MYK Decals A48063: Ki-43-I Insignia and caution markings

When one buys a 1/48 sheet from MYK, as often as not, the sheet will not include things like insignia, data, and other common markings. This is as much to put as many options on their sheets as anything else, but it does incur an additional cost to the enthusiast. The sheet provides enough insignia, yellow ID markings, and data markings to do one aircraft. It also appears there are sections that you can use if you make an error to help patch things up.

This sheet is also fairly small (145mm x 95mm) and while it would have been nice to have had two sets included, it is what it is. The instruction sheet opens up to provide a full color placement guide.

These decals are different from standard waterslide or dry transfer. You cut out the marking not getting too close to the inked part. Dip it in water, place it on the model, pat it down and remove the covering sheet. Let it dry for a day then place a piece of tape over it to remove the decal carrier film. The inked part of the marking will stay in place.

This actually works quite well and pretty much removes all carrier film from the markings. The decals will snuggle down into engraved panel lines without the need for setting solutions, but will tolerate the weak solutions just fine without issue. However, it does require you to think ahead. For instance, if you are attaching a two piece fuselage band, you have to attach one side, let it dry and remove the film before attaching the other side. This is because if you overlap any decal, removing the underlying marking's film will rip the overlapping decals. This means that build time will be extended as you would have to wait to do overlaying markings. This would be true for the anti-glare panel bits and the wing ID bands on this particular sheet.

The sheet is not designed for any particular 1/48 Ki-43-I, but I'm sure most will use this on the Hasegawa kit. The actual instructions on their use is in Japanese on the set, but MYK has it in English (sort of) on their web site.

November 2019

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