1:72 P-51D Mustang

Mustangs of the 20th Fighter Group over Germany

The sheet is tied to the fighter pilots who flew from Kings Cliffe in England and who during 1944 changed from twin-boom Lightnings to single-engine Mustangs. The first machine is the P-51D with the serial number 44-11161, the code LC-N and the name June Nite of Captain Ernest C. Fiebelkorn of the 77th Fighter Squadron; his name is connected with the shooting down of a jet-powered Me 262 in November 1944. The second subject is the Mustang 44-13761 with the code MC-I of Major Jack M. Ilfrey, a veteran of the fighting over North Africa, who later led the 79th Squadron of the same group.

• Motifs for two American P-51D fighters
• 1:72 scale, a thin carrier film with sharp registration
• National insignia, code letters and the personal names of the machines
• Usable on commonly available Mustang kits

In the Eighth Air Force the code letters were painted very large and across the whole side of the fuselage, so set them in place at one go and straight; a thin strip of tape stuck on as a guide will save your nerves. The colored areas on the nose and on the tail surfaces, by which the groups recognized each other, have to be sprayed, because they are not part of the sheet. Natural metal under a decal reveals every unevenness, so polish the surface before applying and settle the rest of the film with a softener.

Prepare the natural metal shade before you reach for the sheet, because silver finishes take a softener worse than ordinary acrylic paints and the edge of the film likes to go white on them. Anyone building a machine identified by name should also look up the form of the propeller spinner and the lettering on the tail surfaces; in the same unit they changed several times during 1944.