Rising Decals 72072: The Burma Banshees

The 80th FG was assigned the defense of the Indian terminus of the Hump route, which it carried out by striking Japanese airfields and patrolling Allied air bases to safeguard them from attack. The 80th received a Distinguished Unit Citation for intercepting a formation of Japanese aircraft, preventing the destruction of a large oil refinery in Assam, India, on 27 March 1944. Though its primary mission in Burma was the protection of the "Hump" cargo route, the group also played an important role in reopening the Ledo/Burma Road. Using modified, so-called B-40 fighter bombers (the Curtiss P-40 fitted with a 1,000-pound bomb), the 80th FG attacked Japanese-held bridges, sometimes demolishing their target with a single bomb. By the end of the war, the group had destroyed more than 200 bridges and killed scores of bridge repair crews. Air-to-air and air-to-ground sweeps by the group's pilots claimed 80 enemy planes destroyed in the air or on the ground. Though disbanded after WWII, the unit was reactivated in 1972 as the 8th Flight Training Wing. The wing's mission was to train foreign students, starting with those from South Vietnam. It also did conversion training for helicopter pilots moving to fixed wing aircraft. It is currently part of a Euro/NATO joint training program, flying the T-6 and T-38.

I have always had a fondness for the skull markings of the 80ths P-40 and several past kits in this scale have been of aircraft from this unit. While looking for P-40N decals to use in future projects, this one turned up in a search. It offers seven different markings options. Five of these aircraft are P-40N-1 aircraft to which an additional gun has been reinstalled as the type came off the assembly line with two guns per wing. These aircraft also did not have the modified canopy typical of the N model. The other two are P-40N-5 as we are used to seeing.

The first option is the 80th FG commander with a red, white, and blue spinner along with uncovered wheels.

Next is an 88 FS aircraft named 'Dikam Death'. This one has a white spinner.

The next four are from the 89th FS with a red spinner. These are mostly P-40N-1 airframes. There is no dedicated kit of this variant in 1/72, however, you can use a P-40M as the majority of N-1 aircraft had the additional gun reinstalled. All of these planes have covered wheels with some sort of artwork on them. They also have mission markings under the windscreen.

The final option is with the 90th FS with an insignia blue spinner.

All of these planes are in olive drab over neutral grey. In most cases, the large white tail numbers were painted over the serial number. Each of the skulls painted on the nose were not done using a stencil so they are all different. There are sufficient insignia to do six of the options. The sheet also includes some individual numbers to help with some of the hidden serials. When it comes to kits, there are quite a few of them for the later P-40N, with the newest from Special Hobby. Both Special Hobby and Academy have kitted a P-40M which can be used for the P-40N-1. The Academy kit has, in my opinion, a spinner that is a bit too large and the Hasegawa kit does not have the paddle blade prop used by the N.  Below is an image of a model built using one of their later, updated sheets.

 The sheet itself is superbly printed with the instructions providing color information using Gunze paints. There are a number of other paint brands that these shades so finding something will be pretty easy.

January 2026

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