The Aircraft

The Tempest was a follow-on for the Hawker Hurricane and Typhoon. Through the Typhoon and Tempest development, Hawkers had problems with several new systems, and the Air Ministers were ready to scrap the new aircraft programs. One of the people who successfully argued for their retention and one of the problem solvers was Roland P. Beamont.

The resulting aircraft was very fast, quite maneuverable, and a success against the Luftwaffe. But its biggest use in late World War II was against V-1 flying bombs. The Tempest had the speed and toughness to fly alongside a V-1 and tap the wing tip of the missile. This would cause the gyros in the navigation computer to tumble, and the V-1 would crash well short of its target. Good for London, not so good for those living along the flight corridor. Tempest Wing (#150) accounted for 638 V-1s.

Originally when I asked to review these I had the intention of putting them on my Eduard Fokker D.VII Weekend Edition, as you may or may not know that is Herman Goring’s white Fokker. I already built Herman’s plane so I thought these would be a colorful option to the plain white version. I was right they are a colorful option however this review has turned into a non-build version for the simple fact that all four choices in the Lifelike Decal sheet require the dreaded Lozenge camouflage.

The LVT-(A) 1 was part of a series of US Marine Corps. and Navy amphibious assault vehicles developed during WW2. The idea for the military vehicles came from an original, civilian design by Donald Roebling, who designed his Alligator as a rescue vehicle for use in areas inaccessible to standard cars or trucks, such as swampland. LVT stood for Landing Vehicle, Tracked, and the main contractor during WW2 was FMC: Farm Machinery Corp. As well as the standard open topped tracked landing craft designed to bring troops and cargo ashore, there were also vehicles such as the LVT-(A) 1 which came completely enclosed, and armed with turrets. The LVT-(A) 1 (“A” for Armor) had the turret and gun of the M3 Stuart light tank, and the vehicle was also powered by an M3 Stuart engine. Just over 500 (A) 1’s were produced during the War, with a total of just over 18,000 LVT’s of all varieties eventually rolling off the assembly lines.

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.

It seemed that there was a great surge in the release of 1/72^ndscale B-17 decals as a result of the release of Revell’s B-17G, so you would think this decal sheet was a result. However, that’s not true. Life like’s release is based on the Minicraft and Hasegawa kits, and one of the bonuses you receive is a sheet with the scale drawings of the placement of the cabin windows on the real aircraft, the Minicraft kit and the Hasegawa kit. After looking at it, you have to wonder how the model makers arrived at their finished product.

There are four aircraft provided on three separate sheets. All of the markings are extremely thin, with little or no excess decal film. The artwork for the nose art is very crisp and in sharp detail.