Mike Grant Decals, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

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The Republic P-47 Thunderbolt is the subject of this new release from Mike Grants Decals. 

P-47s seem to be popular subjects with decal makers of late and this plethora of releases, in 1/48 scale at least, are no doubt due to the two superb kits that have been put out by Tamiya.   This new sheet from Mike Grant Decals takes advantage of this in that three of the subjects on this sheet can be used on the Tamiya Razorback D kit and one set on their “Bubbletop” D kit.

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In all, markings are provided for five different machines.  Details of the individual options are as follows:

• Firstly, the odd man out.  F-47N-20-RE, 44-89238 from circa 1948 when it was assigned to the All Weather Flying Centre at Clinton County Air Force Base in Ohio.  Post-war P-47s are rare and even rarer in decal format.  This one is colourful too, being in overall natural metal finish with olive drab anti-glare panels with red and yellow trim to its cowling, forward fuselage, vertical stabiliser/dorsal strake and wings.  The yellow edges to the red trim are supplied as decals and the placement guide advise you to use theses decals as rough painting masks.  A better way to do it is to photocopy the decals and then cut them out to use as masks.  As it was post 1947 the aircraft wears the current form of United States Air Force “red barred” national insignia and a full set of these is supplied along with separate portions of the fuselage ones so you can apply them over the opened intercooler doors.   The aircraft is without guns or air-to-ground rocket stubs so you will have to modify the Academy or ProModeler kits.

• “Bonnie”, P-47D-23-RA, 42-27884 flown by Major Bill Dunham of the 348th Fighter Group’s 460th Fighter Squadron.  A very well known machine indeed and featured on many aftermarket decal sheets as well as being provided as kit markings.  The notes on placement guide advise that the machine is in overall natural metal finish with an olive drab spine and anti-glare.  It wears the Pacific Theatre black stripe markings around its wings and fuselage.  It also wears a black stripe incorporating the ‘plane in squadron number’ on its vertical stabiliser – the vertical stripe incorporating the ‘plane in squadron number’ was a group marking applied to natural metal finish aircraft within the 348th Fighter Group - the other squadrons in the group wearing different colours – the 340th Fighter Squadron was red, the 341st was yellow, and the 342nd was mid blue.  Bonnie’s rudder also wears the red horizontal stripes reminiscent of the pre-war red and white striped rudders worn by aircraft of the United States Army Air Corps.  This option wears the blue bordered stars and bars national insignia but none are provided on the decals sheet and my guess is that this is an oversight as there are two sets of non bordered stars and bars provided on the sheet.

• P-47D (its sub-type and serial are not known but it is probably a D-30) belonging to the 86th Fighter Bomber Group based at Neubiberg Air Base in Germany circa 1950.  The machine is in overall natural metal finish with a red cowl and spinner with a thin red stripe running the length of the fuselage below the anti-glare panel.  The machine was painted to simulate a “Russian Yak” during the filming of the movie ‘Berlin Airlift’.  The United States Air Force national insignia was scrubbed off (leaving a patch of shiny ‘stars and bars’ shaped metal) and Russian white bordered red stars were applied in their place as well as on the vertical stabiliser.  The canopy also had black striping applied to it to simulate the framing supposedly found on ‘Russian Yaks” and this is supplied as a decal.  A bright and unusual option indeed, it also wears red 12 ‘Bort numbers’.

• Fiery Ginger IV, P-47D-4-RE, 42-22668 flown by Colonel Neel Kearby, the commander of the 348th Fighter Group.  This was the machine that Colonel Kearby was flying when he was shot down and killed on 4 March 1944.  The aircraft is in olive drab over neutral grey camouflage finish and sports the New Guinea theatre recognition markings of a white tail and white leading edges to the wings.  Strictly speaking the entire empennage should have been painted white but Kearby’s machine had just the vertical stabiliser and the rudder painted.  The tip of the rudder/vertical stabiliser wears a multi-coloured band with each colour representing a squadron within the group which were red for the 340th Fighter Squadron, yellow for the 341st, and mid blue for the 342nd.(note that the 4060th (black) was not formed until July 1944) and this marking is supplied as a decal.  The aircraft was name Fiery Ginger after his wife Virginia.  Early non-bordered bars national insignia are worn.

• Miss Mutt II – Pride of Lodi Ohio, P-47D-4-RE, 4222684 circa late ’43 early ’44.  The aircraft was flown by Lieutenant Colonel Robert Rowland.  This machine too is in olive drab over neutral grey camouflage and wears the New Guinea theatre markings with a yellow tip to its vertical stabiliser/rudder.  The plane-in-squadron number 31 worn on the fin is also yellow.  This machine also wears the early non-bordered bars national insignia as well as the 5th Air Force insignia on the inner faces of its wheel hubs.

The decals themselves are very nice indeed.  It would have been a difficult printing process given the thin white borders to the Russian stars as well as the red, white and blue of the names on the third option and the red and white rising sun flag scoreboard for Fiery Ginger IV but everything is in perfect register.

Consideration has also been given for the application of the yellow serial number on Fiery Ginger IV over an olive drab background and this has been done by providing an identical serial in white over which the yellow one is applied.  The same consideration has been given for the pilot and crew names for the last two options.  The decals are thin and there is a minimum of film surrounding each of the designs. 

Two separate sheets are provided.

The support material/placement guide is A-4 in size and carries left hand side profiles of each option as well as appropriate scrap views of the wings and comprehensive notes.

The two decal sheets and the placement guide come packed in a clear plastic zip-loc bag.

I am confident that the markings as presented are accurate as the research for this sheet was done by Jennings Heilig, who is known for his expertise!

This is an excellent decal sheet from Mike Grant!  Markings for Pacific Theatre P-47s are very thin on the ground and this sheet goes a long way in redressing this shortage. 

The sheet is listed as “Set 1” so hopefully Mike Grant and Jennings Heilig have more Pacific Theatre Jugs on the way.

Recommended.

Thanks to Mike Grant Decals for the review sample

Mike Grant Decals are available from his website

Review Copyright © 2008 by Rodger Kelly
Page Created 13 February, 2008
Last updated 13 February, 2008

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