With the recent release of the Hasegawa 1/32 P-47D and the Trumpeter version soon to be hitting the shelves, finding new sheets for these kits shouldn't be much of a surprise to most of you. Cutting Edge Decals has one that covers two aircraft that should be extremely popular.

First up is Dave Schilling's aircraft when he was commander of the 56th Fighter Group. The sheet allows one to do all three versions of this aircraft; early, mid and late. There were differences besides the size of the score as the mid version has had the rear fuselage repainted and a different aircraft letter style.  It is possible that the aircraft is painted in RAF Dark Green over neutral grey with the undersurfaces unpainted, but as said in the sheet, it is impossible to be pedantic about it as the green could have been US Medium Green.

The other aircraft is Frank Oiler's 'Eileen' with its large hornet marking. The huge checkerboard is supplied though the Invasion stripes and rear bands will need to be painted. Colors on this one are RAF Dark Green uppers with Sky undersides. Note that there is no pylon carried on this plane.

The three sheets that are included provide sufficient data markings for one aircraft and a superb placement guide is in with the instructions. There are also different fuselage insignia, probably to take care of differences in kits.

Though it may be limited to my copy, the color profiles on the inside are stretched, therefore the scrap drawings mentioned in the accompanying historical references are not shown. A printing glitch to be sure and hopefully CE will have a 'normal' set of profiles on their website that we can download.

In all, a typically superlative sheet that is well researched and provides considerable information to help you produce the best model you can.

August  2007

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