 72-017

Product Article by Floyd Werner, Jr. on Apr 22 2011

 

This latest release from Lifelike Decals How would you like the decals for your Tamiya 72nd scale P-51D? Well researched and with lots of color, you say? Then this decal sheet is for you. The latest release from Lifelike contains very attractive, colorful sheet with markings for 4 Mustangs that are well printed, in register with good color saturation; a smaller sheet with stencils for 1 aircraft. The instructions show the left side, top and bottom color profiles, as well as, a separate 4-sided stencil profile. Also listed are the 20 references to back up the research so you know where the information was taken from. A description of the markings for each aircraft along with the specific reference(s) for any questionable markings, which should keep the more accuracy conscious among us from thrashing around in bed at night. 

Here’s a rundown of the included aircraft:

AC 1 is a P-51D “American Beauty”, “Lovely Lila”, flown by Capt. John Voll of the 308 FS/31 FG out of Severo AB, Italy in late November, ’44. This aircraft features a red nose and spinner, red stripes on the horizontal and vertical stabs, red and yellow wingtips, and yellow ID stripes on the wings and horizontal stabs. It’s noted that the S/N was partially visible through the red stripes on the vertical stripes; make sure you make a note for the judges on your contest entry sheet.

AC 2 is P-51D “Daddy’s Girl” flown by Capt. Raymond Wetmore of the 370 FS/359 FG from East Wertham, England, February to March of ’45. This aircraft features a green nose, dark blue rudder and 2 sets of kill markings; 1 on the fuselage and 1 on the canopy frame. The description even goes as far as to note that the antenna was painted black. For the exact shade of green for the nose and blue for the rudder, the instructions send you to a color photo in one of the references. This has always been a favorite of mine.

AC 3 is the P-51D “Thunderbird” of Capt. Lines of the 335 FS/4 FG, Debden, England, September to November, 1944. This bird features a red nose and spinner, a large Thunderbird symbol nose art and unique kill markings; an arrow with a triangle for each kill hanging underneath.

AC 4, the most colorful of the bunch, is a P-51K, “Mrs. Bonnie” flown by Lt. Col Bill Dunham, Dep. CO/348 FG, le Shima, Okinawa, August, 1945. This aircraft features a number of unique markings. First is a 4-color spinner; red, yellow, blue and black. Painting stripes on a spinner is tough so to assist in pulling this off, a decal is provided for the yellow and blue. Next is 2 sets of kill markings; 1 for air-to-air kills and another for ship kills. The instructions claim that the tail decals claim to fix an old error by placing only 1 “0” on the tail instead of 2. The fuselage insignia were a lighter shade of blue and those are included on the sheet. You’ll have to paint the black stripes on the fuselage and wings as they’re wider than the stripes included on the sheet. While this was a “K” model and initially fitted with an uncuffed Aero Products prop, the instructions state that this aircraft was retrofitted with a D-type Hamilton Standard propeller so you should still be able to use the Tamiya kit out of the box without having to scrounge up an Aero Product prop. Another interesting note from the instructions says that one color picture shows that the exhaust covers were pink! I’m not saying they’re wrong, but I’d want to give that picture a good look over before I mixed up a batch of pink paint.

Over all, this is a quality product. The decals are well printed, in register with good color and the instructions are thorough and well researched. You will be hard pressed to find better decals.

Highly recommended

Thanks to Lifelike for the review copy. You can get your copy at Lifelike Decals website. Tell them you heard about it here.

You can purchase these decals either directly from Lifelike Decals at fax number is +81-3-5680-6733, and e-mail is lifelike@eos.ocn.ne.jp. or from HobbyLink Japan.    

Other shops that stock Life like Decals are *Hannants/UK, *Mister Kit/Italy, *Revi (publisher)/Czech Republic, *SkyGrid/Canada, *Roll Models/USA, *Great Models Webstore/USA, *FlightDecs/Canada, *Victory Models/USA
*M & Models/USA, *
Zed Hobbies/Australia, *AB &S Enterprise/Australia, *Desert Miniature/USA 

Floyd Werner, Jr.

Photos and text © by Floyd Werner, Jr.