Introduction

The P-51 Mustang is probably one of the best known American fighter aircraft from World War 2, and it was this aircraft that was flown by the 357th Fighter Group. The 357th, sometimes known as the ‘Yoxford Boys’ flew out of RAF Leiston, near the village of Yoxford. Between February 1944 and April 1945 the group flew over 300 mission recording over 700 German aircraft destroyed.

A new set of decals from Exito Decals covers some of the P-51D’s flown by the 357th featuring girls as part of the nose art, and appropriately named 'Yoxford Girls'.

Contents

1 Sheet of Decals
3 Painting and Marking Scheme Cards

Review

I seemed to get excited now when I see new announcements from Exito Decals, as they always seem to deliver great looking sets of decals with very interesting subjects. This new set covering some of the P-51D’s flown by the 357th Fighter Group of the United States Army Air Force is no different. The set features pin-up girl art in the nose art and provides marking for three different looking aircraft.

The quality of the decals is not in question, as they are printed by Cartograph. But the subject quality and art quality are always good. Reviewing the very well done painting and marking card provided by Exito, you can see that not only are the schemes present, but they include reference images of the actual aircraft. Also included are small notes with observations found during their research for the decals.

Paint and marking in this set, named 'Yoxford Girls', from Exito Decals include:

• P-51D-5-NA s/n 44-13691 flown by Lt. Arval J. Roberson, 362nd FS/357th FG, Leiston UK, autumn 1944
  
• P51D-20-NA s/n 44-63629 flown by Lt. John A. Miller, 363rd FS/357th FG, Leiston UK, Spring 1945
  
• P51-D-5-NA s/n 44-13712 flown by Capt. Robert W.Foy, 363rd FS/357th FG, Leiston UK, August 1944

After all the reviews I have done for Exito Decals I could only say so much, so for this set I decided to add some water and see how they actually look. And I was not disappointed, as the decals went on with no problems at all. I applied over a coat of Future and with a single coat of SolvaSet the decals nestled down into the panel lines and around the detail.

I did “Passion Wagon” as flown by Lt. Roberson and was impressed by the finish with the decals. I did experience a couple of small issues when working with this set. First I had an issue matching the colors for the front checker board pattern. I did apply Vallejo Air Golden yellow and used the provided red checker decal, but was unable to match the red. It should be noted that Exito provides the option of painting the yellow then applying the red or a decal that has both the red and yellow pattern.

Another slight issue I found was with the artwork. The dot over the ‘I’ in ‘Passion’ was to far away as compared to the reference. But this is an easy fix and I did not notice it until after I had applied the decal and decal set.

Another issue that I had not noticed before with other sets I had reviewed, is the lack of stencil data. I was able to use the kit provided decal sheet for the stencil data, but it is something to be aware of. Fortunately for the scheme I did it was noted that it appeared that when the aircraft was painted olive drab/grey, the stencil data was not re-applied.

Conclusion

Overall this is another great set of decals from Exito Decals. The quality of the decals, artwork and research are excellent. The only slight downside is the lack of stencil data and a very slight issue in the reproduction of the artwork. For fans of the P-51D this set will provide great looking options to finish your build, and I highly recommend them.