Empire City Decals 1/72 Lend Lease Heroes
By Chris Banyai-Riepl
The Lend Lease program brought thousands of American and British aircraft to the Soviet Union during the Second World War, providing some fascinating markings for these types. The latest sheet from Empire City tackles eight Lend Lease subjects: three British and five American.
Starting with the British options, these include two Hawker Hurricanes and one Supermarine Spitfire. For the Spitfire, this is the often-seen Mk V "White 538" from the 57 GIAP. Flying in the Kuban region in the spring of 1943, this aircraft is finished in the standard RAF camouflage, complete with a Sky spinner and fuselage band. A Guards emblem is on the tail, while a yellow lightning bolt runs the length of the fuselage. The original RAF roundels are painted out, with black outlined stars on the fuselage and plain red stars on the wings.
For the Hurricanes, both are Mk II aircraft and have the standard medium gray/dark green camouflage. The first option is a Northern Fleet Hurricane in the spring of 1942. This aircraft has a white 14 painted on the rear fuselage, and areas of white and dark brown painted on the rear fuselage. The RAF roundels have been painted out and plain red stars applied in their place. The second Hurricane, also from the Northern Fleet, has the slogan "Learn to Defeat the Snake like Safonov!" painted on the fuselage.
The final single-engined options on this sheet are a pair of Bell P-39 Airacobras. Here we have the only aircraft tied to a specific pilot, that of Col. Nikolov Gulaev. His P-39N from 129 GIAP, 205 IAD, 7 IAK is finished in olive drab over neutral gray, with a white 2 on the tail. On the left side is the phrase "For the Motherland", while the right side has "53 Victories" text along with a scoreboard on the cockpit door. The second P-39 is one of the interesting aluminum-finished aircraft from 2 GSAP on the Eastern Front in the winter of 1942-1943. This aircraft, white 95, has a small olive drab section right behind the canopy.
Finishing off this sheet are two twin-engined aircraft. The first is a North American B-25D from 251 GBAP, 15 GBAD in Hungary in the spring of 1945. Coded Red 85, this aircraft is finished in the standard US olive drab and neutral gray, with the original American insignia and serial painted out. On the nose is a large piece of artwork consisting of a lightning bolt and a tiger's head, along with the slogan "For the Blood of Vitebsk". The second twin is a Douglas A-20G in standard US camouflage. From an unknown Guards unit at Lvov, Ukraine in 1944, this aircraft has a large white lightning bolt on the nose and a white 3 on the rudder.
The decals are nicely printed with excellent register. The research put into the decals is impressive, with the instructions providing a reference list as well. As the subject matter are fairly common aircraft, finding models to use these decals on should be no problem (although we still need a decent P-39 in 1/72; c'mon Eduard, scale that 1/48 kit down!). My thanks to Empire City Decals for the review sample.