Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

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48-BS-009 Wicked Women P-38 Lightings is the second of the two new sheets from Bombshell Decals covering Lockheed’s P-38 Lightning.

The sheet provides you with markings for two machines:

• ‘Virginia Marie/Margaret’ P-38J-15 serial number 42-104308.  The machine was assigned to the 5th Air Force’s 475th Fighter Group, 433rd Fighter Squadron and flown by a Lieutenant Carroll J. Anderson.  A colourful machine, it is in overall natural metal finish with what the placement guide advises is ‘dope blue’ trim to the spinners, anti-glare panel, wing fillets and the tips of the vertical stabilisers/rudders, wing tips as well as diagonal stripes on the upper and lower surfaces of the wings (these latter markings have thin white edging whist the vertical stabiliser/rudder markings have a white stripe through them – the white stripes are supplied as decals). It wears large ‘plane in squadron’ numbers 194 on the outer surfaces of the engine nacelles as well as the vertical stabiliser/rudders.  The name Virginia Marie is painted on the left hand side of the nose and the name Margret on the right hand side.  The nose art is on the left hand side of the nose and in the form of a female wearing a blue bathing suit. 

• ‘Wicked Woman’ P-38J-15-LO serial number 42-23587.  Another Pacific Theatre machine, it was assigned to the 5th Air Force’s 8th Fighter Group 36th Fighter Squadron and flown by a Lieutenant McLawson.  The machine is in overall natural metal finish with black and white striped spinners.  The tops of the vertical stabilisers/rudders are white with a thin black band whilst the bottoms are black with thin white stripes.  The nose wears a black panel with a thin white outline whilst the anti-glare is also in black with a thin white stripe – supplied as decals.  The wings also wear black diagonal stripes.  The nose art is worn on the left hand side of the nose.  The black and white theme is continued on to the individual aircraft letter ‘H’ – black letter with a white outline.

The decals themselves have been printed by Cartograf, and as with the other sheet in the series, the reproduction of the nose art have been superbly rendered, exhibiting multi toned and shadowed flesh.  The thin black ‘shadowing’ to the names of the first option is very, very thin and in absolute perfect register  I have included scans of both nose art decals as well as the names on the first option to give you an idea of how good they are.  They have been scanned a 200% and the black numbers on each are 1mm high!  You get two complete sets of stencil data with many ‘spares’ such as two sets of Curtiss propeller logos – which are also in perfect register – and alternative red or black ‘NO STEP’ warnings for the canopy.  You also get two sets of national insignia as well as a further set of ‘faded’ ones.

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Thumbnail panels:

The placement guide is a single A-4 sized sheet with printing on both sides.  Full colour left hand side profiles and smaller nose only ones are provided for each option as well as a generic upper surface plan view for both options.   Each option has a fairly comprehensive description too with notes provided on painting details.  One downer is that the extent of the black nose panel of the second option is not shown so you will need to conduct some research of your own here.

The decals and placement sheet come packed in a clear plastic zip-loc bag.

This is a first rate decal sheet from Bombshell Decals.  It provides you with some really beautifully printed decals for two Pacific Theatre based P-38s with classic ‘pin-up’ style nose art as well as complete stencil data and comprehensive supporting information.

Thanks to Bombshell Decals for the samples

Review Copyright © 2010 by Rodger Kelly
Page Created 14 October, 2010
Last updated 14 October, 2010

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