Elite Decals, an
outgrowth of IsraDecals, has followed up their Desert
Storm F-16 releases with some B-24 Liberator decals.
During WWII, the 834th BS gained some
notoriety by naming all there unit aircraft with a theme of the
symbols from the zodiac. To accompany the names, well done
artworks enhanced the names. Elite Decals has brought us
four of the Zodiacs on two sheets in two scales.
The decals are printed in two print styles. The majority of
the markings are standard silk-screen printed decals, printed by
MicroScale. Each set has an addendum sheet that appears
to be printed by some method resembling an ALPS print. I can not
find any edges to the decal film on the addendum sheets, thus I
have to assume they are one large carrier film that must be
trimmed to size before use. Elite Decals has no
descriptions on there decal instructions or on their web site to
explain what the addendum decals are or if you need to do
anything special to use them.
All the decals on my review samples are in perfect register.
The addendum sheets are nicely printed with colors that are
finely graduated into each other. Inspection under a loop
magnifier showed the print of the addendum sheets to be a
stipple style print, like newspaper print, but very fine and
well done. Applied over the white backing decals provided in the
silk-screened decals, these will look very nice.
The instructions are simple left side / right side artworks
showing the placement of all the decals. Scrap views of the wing
tops and bottoms provide placement of those decals. The printing
is a quality better than some books I have bought and the paper
stock is very heavy and nice. You might almost consider framing
the instructions after you finish with the decals.
No data markings for the aircraft are provided. You will need
the kit decals for these items. The only "common" markings given
on the sheets are the national insignia.
The 1/48th and 1/72nd
scale sheets are equivalent to each other with all the same
markings, just photographically re-sized to the appropriate
scale.
B-24H Zodiacs --
Part 1 (48006, 72006)
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Cover Page |
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Decals Page 1 |
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Decals Page 2 |
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The two aircraft on the "part 1"
sheet are as follows. Click to enlarge the images to the
right.
- B-24H Liberator, 42-52508,
"Libra"
- B-24H Liberator, 41-29490, "Gemini"
Recommended |
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B-24H Zodiacs --
Part 2 (48007, 72007)
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Cover Page |
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Decals Page 1 |
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Decals Page 2 |
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The two aircraft on the "part 2"
sheet are as follows. Click to enlarge the images to the
right.
- B-24H Liberator, 42-52532,
"Virgo"
- B-24H Liberator, 42-52650, "Cancer"
Recommended |
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These are really nice decals. You can buy with
confidence that these decals will provide you excellent
results on your B-24 projects.
I can see it now -- the "best of show" for the 2006
IPMS Nationals will be a diorama with all the zodiac
B-24s taxiing out for a mission. Who is up for that?
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