PYN-Up (Pick Your Noseart) Decals

Marauding Babes, Part 2

Stock Number: 48016

Reviewed By Mark McGovern, #34707

Nose art – what’s not to love?  Especially during World War II, bomber crews seemed to have an almost maternal affection for the machines that carried them to win the war.  Did I say maternal? – um, that might not be the right word, given some of the cheesecake images they painted on the nose of their aircraft.  Until recently, these images were pretty poorly represented by kit decals.  Possibly that was intentional on the part of manufacturers who may have been worried about the public’s reaction to some of the more explicit creations that were sported in wartime.  But the latest advances in printing technology – and also in what modelers are willing to apply to the noses of their projects – have made it possible to reproduce those provocative images with great fidelity.

Hence PYN-UP (Pick Your Nose art) decals’ release of its “Marauding Babes Part 2” decal set.  Made to fit 1/48 scale Martin B-26 Marauder kits, the set includes a sheet with all the wing, fuselage, and tail markings, a separate sheet with the delicately-printed nose art, and a full color four-page placement and painting guide.  The markings included in the “Marauding Babes Part 2” set are for “Belle Ringer”, a B-26C-40-MO of the 320th Bomb Group/411th Bomb Squadron, and “Hard To Get”, a B-26B-50-MA of the 344 BB/497 BS.

First, an aside about the folks at PYN-UP decals: they included two sheets of nose art decals.  There were a few minor flaws with the “Hard To Get” images, but none with the “Belle Ringer” decals.  The flaws were so very small, if PYN-UP hadn’t sent a second, corrected sheet along with the bad one, I probably wouldn’t have known the difference - that’s how thoughtful these people are.

The main set of markings for each bomber includes a white decal that provides a background for the nose art.  This backing decal is necessary because the nose art images are VERY transparent, like a photographic slide.  In the example I show here, I applied one of the “Belle Ringer” decals to a bare B-26 nose for this article; it almost disappeared on the olive green plastic.  I used its outlines to paint a white background for a second “Belle Ringer” decal (you get two of each nose art decal with the set – I told you these guys were thoughtful!), and the colors showed up brilliantly.  Though the film was delicate it stood up to an application of Solvaset; caution – it was an old bottle.

My Marauder kit is Monogram’s issue of a B-26C-15, as near as I can make out.  It will take a little effort to convert it to a B-26B-50, but I’ll do whatever it takes to get “Hard To Get” on the nose!  PYN-UP decals are available from Meteor Productions, PO Box 3956, Merrifield, Virginia 22116.  Phone them at (703) 440-8720 or fax (703) 440-8724.  Their web address is www.meteorprod.com.

Many thanks to John Noack and Meteor Productions for making these decals available for review.

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