LSP Decals 1/32
P-47 Thunderbolt - Leading Aces of the 56 FG

The folks at Large Scale Planes have jumped into a new line - decals! For those of us who enjoy building large scale aircraft (1/32 and above), the Large Scale Planes website has been a handy resource for reviews and how-to's for this modeling area. With this decal release however, they've moved from resource to manufacturer and I hope this will be just the beginning of this new venture.

This first release covers four 1/32 P-47D Thunderbolts flown by the aces of the 56th Fighter Group. The main decal sheet is printed by Fantasy Print Shop of the UK, whilst the nose are is done by none other than Mike Grant. As you can see in these images, the sheets are printed in-register. The set does not include national markings nor maintenance stencils.

This decal set provides markings for four aircraft:

• P-47D-25-RE, 42-26418, 61 FS/56 FG, HV-A, as flown by Lt.Col. Francis Gabreski, June 1944
• P-47D-25-RE, 42-26628, 62 FS/56 FG, LM-C, 'Miss Fire/Rozzie Geth II', as flown by Capt Fred Christiansen Jr., Summer 1944
• P-47D-25-RE, 42-26641, 62 FS/56 FG, LM-S, 'Hairless Joe', as flown by Col David Schilling, CO of the 56 FG, Sep 1944
• P-47D-21-RE, 42-25512, 62 FS/56 FG, LM-Q, 'Penrod & Sam', as flown by Capt Robert Johnson, May 1944

As you can see, one of these aircraft is a bare metal P-47 Razorback. While these will work great with the Revell 1/32 P-47 kits, you'll likely want to build a more detailed and less troublesome rendition of this aircraft. Jerry Rutman to the rescue. He has released conversions and complete resin kits of the 1/32 Thunderbolt that will definitely turn some heads - especially with these markings. You can see more of Jerry's work at http://jrutman.playnet.com.

Highly recommended!

My sincere thanks to LSP for this review sample!