Lifelike Decals has
always produced some fantastic decals with awesome marking options.
This latest decal sheet are designed for Hasegawa Tojo kit.
Typical of Lifelike Decals this sheet contains four marking options
of three II Hei and one II Kou. All
the aircraft have the yellow identification stripes on the wing leading
edges for that little splash of color.
The variety of markings
is a big draw to this sheet. You
get a choice of a black-grey aircraft with a natural metal finish lower
surface from 1LT Hideaki Inayama from January 1945.
The colors are interesting and based on the interpretation of an
interview and reference photos. This
points out another great thing about Lifelike Decals, they give you the
references that they used for determining the color schemes.
They don’t shy away from a controversial aircraft just because it
is difficult. They analyze
the references and then based on those findings they make an educated
decision. It is up to you as the modeler to see if you agree or
disagree with their interpretation.
Aircraft two is a natural
metal airplane with red markings. The
aircraft belongs to L. Col Yukiyoshi Wakamatsu of the 85th
Sentai in the summer of 1943. This
marking option is splendid in its simplicity.
Another great thing about Lifelike Decals is that they include a
little bit of history about the man and machine, such as this pilot shot
down more than 18 fighters including 9 P-51s.
Aircraft three is also a
natural metal airplane but this one includes bomb racks and underwing fuel
tanks from the 246th Sentai in 1944.
This particular airplane carries red landing gear covers with the
aircraft number on the bottom of them.
The red cowl rings, tail markings, and fuselage band make this
quite colorful. The white home defense bands and yellow spinner makes this
particular aircraft my favorite on the sheet.
Aircraft four is also
flown by the 246th Sentai but after they returned to the home
islands in Spring 1945. Markings
are interesting in that there are white fuselage bands on both sides of
the fuselage band as opposed to the single home defense band.
The tail markings are changed with the reassignment to just a red
tail stripe. This aircraft
interestingly has a black canopy frame.
The
instructions are printed on two A4 size sheets with full color including
stencil locations. The decals
themselves are printed on a single sheet by Cartograf so you know they are
the best quality decals in the world.
So accurate
research, colorful subjects, and Cartograf printing makes this set of
decals an absolute must have for the Japanese aircraft enthusiast.
Highly
recommended
Thanks to
Lifelike Decals for the review copy.
You can get yours by contacting them online at http://www16.ocn.ne.jp/~lifelike/
.
Floyd S. Werner, Jr.
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