Lifelike Decals

1/48 P-47D Thunderbolt Part 3 decal sheet

Product # 48-010

Product Article by Steve Bamford on Aug 31  2005

 

 

 

Lifelike Decals is a Decal company out of Japan.  The owners have been involved in the researching of decal sheets for other companies for many years.  They have decided to create their own decal line.  This decal sheet features 3 different P-47's.  This decal sheet provided a good variety of paint schemes and markings as you can see in the instruction sheets below.

There is an extra page of instructions that shows the placement of stencil decals. 

The first plane is a P-47D-1-RE  42-7945 flown by Lt. Spiros "the Greek" Pisanos of the 344FS, 4FG in the Spring of 1943 out of Debden, England.  Lt. Spiros "the Greek" Pisanos first joined the RAF, then flew with the Eagle Squadrons and was later shot down over France and made his way back to England 3 weeks later.  He also served in Vietnam and had a kill total of 10 destroyed and one damaged.  He retired in 1973 as a Colonel.

This aircraft is overall Olive Drab on top and Neutral Gray on the undersides.  The artwork includes a sexy lady in see through wrap holding lighting bolts with text beside her that reads "Miss Plainfield" on the forward part of the left side of the engine cowling.  The forward engine cowling ring is white as well as the white horizontal stripe on the tail.  White code letters on the side of the rear fuselage are "QP D".

Click on images below to see larger images

The second plane is a P-47D-25-RE  42-26628 flown by Capt. Fredrick Christensen Jr., with the 62FS, 56FG in July of 1944 out of Boxted, England. 

This aircraft is overall baremetal/silver with an Olive Drab antiglare panel.  The artwork includes a sexy nude lady with text beside her that reads "Miss Fire" on the forward part of the left side of the engine cowling.  There is a white decal to go under the noseart decal.  The forward engine cowling ring is red and the rudder on the bare metal tail is yellow.  Black code letters on the side of the rear fuselage are "LM C".  This plane also has D-Day stripes on the underside of the wings and rear fuselage that you must paint on your model.  This plane has 22 kill markings and on the side of the fuselage in front of the cockpit is the red script "Rozzie Geth II".  On the tail are the black serial numbers "226628".

The Third plane is a P-47D-15-RE  42-76165 with the 83FS, 78FG out of Duxford, England. 

This aircraft is overall baremetal/silver with a dark antiglare panel.  The artwork includes a sexy nude lady with text beside her that reads "Miss Fire" on the forward part of the left side of the engine cowling.  The forward engine cowling ring is black and white checkerboard with a red ring further back on the engine cowling ring.  The rudder on the tail is white with a red outline.  Black code letters with red outlines on the side of the rear fuselage are "C HL".  This plane also has a red stripe below the canopy.  On the tail are the black serial numbers "6165".

The quality of these decals is quite pleasing.  The decals themselves are clearly printed and in perfect register.  The colour of the decals appear solid enough to prevent paint showing through the decals.

You can purchase these decals either directly from Lifelike Decals at fax number is +81-3-5680-6733, and e-mail is lifelike@eos.ocn.ne.jp. or from HobbyLink Japan.  

Other shops that stock Life like Decals are *Hannants/UK, *Mister Kit/Italy, *Revi (publisher)/Czech Republic, *SkyGrid/Canada, *Roll Models/USA, *Great Models Webstore/USA, *FlightDecs/Canada, *Victory Models/USA
*M & Models/USA, *Zed Hobbies/Australia, *AB &S Enterprise/Australia, *Desert Miniature/USA 

I recommend these decals to anyone interested in building a P-47.  

I would like to thank Lifelike Decals for providing me with this review sample.

Steve

Photos and text © by Steve Bamford