Lifelike Decals have recently provided some of their products for review. They produce a wide range of 1/72, 1/48 and 1/32 scale decals for WW II fighters and a couple of B-17s. This sheet is the first of three sheets covering 244 Sentai aircraft. I am sure that most modelers are familiar with the red tailed Ki-61 Tonys of this group. This sheet covers eight different aircraft including a couple of natural metal birds. Five of them are aircraft of aces. The aircraft of this Sentai included a great variety of fuselage stripes and bands. This sheet provides all of that material for the various schemes. The level of detail includes two slightly different colors of blue to properly recreate the individual markings. The directions also provide details for the props and landing gear doors. A single set of national insignia Hinomarus are provided however these are available with the kits.

Many sets of decals are satisfied to provide simple side view drawings and an occasional plan view by way of instructions. This set of decals provides almost three sheets of information about the individual airplanes including information about the pilots and specific details of the markings. A bibliography is provided to augment the information. Also, F. S. numbers are provided as needed. This is a great instruction sheet. I wish all manufacturers provided this level of detail.

These decals are well recommended for all modelers of WW II Japanese aircraft. My thanks to Lifelike for providing the decals and to IPMS for allowing me to complete this review. The Lifelike web site does not appear to sell their products on line but these decals can be obtained from Hobby Link Japan, FlightDecs and many other suppliers.

My thanks to Lifelike and IPMS/USA for the review sample.