North American Mustang
Part 4

Lifelike Decals, 1/48 scale

S u m m a r y :
Catalogue Number:	LifeLike Decals Item No. 48048 - North American Mustang Pt. 4
Scale:	1/48
Contents & Media:	One full size and one smaller sheet of waterslide decals; colour instructions.
Price:	Available on-line from these stockists:
	Stockist	Price
	Hannants	£11.99
Review Type:	First Look.
Advantages:	Clearly printed and in register; Detailed stencil data supplied; Excellent colour reference; Very high quality presentation.
Disadvantages:
Conclusions:	Highly Recommended.

Reviewed by Floyd S. Werner Jr.

HyperScale is proudly sponsored by Squadron.com

This sheet has been on my wish list for some time.  Everyone needs heroes and for me one of my heroes is Cpt. Don Gentile.  Heroes are often time flawed.  Gentile pranged his beautiful P-51B “Shangri-La” on his last flight while showing off for press.  Even so the aircraft was beautifully weathered with the I’ve always wanted to build that P-51B with its complete score card of 30.  After dodging Col Blakeslee, he continued on to the States where he was issued a brand new P-51D-30-NA.  This aircraft was used for a war bond tour.  Its also flamboyant and beautifully marked.

Okay enough about Don Gentile, what else is on this sheet?  Inside the ziplock bag, are two single sided A4 instruction sheets in full color.  Each aircraft is given some history and the background on how and why certain colors were used.  This is one of the reasons I love Lifelike decals.  They are not afraid to tell the modeler when they know something for sure or they have to speculate.  They let the modeler know and then leave it up to the modeler.  There is a small sheet that shows the position of the stencils. 

The decals are a mix of Cartograf and Microscale.  So you know they are the best in the world.  Those two are the best decal printers in the world.  The decals are thin, in register and have good color saturation.

This set of decals is quite extensive.  There are actually four sheets of decals included in this set.  The first sheet is printed by Microscale and includes the main markings.  The second sheet is a small sheet printed by Cartograf and includes all the Shangri-La markings and the Hamilton prop logos.  The third sheet, printed by Microscale, contains markings for the star and bars and the white stripes.  The fourth sheet is totally dedicated to the striped markings of Man o’War.

Now if that was it you’d be happy, but Lifelike is a step above every other decal manufacturer.  There is a pre-printed template printed on a peel and stick label.  This is for painting the fading of the yellow background for Shangri-La. Now that is a professional product.

The decals provide marking options for four, actually five marking options. 

The first and second, maybe even third, aircraft is the infamous P-51B, Shangri-La, flown by Cpt Dominic ‘Don’ Gentile of the 4th Fighter Group.  This aircraft has three marking options.  The first is the red spinner, then with a white nose cone.  The third option is the full score card of 30 kill markings.  The level of research on this aircraft is impressive.  Lifelike picked up that the yellow background is not a circle but that the right side is rather flattened.  You have the option of using the decal for the whole thing or spraying the yellow using the template provided.  I might just try this but the paint will have to be thin. 

The next aircraft is the P-51D that Gentile used on his war bond tour.  This aircraft features checkers all the way around the nose, except for the anti-glare panel.  The broad kill scroll is unique and the Shangri-La is noticeably different from the original markings.  There are no unit codes but the aircraft does have a red-white-red stripe on the rear fuselage and probably sports a red rudder.  This aircraft has rocket launch rails under the wings, as well as, a Hamilton Standard prop.  This means that you will need the F-51D release from Tamiya as it is the only release with the rocket launch rails.  For me this has to be a holy grail of decals and will be one of my near future models.

Another 4th FG aircraft is the next aircraft, this one is the famous P-51D ‘Man O’War’.  This aircraft has a unique tiger stripe paint scheme.  Until now that has been a pain to pull off but with these decals from Lifelike it should be a breeze.  The 18 kill markings around the canopy and the red surround on the squadron codes adds a splash of color to the aircraft.  Invasion stripes on fuselage belly add even more color. 

The last aircraft is from the Pacific Theater of war.  ‘Dirty Dick’ is the mount of Col. Dick Rowland of the 348th FG in early 1945.  The aircraft has a fuselage markings of his home state of Ohio on the left fuselage side.  The other unique thing about this aircraft is the flat black anti-glare panel that extends to the rear of the aircraft.  The four color spinner is quite colorful. 

To sum it up, a childhood hero, world class research, two of the world’s best decal manufacturers, and paint masks, I can’t think of anything else I would add to this offering.  Another great product from Lifelike. 

Highly recommended

Thanks to Lifelike Decals for these samples.

Text and Images Copyright © 2016 by Floyd S. Werner Jr.
Page Created 1 November, 2016
Last updated 1 November, 2016

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