Hi all

I just stumbled across this anouncement over on HS .. just ordered 2 sets. I think it is worth to copy it here:

Big Announcement For Me Bombshell Decals

I would like to make an announcement I have just released my first set of decals under the name of Bombshell Decals. This has been a long dream of mine, my hopes are to provide you the modelers with the finest quality and well-researched subject matter. It will be slow going for me at first with my first release being 1/48 scale B-25Js.

My meager life savings went into printing these. I have P-38, B-26 and E-2 designs on the horizon in all of the popular scales, but I will not be able to send them off to be printed until I can recoup my initial investment. The sheets are limited and are the finest I have ever seen printed by Cartograf out of Italy. The detail is stunning! There is almost no decal carrier film visible on the sheets. I did all of the artwork myself including the color profiles in the instruction sheets.

My website is now up and running http://bombshelldecals.com/ I can accept Paypal through the site. This is a small operation and I am working out of my back room. Please have a little patience with me at first since I am new at this business thing. I promise that I will do my best to ship the decals promptly and safely. Wish me luck!

Mike







(all forced to 800 px)

I like MMr and Ruthie best

cheers

Steffen
P.S: we definitely need a blushing emoticon

Hi Steffen

They look excellent! Thanks for bringing us the news.

All the best

Rowan

Some very nice subjects there - mite have to go and buy an Acc Min B25 now

Hi Mike

not sure AccMin has a B-25J ....

@Rowan: glad you are not angry at me because I play on foreign grounds (= your sandbox) ...

all the best

Steffen

I am a bit puzzled by some of these. For example, according to Steve Pace's Osprey B-25 Mitchell Units of the MTO, "Briefing Time" should be coded 9D, not D9, and should have an RAF fin flash between the code and the serial number. All 340th BG aircraft codes started with the number, not the letter. The mission markings are also displayed differently.

Can anyone shed any light on this?

Hi Iain

Well, can't answer the question, but in general the Ospreys are not 100% reliable (e.g. AoA WW1 stuff is superb, OTOH WW2 German have a lot of questionable points .. still I like them a lot ). Of course nothing and nobody is 100% correct .

As it seems the instruction sheets contain photos .. not sure how many though. You could also contact the owner/designer via his website. I have no stakes in this, I just like the nose art ....

all the best

Steffen

Hi there

According to this wartime colour photo, Briefing Time seems to have undergone a change of underwear...

All the best

Rowan

Hi Rowan,

Thanks for that link - what a great site! Wish I'd had that when I did the Osprey cover 8 years ago.

Looks like, as I said, the D and the 9 are definitely the wrong way round on the decal instructions.
Yes, change of underwear,indeed. The Osprey profile matches the colour photo except that the hair bow is red; the mission markers don't match the photo, although as the profile specifies Rimini rather than Corsica, that is a moot point. There are no crew names marked but it does have the name Briefing Time.. The restored version has both shoes and bow red.

The RAF fin marking shown in the Osprey profile was correct for North Africa but the upper surfaces would have been desert pink. They could well have been repainted for the move to Italy and left the flash - odd, though. and the photo from the right side shows no fin flash as you would expect.

It all goes to show that the aircraft were works in progress and it is all important to have the correct chronology when it comes to photo interpretation.

Iain

I now see that the profiles above differ from those on the Bombshell Decals web site, where the codes are shown correctly as 9D and not D9 as shown on this thread. Guess I should have looked there first but I didn't think the profiles above would have been different to the actual decals - how did that happen?

Hi Iain

Many thanks for the hint !!

I do not know how this could happen, i just took everything from the announcement thread over at HS (everything is linked to his site, nothing stored by me here or elsewhere) .... strange thing indeed.

all the best

Steffen

Hi Steffen,

I was in touch with Mike Kloppenburg and his reply was :-

"I made the profiles, on one of the early renderings I thad transposed the codes the images that you saw were low res and not originally meant for circulation. But I never went back to correct it. However the high res images were corrected and the code is 9D the decal and instruction reflect that fact." (sic)

So, as I said, I should have gone to his web site and checked there but I assumed that the above profiles were correct.

Iain

Many thanks; Iain!

Yes you were right! This lets me used the decals more comfortable (though I do not want to build this special markings)

Now I only need two B-25J

all the best

Steffen

You da man steffen! Thanks for the heads up...this will go great with my open box revell B25j kit that I got for $10 without decals from hobby lobby...wouldn't have really cared for "jaunty jo" anyway.
Yeah..."Ruthie" is a winner!

Glad I could be a little help

Got my 2 sets today and as posted already over at HS by a lot of other people: these are beautifully printed, sure not cheap but absolutely worth it. They were very well packed and thus I think the 13$ p&p are well spent (from my point of view).

To bad this is mainly a USAAF thing as "pronography" was not as commonly accepted everywhere in those days .. still looking forward to more ... and still I need to find 2 reasonably priced B-25J .... plus a few AM goodies to suit my AMS

all the best

Steffen

I'm so tempted by these decals but I only have the Accurate Miniatures C/D "Dirty Dora" in the stash and i can't justify buying another kit.

Is there much difference between a C/D and a J?

Hi all

@Allen: I think so ..

I just found this at HS: (luckily I already have Hasegawas P-38 box with Dick Bongs "combat markings" (top a/c) IIRC he scored 2 or 3 on this bird ... this will be my entry for Twin Booms )
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I have recently been asked if I have plans to release these B-25's in 1/72 and I do plan on selling them in 1/72. It will be some time from now and I do not have I time frame of a release date. The B-25 sheet are selling well and it looks hopeful that this decal designer has a good future. I have been working on 1/32 P-38 decals and I hope to have these off to the printers soon. I also have plans to do them in 1/48 & 1/72.









Thank you,

Mike Kloppenburg

http://bombshelldecals.com/

__________________________________________________________________________________

all the best

Steffen
P.S. I do not have any stakes in this so in case you have questions or critical or fatal comments please yell at Mike Kloppenburg

Steffen: thank you for telling us about these decals. I bought a set , and they are beautiful!! I even got a nice email from Mike after i mentioned Kitmaker; they arrived in great time. in fabulous shape, altogether a great company to do business with. Also, I received (in the mail) a great book about Pokryshkin...Russian P-39 ace...I'll try to take a picture and post it in the 'postman brought this today' post. You got a great library.

Matt

Hi Matt

Well, I bought 2 sets and I am also very happy with it. P&P is quite hefty to Europe, but as the Euro is quite strong at the moment and the decals were very well packed it was o.k. Still need to get 2 B-25J

I'll have an eye on the postman thread .. I had his biography once, but it was pretty much propaganda crap (maybe I only borrowed the book as I do not have it in my library --- it really is small, but it is quite well stacked on Luftwaffe)

looking forward to the P-38 sets .. maybe there is room for one or another further Lightnings in my stack

all the best

Steffen

Just seen on HS

Here is a preview shot of my upcoming decal sheets for the P-38. Look them over and I would like any comments concerning the profiles before I send them off to be printed.

Thank you,
Mike



http://www.bombshelldecals.com/

again: I am not affiliated or connected in any way, just a customer as most people...

all the best

Steffen

WOW!!

I have built the Hasagawa version of Virginia Marie and I must say that these decals are much better than the box offering. Very crisp and clean looking.
Those B-25 decals are beautiful. I'll have to check into them. Thanks Steffen.

Hermon

Another update from mike Kloppenburg. Usual disclaimer.

P-38 Decal Preview From Bombshell decals

These should be ready by the end of December. As of right now they will be issued in 1/32 and later in 1/48. The previous B-25 sheets will be offered in 1/72 around the same time as a super sheet with 4 aircraft on one sheet. I would like the thank Bodo Stotiwinski, Bruce Radebaugh, John Clements, Jeffrey Grand and Michael Bates for there assistance with the research on these planes as it would have been difficult without them.

http://www.bombshelldecals.com/

all the best

Steffen