Want a variety
of marking and painting options for your Hasegawa Ki-44? Well Lifelike
Decals has exactly what
you are looking for on this sheet. Featuring four aircraft in four
distinct paint schemes and marking options.
The
instructions are printed on two single sided A4 sheets in full color.
The first page is the cover and the back with the plan views of the
subject aircraft. Interestingly the second aircraft is not shown in
the plan views. The other page includes the history and the research
used to determine the markings. This is one of the things that
Lifelike Decals does better than most manufacturers in that they show you
where they got the research and the logic behind the color call outs.
They don’t even pretend that they ‘know’ all the answers but give
you, the modeler, the information to do with as you please.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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The decals are
printed by Cartograf so you know they are thin and in perfect register.
They will respond to all solvents and conform even to the most complex
curves. The decals are printed on two sheets. The first sheet
has all the markings on it while the smaller one includes the kill
markings and their background.
The first
aircraft covered is a green over grey camouflaged aircraft used by Warrant
Officer Kobayashi of the 23rd Sentai in November 1944. It is simple
in its paint scheme and markings but is a colorful aircraft nonetheless.
If you want to
challenge your airbrush capabilities then the second aircraft on the sheet
is for you. Flown by the 85th Sentai in China during 1944 this
aircraft is green camouflaged pattern over natural metal, or perhaps even
light brown. The camouflage pattern extends to the entire engine
cowling and the landing gear covers.
More typical
of a green camouflaged Tojo is the third aircraft flown by Major Saito
during the summer of 1944 in China. The green camouflage is heavily
chipped and worn. The blue Sentai markings, spinner and fuselage
band makes this a very colorful aircraft. This aircraft also carries
drop tanks with graffiti on them. This is my favorite aircraft of
this sheet.
The final
aircraft is a natural metal aircraft. With some colorful kill markings on
the fuselage and the blue Sentai emblems this simplicity is quite
colorful. The aircraft was flown by Major Sakado in June 1945.
In typical Lifelike attention to detail, the eagle wing victory markings
are unique to each kill marking. The other thing is the upper kill
marking is worn more than the others and this is represented on the
decals.
The level of
detail in the decals is typical of all the Lifelike Decals. Printed
by Cartograf, you know they are the highest quality in the world.
The level of research and the quality decals makes this a winning
combination.
Highly
recommended
Thanks to
Lifelike Decals for the review copy. You can get yours by contacting
them online at http://www16.ocn.ne.jp/~lifelike/
.
Floyd
S. Werner, Jr.
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