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I have finished the final image drawing for B-29 73BW "Big Letters".
One of inerest things is concerning to "Leading Lady", letter on each side looks slightly different from each other in size and shape. that on port side is slightly shorter than that on opposite side.
Couldn't find an evidence that proved "Pride of Yankees" was written on starboard side as well as portside, but I guess it is possible, since the letter composition fits on starboard nicely avoiding conflict with small window on the side.

Some might have heard a name Ransdale "Bud" Sprenger.
He was a Marine in the 3rd Battalion, 10th Marines. On the other hand, was one of excellent "Nose Artists" in WWII..
He left many artworks on famous B-29 like "Coral Queen", "Our Baby", "Joker's Wild", "Lucky Lady" and many others.
I believe those 2 from 73BW are outstanding, one is "the Leading lady" and the other is "Pride of the Yankees".
His Lettering is very unique, based on Sans-Serif and Oblique, and the general composition looks alike script which reminds us a calligraphy.
"the Leading Lady", Z square 22, was shot down on Toyoda, Aichi pref. on 3rd Jan. 1945. The plane was scattered in a small valley of a pastral, 10 crews died and one survived.
"the Pride of Yankees" was only a B-29 which achieved trip home with two damaged engines...and twince.
His guarantee was 175 USD plus 1 or 2 bottles of whisky per 1 airplane, I don't think it was cheap for B-29 crews in those days, but now I believe his artwork is absolutely worth more.

We Japanese proudly call her "Nishiki Daitei". Nishiki means "Type2", and Daitei does "Big Boat".
According to reliable references, the walkways and indicators of stations on hull were painted in silver.
Unfortunately, silver pigment for printing does not form sharp edges. Also not effective in small area, it is difficult to recognize it is in silver.
So I decide to use "cool glay" (slightly blued-glay) for those lines.
Serials provide 5 versions and contain ones for a flight leader of "Azusa"Sqd.(one of suicide attack fighter squadrons), and the past and the present of a survived Emily, now preserved in Kanoya, Japan.

At last I managed to pass the drawing data for NASA F-104s to the printing factory.
Those are for almost all 104s working for NASA since 1960s until their discharge.
For 1/72, decal parts are too many to be included in a sheet, so those are devided 1st issue, 2nd issue and a sheet for small cautions.
1st issue contains 2 types of liveries schemes, and the 2nd issue does various types of experimnts and test flights, even rocket-powered NF-104A !
For 1/144, All schemes and caution are on the same sheet.

Avro Lancaster"Nose Arts" 1/144th
A Decal set for 1/144 Avro Lancaster Mk.I released from Amodel.
For 1/144th, old Crown's kit has been only for many years ,now finally we can take a completely new Lanc kit, from A model. It looks quite nice&smooth, inspite of previous Amodel's works are comparently "difficult".
Now we features a five exclusive variations out of many fascinating schemes of Lacasters.
Nose arts, code letters , or Roundels, even cautuions are based on latest references.
Also we are planning to add decals for "Dam Busters" for bonus!
Release will be late in August.


>This image indicates approx. actual size. Click to enlarge

*This is an image on process. Please note the actual product might be different from this image.