I'm thinking that his may well be a reprint of a popular sheet and I can see why that might be the case. This sheet covers no fewer than 11 markings options and judging by the markings provided, you can do at least four of these planes. The limiting factor is the unit badge that is carried on the left side of the aircraft with four being provided in the sheet.

There are a number of different insignia sizes and styles so one has to be wary to put the correct ones on the plane being built. This unit was used in Italy for ground attack so as far as I know there were no air to air kills credited to the pilots.

All of the unit's planes were P-47Ds, most of which had the additional fin fillet, though a few did not. This makes it important to pick the proper kit for the plane being modeled. While there are three good kits for this aircraft, the Hasegawa option does not have the fillet, while only a particular boxing of the Revell AG kit has this feature. The one Academy kit I've previewed was also lacking the fin fillet. I'm thinking that perhaps Quickboost does a resin part for this.

Decals are superbly printed by Microscale and do not show any problems with registration. You get a number of spare black and yellow serial decals as well as a couple of lengths of bomb markings. This latter item needs to be trimmed to match the number of missions flown by the aircraft you are modeling. You get two different sets of bomb markings in yellow and black. The set called for in the instructions are in blocks of five while another set is in blocks of ten. I have to assume those latter markings are to be used as spares or extras. I should also mention that the mission numbers provided in the instructions are the final total, so there would be fewer depending on how early in the plane's life you care to model the subject. The black anti-glare panels on the bare metal planes and the tail stripes will need to be painted.

The instructions are in full color and provide not only marking placement information, but also a color guide that provides FS 595 references where they are needed.

In all a very nicely done sheet and if you want something a bit different from the norm, it is one that I know you will like.

October 2010