HyperScale is proudly sponsored by Meteor Productions

FirstLook

PYN-up Decals from Meteor Productions are very high quality printed decals that feature excellent and finely detailed reproductions of the nose art worn by WWII and Korean War aircraft. Normally, there are two individual sheets in each release. 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 they replicate.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

A change from WWII aircraft this time to those that fought in the Korean War. 48031 is the second sheet in the PYN-up Decals' two-part coverage of the Douglas A-26 Invader. The individual aircraft and there markings are:

A-26B-56-DL-25-NC 44-34364 'The 6th Chadwick', of the 13th Bomb Squadron, 3rd Bomb Group. The machine was assigned to the Lieutenant Colonel Robert Fortney, the 13th Bomb Squadron's Commanding Officer. She is in an overall gloss black finish befitting her night interdiction role and wears the squadron's red trim to her nose, wing, horizontal and vertical stabilisers and engine nacelles. The supplied markings depict her as she appeared at K-8 (Kunsan) airfield in Korea. They include:

• Red serial, radio call numbers/letters, and U.S. Air Force titles,

• White trim for the red wing, horizontal and vertical stabiliser squadron markings, 'Y' plane-in-squadron identity letter, and pilot's name'

• Two-part nose art consisting of a white background decal of the nose art and the name the 6th Chadwick in both blue and white. The white background decal is printed using the silk screen method whilst the nose art itself is achieved the laser-printer way and is placed on the white background to complete the marking

B-26B-61-DL 44-43587 'Miss Minooki/Lady Nan of the 95th Bomb Squadron, 17th Bomb Wing. This option is in overall silver lacquer finish with blue trim to the top of her vertical stabiliser and wing and horizontal stabilisers. The placement guide advises that the aircraft was originally built as a B-26B and was field modified to –C standard. She wore two different sets of nose art during her service with the 95th Bomb Squadron and both marking options are supplied. These markings are:

• Black serial, radio call numbers/letters, and U.S. Air Force titles,

• Blue letter 'K' plane-in-squadron identity letter,

• The 95th Bomb Squadron's kicking mule insignia,

• Red propeller warning stripes and 'last three' of the serial number for the nose,

• Bomb scoreboards, a small one in yellow for the 'Lady Nan' option and a seriously large one in black for the 'Miss Minooki' option,

• Yellow emergency rescue data for the 'Lady Nan' option,

• Black data block,

• Both nose art names are in blue with black shadowing. The blue and the black are supplied as separate decals. The nose art itself is supplied as laser printed decal only and there is no white background silk screen decal as we normally see from PYN-up Decals

The main sheet carries a single set of national insignia so you can make one option or the other but not both.

The placement guide is A-4 in size and shows left hand side profiles of each option on the front with scrap views of the second option as well to illustrate the different nose art and the squadron insignia and a plan view of the upper surface of the left wings of both options on the back. Photographs of both options are also included on the placement guide. If you have the Motorbooks "The Korean Air War" by Dorr and Thompson, you will find a photo of the second option wearing the nose art without any name at all on page 161 and a further photo of the right hand side of the aircraft on page 140.

A smaller sheet is also included in the package. This sheet carries detailed notes on the care and application of the decals.

The red radio call and serials for the first option have been printed on the top of a white set of the same letters and numerals, as is the blue of the national insignia. Unfortunately, this is a slight register problem with these and the white is showing as a slight border. To be honest, the national insignia is not too much of a problem as it can be rectified with a sharp scalpel but the radio call/serial will take a fair bit more effort to rectify. Other than this, there are no problems. The decals are thin, in perfect register and have a minimum of carrier film.

The decals and the placement guide comes packed in a clear plastic zip-lock bag. The half-tone decals get a bag of their own for double protection.

The print runs of each PYN-up Decals sheet are limited to 300 so grab it now if you are contemplating building one or both of the options.

Recommended.

Postscript - The 6th Chadwick

The 13th Bomb Squadron always had an aircraft named Chadwick on its ramp, with this tradition starting when the Squadron was based in Australia during 1942. On the 8th of February, 1952 the 6th Chadwick was badly damaged when the Commanding Officer flew her through his own rocket blast punching many holes in the nose and wings of the aircraft. The machine was subsequently repaired and returned to service. She didn't last long however as on 7 April her pilot (not the Commanding Officer this time) put her through a barrel roll. Realising that he had lost several hundred feet in the manoeuvre, he executed another barrel roll in the opposite direction in an effort to gain back the altitude he had lost. An examination of the aircraft post landing determined that her wings had been bent and the 6th Chadwick was written off as junk.
 

Thanks to Meteor Productions for the review sample

Review Text and Images Copyright 2005 by Rodger Kelly
This Page Created on 28 December, 2005
Last updated 29 December, 2005

Back to HyperScale Main Page

Back to Reviews Page