Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

HyperScale is proudly sponsored by Meteor Productions

FirstLook

If you have not seen them before, PYN-up Decals are from Meteor Productions and they are very high quality printed decals that feature excellent and finely detailed reproductions of the nose art worn by US aircraft.   To date, the sheets have covered WWII and Korean War subjects.  Normally, each release contains two individual decal sheets.  The decals on the main sheet are printed using the silk-screen process and a second smaller sheet that holds the nose art decals printed using a laser printer to ensure that they capture the detail of the original one-to-one-scale examples that they replicate.

Markings are provided for two machines of the 357^th Fighter Group, the “Yoxford Boys”.  The 357^th Fighter Group has always been a favourite with modellers as it fielded both natural metal finish and camouflaged P-51s.  So what you say?  Well, it gives those of us who are scared of natural metal finishes a chance to build an 8^th Air Force P-51 of course!

The two machines covered in this sheet are:

• P-51D-5-NA 44-13691 Passion Wagon flown by Lieutenant Charles E "Chuck" Weaver of the 362^nd Fighter Squadron.  The accompanying placement guide and information sheet advise that the aircraft is finished in “dark green” over neutral grey.  The placement guide also advises that there is much debate over the dark green used by the 357^th to paint the upper surfaces of their Mustangs although most researchers agree that it was Royal Air Force paint, the “dark green” being that used in their temperate scheme finish of dark green and ocean grey that graced their fighting aircraft post 1941.  Similarly, debate is also waged as to the undersides of the camouflaged machines with some saying that it was indeed neutral grey whilst others maintain that the undersides remained in the natural metal finish that they were delivered in.  Another feature of this machine is that it does not have the dorsal fin fillet that came to be fitted as standard on later P-51Ds.  Markings are also provided for the same machine when it was being flown by Lieutenant Arval Roberson prior to it being re-assigned to Captain Weaver.  Essentially, the markings are the same less two kill markings and less Captain Weaver’s name on the canopy rail.

• P-51D-5-NA 44-14722 Temptation flown by Lieutenant Matthew Martin also of the 362^nd Fighter Squadron in 1944.  Lieutenant Martin was flying this aircraft on 5 December 1944 on an escort mission to Berlin when its engine malfunction and caught fire forcing him to bail out and spend the rest of the war as a POW.  The machine sports a dorsal fin and is in overall natural metal finish with the remnants of its D Day recognition markings on the underside of the rear fuselage.

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The decals themselves are beautifully produced.  They are thin, in perfect register and have an absolute minimum of carrier film surrounding each subject.  Two sets of the Group’s red and yellow chequer markings for the nose are provided.  One set is for use on the Trumpeter kit with the other being for the Hasegawa one.  “Spare” red and yellow chequers are also provided for any patch-ups that may be required.  There are two sheets provided.  The larger sheet contains all of the markings apart from the nose art and these decals have been printed using the silk screen process.  The smaller sheet contains two each of the nose art for both options.  These decals appear to have been printed on an Alps printer and are very sharp and clear. 

The placement guide and information sheet are A-4 in size.  The placement guide is a double-sided affair and has full colour left hand side profiles of each machine as well as smaller upper and lower plan views of the wings of both options.  The information sheet is also a doubled sided and contains complete and comprehensive notes for not only each aircraft but also on the Yoxford Boys themselves as well as instructions on how to apply the decals.  Interestingly, there is also a placement guide for stencil data on the sheet but there is not stencil data provided on either sheet apart from the standard aircraft serial data block.  A very complete bibliography is also included.

The decal sheets, placement guide and information sheet are packed in a clear plastic zip-loc bag with the nose art decal having its own separate zip-loc bag.

As always from Meteor Productions, a well researched, produced and presented product.

Recommended.

Review Text and Images Copyright 2005 by Rodger Kelly
This Page Created on 13 December, 2005
Last updated 13 December, 2005

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