The second
sheet that Lifelike
Decalse has recently
released on the Ki-43 Hayabusa is just as exciting as the first one.
Designed for the Hasegawa, Arii, or Fine Molds kits these decals will
certainly add color to your Oscar.
The
instructions are printed on two single sided 8.5x11 sheets with full color
drawings. This sheet contains a previously unpublished photo.
Lifelike continues to set the standard for research as far as I’m
concerned. I know there are certain things that we ‘know’ and
other things we think we know and still other things that are speculation.
I’m a big boy I can take the truth. Lifelike lets you know what
they know and what they are speculating. It is up to you, as the
modeler, to make an informed decision on colors and painting. The
instruction
The decals
themselves are printed on two sheets. The first one is a 6x9 sheet
with most of the markings included. They are crisp, thin and in
perfect register. The second sheet has just some silver strips.
Click on
images below to see larger images
|
|
The first
aircraft is a type I flown by Major Katsuji Sugiura in Burma in 1942.
This aircraft sports are very colorful white, red and yellow lightning
bolts. The thing that sets this aircraft apart is the camouflage
which consists of meandering brown over the dark green with a NMF bottom.
Very unique looking and colorful.
The type II
flown by Major Torashiro Aizawa in Burma 1944. This aircraft sports
a heavy dark green mottle over the NMF. The white and red leading
edge to the tail along with the three yellow and one white band around the
fuselage makes for an interesting paint scheme.
The third
aircraft, a type I, has an emblem on the tail that I associate with a
Frank and not an Oscar, a red arrow. The dark green over NMF has a
diagonal white outlined yellow fuselage stripe. The pilot Cpt.
Saburo Nakamurra was flying this machine in Burma in 1942.
The fourth
aircraft is a type III from a Special Attack unit (Kamikaze) sports the
yellow green #7 with wing tanks and light grey belly. The aircraft
has one bomb and one drop tank for its ‘special’ mission. There
are Japanese characters on the rudder that pay tribute to the Yasakuni
shrine.
The final
aircraft is also from a Special Attack unit. This aircraft is shown
in a previously unpublished photo on the instruction sheet. The
camouflage is yellow green #7 with a light grey belly. It has some
Japanese characters on the rudder.
These decals
are the usual quality that I’ve come to expect from Lifelike.
Thorough research, high quality decals and the historical information
carried in the instructions makes this a quality product.
Highly
recommended
Thanks to
Lifelike Decals for the review copy. You can obtain yours by
contacting them directly at http://www16.ocn.ne.jp/~lifelike/
. Be sure to
tell them that you heard about it here.
Floyd S. Werner, Jr. IPMS # 26266
|