The P-51 Mustang really is in the modellers minds right now – with many being built I thought I would show you to brand spanking new sets from Decal makers ZOTZ today.
To fit the
New Tamiya kit these are meant to wrap around the fuselage snugly and fit onto
the super-thin panels – with these intricate patterns on the cowlings the
decals can be made or broken in that one part - let’s actually apply them to
the kit to see if the checkerboards fit the beast!
Scales: 1/32 Reviewed here
Colour
Schemes: Two x P-51D-20NA’s
Printed by: ZOTZ
Product
Link: Zotz
Site where you can buy directly
To suit the
panels of the new wunderkit from
Tamiya in 1/32 the P-51 Mustang, Zotz has released a special set designed to
fit exactly those very thin cowlings. Let’s have a look at the newest sheet
from Zotz – the sheet showing off two of the beautiful aircraft from the 78th
FG called “The Duxford Eagles” set – but first some back story on Zotz and
Mustangs...
A glance at some of the other Zotz
P-51D sheets we have already looked at and a link here
to the review
Zotz have predominantly
made decals for American aircraft. There have been five previous decal sheets
of mustangs (not to mention the A-36 apache sheet) including the two sheets for
the P-51B and three recently released for the P-51D model – these last three I have
reviewed on the Modelling news here already. Now quite unexpectedly Zotz have
added this new release to make four sheets suitable to match the new Tamiya kit
in 32nd scale.
Zotz have
slightly changed their layout of this instruction sheet that comes in an A4
glossy cardboard sheet made into four A5 pages. It seems less “busy” and
although there seems to be less “colour and movement” it suits the Checkerboard
P-51 subjects with the black and white motif running through it. I am impressed
with the layout that shows both of the aircraft depicted on the decals in plan
view both sides and the upper and lower profiles of the planes as well.
Colours and
precise instructions are easy to follow and the aircraft particulars are noted
as well as a short little story about Major Dick Hewitt on the back of the
instructions which is an interesting footnote to the decals themselves – a bit
of history ties you into the project. The only thing missing would be perhaps
pictures of the aircraft themselves – but that is what the internet and I suppose
sites like this are for. We will have many pictures of the aircraft in this
review – searching the internet for “Big Dick” and ”Little Chicks” was an
interesting task let me tell you! (Safe search ON is recommended)
The decals
themselves come on one A5 sheet with the decals being thin in form and of a
satin or slightly shiny matte finish. The reds, yellows blacks are all strong
and the white especially doesn’t look opaque which is really important on a
decal with a lot of white on it. The last thing you want is bleed through from
the surface of the aircraft – and these look thick enough to prevent that.
The red
lines which border and tidy up the chequers are present and look to be the right
length to cover the whole area needed. As well as this the main data plates are
supplied here and look clear enough to be read with the naked eye while still
in scale. The smaller data plates of course will have to come from the kit. The
stars and bars as well are in the right size for this aircraft.
The carrier
film is minimal and I have attached a picture here with the decal held to the
light to show off the surface texture and the thinness of the decal
Let’s have a
look though and see if they stack up on the kit themselves!
I chose the
top cowling of the Mustang kit to try these on – I thought that this prominent
area of the aircraft was a good place to check the fit of the decals – the checks
being so important it’s a make or break part of the decal on these two
particular choices – I thought I’d take the consternation out of the equation
for you.
A nice white – we are “ready to rock”
First a
quick undercoat of Halfords grey auto spray paint and then some silver
metalizer aluminium spray made the cowling nice and shiny, the decal was ready
to be applied but first the top cowling decal calls for the very tip of the
cowling to be painted in white so the zig-zags of the front of the checks can
be applied to the rounded cowling better. To minimise any possible ”step” with
paint on such a fine surface I just painted the whole decal part white minus a
few millimetres from the end where the red piping would wrap around the
chequers.
The decals next to their new home
I apply the decal – I was a little
worried to see a saggy corner or two before the Micro Sol - here are the pictures in sequence as the decal settled...
Looking a little ropey here
A little Micro Sol..
And the decal settling down even more
I added some
more sol and waited a while – the decal worked flawlessly
The end result - a perfect fit and you can still see the surface detail
And the end
result - a decal that fits into the cowling perfectly – I had some misgivings
at first but it’s a great fit and not too much bother – just don’t stress about
it and it fits pretty well on this part – I can only assume the rest are ok –
but I wanted to check so both I and you could see if the decals “measured up”
to previous efforts.
The all-important fit around the nose
section - perfect
Like I said if these did not fit the cowling
you would really not be worth the bother – what we have here is a decal that
sits inside the fine surface detail nearly as well as the paint. While we are
onto it the white is strong and even where it switches to the silver of the
cowling you cannot see it in colour or in the height of the decal. Brilliant work!
Now we can get onto the decals accuracy.
The aircraft
in featured by Zotz in this release are both from the 78th Fighter Group –
based during the Second World War in Duxford in Cambridge just a little north
of London. This base was one of the most famous bases for the English during
the battle of Britain and then the Americans during the bombing offensive of Nazi
occupied Europe. The airfield still exists and now houses the American air
force museum – truly worth a visit – up till this year with the crash of the
famous “Big Beautiful Doll” P-51D you could still see checker-nosed birds
flying from this base in airshows. The reference material here included the
book “Eagles of Duxford: The 78th fighter group in World War II” by
Garry L. Fry. Credit
here is given in the form of special thanks to Mark Proulx who has researched
many mustang decal sheets and sure knows his subjects – I'll go through both of
the aircraft's schemes now and compare them to the decal sheet I have in detail
My Research…
"Little
Chic" WZ-X - P-51D-20NA s/n 44-72099 from the 84th FS 78th FG
This aircraft was assigned to 1st
Lieutenant Warren Blodgett who scored five kills in the war. This Mustang was overall natural metal with a black
rudder and a segmented black and white spinner. The antenna mast, windshield
and canopy framing, wing elevator tips and vertical fairings were all black.
Fitted with perforated breather plate and with a olive drab anti-glare panel
this is a lovely example of a Duxford bird
The eye catching “little chick” motif on the aircraft is rendered very
well here with the chicken duplicated
right down to the difference in the yellow and white colours and the sweat
coming from it. While we are on this part of the aircraft you can clearly see
the pilot and ground crew’s names on the decal as you can on this picture.
A note on this aircraft is that I have pictures with Zero – four and five
kills on the canopy frame – Zotz have provided five so I suppose you can put on
as many or as little as you like here on this aircraft. Nice!
Next aircraft on this sheet is named "Big Dick" (Big Dick I am sure all of those gamblers out there
will know is the craps call for double five) MX-U - It was a P-51D-20NA with serial number 44-64147 from the 82nd Fighter Squadron of the
78th Fighter Group
Aircraft assigned to Maj. Dick Hewitt. Officially credited with 4 air plus
4.3 ground victories. Hewitt became the CO of the 82nd FS. He survived the war
having flown over 100 combat missions.
The aircraft was an overall natural metal finish. With a red rudder and
black Spinner segmented with white. Anti-glare panel was again Olive drab while
the antenna mast was black.
Well I am
satisfied! A well-researched decal – accurate in its reproduction of the
aircraft depicted. A very hard to fit large decal which took a lot of handling
and still held together, settled down and fitted the aircraft perfectly – could
you ask for much more? Well maybe some politically naughty names – check! It’s all
there with this release – I have changed from Jasper Joker to this for my first
mustang build this year – it’s still a case of which one I want to do out of
the two ?
At least I have
the top cowling done already
Thanks to Zotz for these
excellent decals which are all to be residing on my mustang very soon.
