P-51D Mustangs
To War with the Yoxford Boys Pt.3

Eagle Cals Decals, 1/32 scale

Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

Eagle Cals #103 - To War with the Yoxford Boys are available online from Squadron.com

EagleCals-103 is the third and final sheet in the current trilogy of sheets that provide markings for aircraft of the 357th Fighter Group, the Yoxford Boys as they were dubbed by the German Propagandist Lord Haw-Haw in World War Two.  The sheets are a spin-off from the Eagle Editions Ltd book “To War with the Yoxford Boys that was written by Merle Olmsted and World War Two member of the 357th Fighter Group Colonel Clarence “Bud” Anderson, USAF (Ret.).  An excellent book it is too and it features a foreword by Brigadier General Charles E. ‘Chuck’ Yeager, USAF (Ret.) as well.
This sheet offers three choices of aircraft, all of which have been seen before in decal format. 

The individual options are:

• P-51D-20-NA, 44-72199 G4 A flown by Captain Charles E. Weaver of the 362nd Fighter Squadron.  The aircraft is in overall natural metal finish and wears the red and yellow striped spinner and nose chequerboard markings to identify it as a machine belonging to the 357th Fighter Group (see the review for the EagleCals sheet 101 for an explanation of group and squadron markings).  A relatively simply marked machine, it lacks the standard black theatre markings applied to the wings and horizontal stabilisers of European theatre P-51s but wears some stunning nose art in the form of a reclining nude as well as a pretty substantial scoreboard and black G4 squadron and A plane in squadron code letters on the fuselage.  The aircraft’s serial number on the vertical stabiliser and rudder complete the markings.

• “Hurry Home Honey” P-51D-15-NA, 44-14868 C5 T flown by the 364th Fighter Squadron’s Major Richard A. “Pete” Petersen. This machine is also in natural metal finish and wears the standard yellow and red group markings on the spinner and nose as well as a yellow rudder denoting it to be a 364th Fighter Squadron machine.  She too lacks the European theatre P-51 ID bands but wears the remnants of black and white ‘D Day’ markings on the underside of her fuselage.

• The final option is “Passion Wagon” P-51D-5-NA, 44-13691 depicted when it belonged to the 362nd Fighter Squadron and marked as G4 A being flown by Lieutenant Avril Robertson.  Like the other camouflaged machines flown by the 357th  Fighter Group there is debate as to the origin of the paint was used to paint them.  Most researchers are in agreement that the “dark green” was Royal Air Force (RAF) paint for the upper surfaces but then again it could have been United States Army Air force olive drab whilst the undersides could be either RAF medium sea grey, United States Army Air Force neutral grey or even in the natural metal finish that they were delivered in.  Your choice!  Again, no theatre markings are carried but the remnants of the black and white ‘D Day’ markings are on the underside of her fuselage – you will have to paint these on yourself as they are not provided as decals.  This option also lacks the dorsal strake worn by later P-51Ds and you have a couple of choices to depict it.  Should you use the Hasegawa kit you will find that the fuselage halves have been moulded with the strakes in place but there is sufficient plastic to enable you to file and sand the strake away without too much trouble.  The Tamiya kit is the same but does not have much plastic so you will have to do a little filling once the strake has been removed.  The final option is to use the resin replacement from Ultracast where you sever the tail at a panel line and replace it with the Ultracast resin one that has been cast sans the strake.  Again, your choice!

The placement guide is the same as the other two sheets in the trilogy.  It is A-3 in size and folded in four so that when you open it up you have full A-4 sized illustrations.  A left hand side full colour profile (the artwork is by Tom Tullis) is provided for each option with the markings keyed by letter to those on the decal sheet.  Smaller plan views are provided for upper and lower surfaces.  The stencil data placement guide is a line drawing and it too is full A-4 sized.  Notes for each option are also provided and these include a brief history of each machine’s pilot.

The placement guide appears to have been printed using a good quality laser printer rather than the normal printing press.  A good thing too as this process displays the exquisite detail of Tom Tulli’s original artwork.

The decals themselves are very well done but my sample sheet had a couple of register issues in that the scoreboard markings for all three options were slightly out of register.  This is a little puzzling as the scoreboard markings on their previous sheet (EC-102) are provided as two-part decals and the scoreboard markings for the first sheet (EC-101) are one-part decals but are in register.  There is an absolute minimum of carrier film around each of the designs which is what you want if you are applying them over a natural metal finish.  The name for Major Petersen’s “Hurry Home Honey” is provided as a two-part decal as are the three sets of yellow and red chequerboard group markings (one for each option).  Each option gets an individual data block which displays the appropriate serial number.  Two sets of national insignia are provided, a set of “greyed out” ones for Major Petersen’s “Hurry Home Honey” and set of normal blue and white ones.  A single comprehensive set of stencil data rounds out the sheet.  The reproduction of the nose art nudes are exceptional too being equal to those provided in the PYN-Up series.

The decal sheet and placement guide come packed in a clear plastic zip-loc bag.

The same comments apply for this sheet as the other two - a top quality well researched and well produced decal set that will appeal to 8th Air Force enthusiasts as well as fans of the P-51.

All three sheets in the series are available in both 1/48 and 1/32 scale.

Recommended.

EagleCals decals are available from Eagle Editions Website
or Hobby Retailers including Squadron.com
 

Preview Text Copyright © 2008 by Rodger Kelly
This Page Created on 12 February, 2008
Last updated 12 February, 2008

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