PYN-UP Decals

1/48 P-38 America's "Ace of Aces" decal sheet

Product # PYND48002 for $19.99

Product Article by Steve Bamford on Sept 7  2004

 

 

 

This new decal sheet from Cutting Edge Modelworks includes markings for two different 1/48 P-38 Lightnings.  

This aircraft is a P-38J-15-LO Lightning #42-103993 flown by America's Ace of Aces Capt. Richard (Dick) I. Bong with the 5th Fighter Command.  There have been many decals released for this bird and this new sheet goes down it's own path using new research to back up this sheet....plus you'll find some of the more traditional decal options if you're the type of modeller that doesn't want to create waves.  Let me explain.  

Dick Bong was America's "Ace of Aces", with 40 confirmed air-to-air combat victories......all against Japanese aviators.  I read books about him and the stories are classic and quite amazing.  For awards he received; 

  • Medal of Honor (America's highest award) 

  • Distinguished Service Cross

  • 2 Silver Stars 

  • 7 Distinguished Flying Crosses

  • 15 air Medals.  

He was very active in a War Bond drive with Marge flying a special 2 seater P-38 and sadly he died on Aug 6 1945 (day that the Enola Gay dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima) as he was test flying one of the new P-80 jet fighter 44-85048 in Burbank, California.  Dick Bong's girlfriend was "Marge".......Marjorie Vattendahl was first his girlfriend, then fiancee and finally his wife.

This P-38 is dedicated to her....the plane is called "Marge".  The nose art is a picture of his girlfriend that was blown up and varnished to the aircraft.  This process didn't last long and new pictures had to be attached to the aircraft every few missions.  All photos of this plane with this nose art are always in black and white, so it's always been assumed the photo of Marge on the nose was a black and white photo.  In actual fact, the black and white photo was hand colourized by a 5th Fighter Command A-2 (Intelligence) member Jim Nichols, who Bong asked to take care of the artwork he had in mind.  Now if you prefer to use the black and white version of the photo, then that noseart is also included on this decal sheet.  Dick flew many P-38's with similar but distinctly different markings.  This decal sheet focuses on his P-38J-15-LO 42-103993.  This is the only P-38 to carry the name Marge.....other P-38's had the picture of Marge on them, but no known photos exist of any other P-38's with the name Marge painted on the aircraft.  The script for the name "Marge" is in red with white drop down shadow for the letter "M" and not for the rest of the letters in the name.  It is possible that white drop down shadows were painted on the other letter, but no known photos exist.  The name Marge is included twice on this decal sheet.....once with white drop down shadows for only the letter "M" and the second possible version with white drop down shadows for all the letters is also included if you decide to go that route.  This plane carried 25 victory markings and was lost Mar 24 1944 while on a reconnaissance flight with Capt. Tom Malone at the controls......Tom parachuted to safety.

The paint scheme on this aircraft is overall bare metal/silver in appearance with Olive Drab for the anti-glare panel in front of the windscreen and on the inner sides of both engine cowlings.  The top tips and bottom tips of the tails are red as are the prop spinners and the area around the nose gun barrels.  On the outside of the tails is the serial number 2103993 in black.

The noseart decals are delicate and two are included for each plane in case you mess up the first ones.  Exacting instructions are included on how to prepare and install these decals…..read these instructions carefully to avoid disaster.  Apparently these noseart decals are very thin and need special care, but once installed they will look very accurate and realistic.  The nose art decals are printed on a one piece decal sheet, so you’ll need to cut the decal free from the rest of the decal film…..patience is the key here.  The noseart decal is beautifully printed with fantastic detail and lovely shading.  Sadly Lt. Walter “Moon” Mullins died in a crash over the North Sea on a training flight on October 18 1944.  

The second aircraft is a P-38H-1-LO, 42-66545, "Hot Box Annie", White 123, Lt. John A. Cohn, 431 FS/475 FG, New Guinea, Summer 1943.  The noseart in includes a topless redhaeded lady lying on her side wearing a grass skirt.  The paint scheme on this aircraft is overall Olive Drab and Gray on the underside.  The nose art is applied to an white base decal to avoid colour bleed through.  The prop spinner has a red stripe and the forward tips of the tails are also red.  The number of the nose and tail is a large white "123".  Again.....I will refer you to the special instructions mentioned for the noseart decals earlier in this review....these instructions apply to the noseart decals for this aircraft as well.  The decals were flawlessly printed and in perfect registration and the clear carrier film is trimmed very close to the crisply printed colored areas.  You get enough stencils for one aircraft. 

The instructions are clear and include 2 views of each aircraft and an extra page of text instructions is included with a small bit of info about both the planes as well as helpful tips for decal application. 

A very nice decal sheet and  sure to please the lucky 300 people that manage to buy one of these limited edition sheets.  

Click on images below to see larger images of the instruction sheets

I would like to thank Cutting Edge Modelworks for providing me with this review sample.

Steve

Photos and text © by Steve Bamford