Recommended for the exquisite 1/32nd Tamiya P-51D kit, Lifelike Decals’ latest decals are beautiful markings and options to rival those included in the kit.

Typical of Lifelike, there are four aircraft included on the sheets. The instructions are printed on two A4 single sided sheets and one half A4 sheet. The first one is the cover and the plan views. The inside sheet includes the historical data and the research used to determine markings. The smaller third sheet is a stencil sheet.

The decals are printed in perfect register and color saturation by Cartograf, so you know they are really thin. Printed on four sheets, the colors are vibrant and will look great on the model. The first sheet includes the red, yellow and light blue markings. The light blue I thought was wrong but they are correct for the one aircraft. The second sheet contains yellow and black markings with the serial numbers. The third sheet contains the colorful nose art and kill markings. The final sheet has the normal American stars and stripes and the stencils.

The aircraft start off with a colorful P-51D, “American Beauty/Lovely Lila,” flown by Capt. John Voll in Italy in 1944. It is a natural metal aircraft with red markings and yellow ID stripes on the wings and tails. The 21 victory markings are below the windscreen.

One of my favorite P-51s is Capt. Wetmore’s “Daddy’s Girl”. These decals are the most accurate portrayals of the real aircraft available. The markings here show the transitional period with kill markings on the canopy framing and below the windscreen. The green nose and blue tail will make this a colorful addition to your display case.

The third aircraft is from the famed 4th Fighter Group and belongs to Capt. Lines of the 335th FS. Sporting the large Thunderbird with its unique kill markings below the windscreen makes this an interesting aircraft. The aircraft has the black and white D-Day markings under the fuselage.

The fourth aircraft is a truly colorful P-51K assigned to Lt. Col. Bill Dunham. His “Mrs. Bonnie” of the 348 Fighter Group has a yellow stripe in front of a red, blue and white early war tail markings. This is accompanied with a red, blue, and yellow spinner. The national markings are a very light blue over the broad black stripes on the fuselage and wings. This is a very colorful machine and includes the Japanese kill markings below the windscreens along with a couple of ship kills, making this one very unique looking machine.

Colorful aircraft, well researched, and quality decals are all hallmarks of Lifelike Decals. These are no exception.

Highly recommended

Thanks to Lifelike Decals for the review copy.