Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

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 capture the detail of the original one-to-one-scale examples they replicate. 

48032 is the second sheet in the two-part coverage of the North American B-25 Mitchell by PYN-up Decals.  The individual aircraft and there markings are: 

• B-25D-25-NC 42-87293 'Mitch the Witch', of the 17th Reconnaissance Squadron (Bomb), 71st Tactical Reconnaissance Group, as it appeared at Lingayen, Luzon in May of 1945  The machine wears an olive drab over neutral grey camouflage scheme with the bottom third of her vertical stabilizers in white and her cowling rings in yellow.  The supplied markings include:

Squadron insignia for her vertical stabilisers. 

Black serial, 

Black data block, 

A scoreboard comprising yellow bombs, ship silhouettes and rising sun flags.  The rising sun flags are provided as two-part decals to guard against register problems. 

Two-part nose art consisting of a white background decal of 'Mitch the Witch' and the name 'Mitch the Witch' in white with a red outline.  The white background decals are printed using the silk screen method whilst the nose art itself is achieved the laser-printer way and is placed on the white background.

• B-25D-20-NC 41-30592 'Mexican Spitfire' of the 345th's Bomb Group's 500th Bomb Squadron (Rough Raiders) as flown by Lieutenant Merwyn Bruce.  This option is also in olive drab over neutral grey camouflage and wears squadron markings consisting of yellow cowling rings and a white band around her fuselage.  Her supplied markings are:

500th Bomb Squadron's snorting horse insignia worn on her vertical stabilisers. 

A scoreboard comprising yellow bombs, ship silhouettes and rising sun flags.  As per the previous option, the rising sun flags are provided as two-part decals to guard against register problems, 

Yellow serial, 

Black data block, 

Crew names in white  T

The nose art that comprises the name 'Mexican Spitfire' in red with a white outline (a silk screen printed decal) and the two-part silk screen/laser printed 'Mexican Spitfire' herself.  The detail on this marking is true to the original when compared to the photograph of the original artwork that the placement guide carries (and also features in the Lawrence Hickey book "Warpath Across The Pacific" which chronicles the history of the 345th Bomb Group).

The main sheet carries a single set of blue bordered 'star and bar' national insignia, and a single set of propeller logos which means you can make one option or the other but not both.  As the laser printed decals are fragile, two of each design is included in case of accidents in application! 

The placement guide is A-4 in size and shows left hand side profiles of each option on the front and a plan view of the upper surface of the left wing on the back.  Photographs of both options are also included on the placement guide.  A smaller sheet is also included in the package.  This sheet carries detailed notes on the care and application of the laser-printed decals as well as the silk-screen ones.  It also carries a model paint match to the camouflage colours worn by the machines.

The yellow squadron markings and scoreboard of the 'Mitch the Witch' option are smudged on my sample but apart from that, the printing of the decals are excellent.  The decals are thin, in perfect register and have a minimum of carrier film.  If I were to hazard a guess at the printer, I would say Microscale. 

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

The print runs of each PYN-up Decals sheet are limited to 300.  If you are contemplating building one or both of the options on this sheet grab one now as you know that they will inevitably end up on E-Bay and you will pay a whole lot more for them then! 

Recommended.

Postscript 

Just to remind you of the human side of the machines we model, the 'Mexican Spitfire' was lost whilst on a raid of enemy installations along the Lambeh Strait in the Celebes on 2 September 1944.  She was hit by anti-aircraft fire from the Japanese minelayer Itsukushima that was anchored at the southeast entrance of the straight.  She made a pass over the Lambeth town, through ground fire and the Itsukushima's intense anti-aircraft fire.  She ditched about seven miles northeast of Lambeh Island and was strafed by Japanese aircraft shortly after doing so.  The Japanese aircraft were chased away by other B-25s of the 500th Bomb Squadron and the 'Spitfire's crew of six exited the sinking aircraft.  They were last seen floating in their life jackets.  A post-war search was not able to find any trace of them.

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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