Lifelike Decals has long been known for their high quality, limited edition decal releases. The decals come in the customary clear plastic zip bag, and inside you will find two full color, single sided pages with color callouts, decal placement guides, references, and a ton of historical information on each aircraft covered. Not to mention the decals themselves. This release contains one standard size decal sheet with markings for four WWII Imperial Japanese Army Ki-44 Shoki “Tojo” fighters. Decals are printed by Cartograf of Italy, and are clear and in perfect register.

**Just a note to the buyer – when you’re doing a search to purchase these, you may see some decals labeled for the “Japanese Edition” and some for the “English Edition”. The difference here is the language on the instructions. If you don’t read Japanese and are interested in getting the wealth of historical data written about each aircraft – be sure to look for the English one!

These decals are intended to be used on the 1/48 Hasegawa kit, and here is a breakdown of the four different Shoki fighters on this sheet:

• Aircraft 1
  • 1st Lt. Hideaki Inayama, 87th Sentai, 2nd Chutai , Palembang/Sumatra, January 1945
  • This is a Ki-44 Type II Hei. Dark green over natural metal with a red spinner, yellow IFF stripes and blue fuselage band. Tail markings are also in red.
• Aircraft 2
  • Lt. Col. Yukiyoshi Wakamatsu, 85th Sentai, 2nd Chutai leader, Kwangtung AB China, Summer 1943
  • Ki-44-II Kou aircraft in natural metal with red spinner, yellow IFF stripe, and red fuselage band. Three red chevrons on tail
• Aircraft 3
  • 246th Sentai 3rd Chutai, Taisho AB Osaka 1944
  • No pilot information is given from this famous Ki-44-II Hei. Natural metal aircraft with yellow spinner and IFF stripes. White home defense band around all Hinomaru markings, as well as red gear covers. Aircraft also has a thin red fuselage stripe, and what is most interesting: red cowl flaps. Numbers on the landing gear covers are included with both a red background, or “numbers only,” in case the modeler wants to paint the red.
• Aircraft 4
  • 246th Sentai, 2nd Chutai, Taisho AB Osaka, Spring 1945
  • No pilot information given for this Ki-44-II Hei. Aircraft is natural metal with red spinner, and tail marking stripe, and two white fuselage bands. Again, landing gear numbers are provided with red background or just the number.

I highly recommend this decal sheet for anyone interested in WWII Japanese aircraft, or the Shoki in general. Lifelike has done a great job of giving the modeler all of the information needed to build one of the aircraft shown by listing their references. They have done all of the research, so we can just build! One of my favorite things about Lifelike Decals is that they tell you what they used as a reference in making their decals and then let the modeler decide if there are any questions.

The only down side to this sheet is that it is indeed a limited edition, and once they are sold out, they are gone for good. Lifelike decals can be difficult to find here in the US, but a quick internet search should provide some vendors, both here in the USA and overseas.

Thank you to Lifelike Decals for supplying the sample and to IPMS/USA for the opportunity to review it.