Lifelike Decals

1/72 Republic P-47D Thunderbolt Part 5 decal sheet

Decal sheet product # 72-016

Product Article by Floyd S. Werner, Jr. on June 13 2011

 

The Tamiya P-47 is a natural canvas for the artist and modeler alike.  Lifelike Decals provides markings for three very colorful aircraft.  Designed for the Tamiya excellent kit, the decals are some of the best out there. 

Lifelike provides the modeler with two full color instructions.  One contains the side profiles and upper/lower surfaces and the other contains the side profiles plus some detail photos and drawings, as well as, the research data used to determine the colors of the markings.  I like this approach.  It allows you to see how the colors were selected and how the artist draws his conclusion. 

Click on images below to see larger images

The decals are provided on two small sheets.  The largest one contains most of the markings for the aircraft.  The smaller one contains all the stencils and some individual markings.  The decals are all perfectly in register and very thin. 

The first Thunderbolt is a D-30 with a colorful white and light blue checkerboard on the cowling.  In addition to the checkerboard there is nose art, a mean looking bomb, and kill markings.  I love 9th Air Force P-47s.  You will not find many aircraft with such colorful markings. 

Black and white.  You like your aircraft in black and white?  The second aircraft has it in spades, no pun intended.  The cowling has a white front with a band of black aft of that with stars all the way around the cowling.  You add fuselage invasion stripes and tail identification markings and you have a really sharp looking aircraft.  The nose are of “The Mad Pole” is on the white portion of the cowling.  

We all are familiar with Glenn Eagleston’s yellow cowling with skull and cross bones, but what we haven’t seen very much is that this was actually a squadron marking.  Lt. Chuck Olmsted with the name ‘Polly’ and ‘Double Trouble’ on the fuselage is quite colorful.  This would make a nice addition to a diorama with an Eagleston P-47 or as a colorful alternative to the old markings. 

Good markings and excellent research set Lifelike Decals apart from the rest.  These are some of the best decals available.

Highly recommended. 

Thanks to Lifelike Decals for the review copy.  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 S. Werner, Jr.

Photos and text © by Floyd S. Werner, Jr.