1:32 B-25J Mitchell Dutch Decals / No. 16 and 18 NEI Bomber Squadron

[JeroenPeters]

1:32 B-25J Mitchell No. 16 and 18 NEI Bomber Squadron 

ML-KNIL/RNEIAAF

 

Limited Run

 

Manufacturer: Dutch Decal

 

Catalogue # 32012

Available from Dutch Decal: www.dutchdecal.nl

 

 

 

Celebrating their 25th birthday, Dutch Decal has been around since 1986. It is run by the Dutch graphic designer Luuk Boerman and has been producing decal sheets of aircraft from all Dutch armed forces. Every now and then a foreign nationality slips through. More than 100 sheets have been released to date. Most of them are sold out now but a few much requested sheets will be reprinted in the near future depending on demand. The decal sheets are silkscreen printed and accompanied by English instructions. Dutch Decal sheets come in all scales: 1:72, 1:48 and 1:32. The 1:32 sheets can be identified by the broad black band at the bottom of the packaging.

 

 

 

 

 

Let´s have a look what we get:  

In a well packed zipped plastic bag you will find one sheet of decals protected by a folded colourful sheet of paper. On here you will find the various schemes for Dutch B-25J Mitchells. All of these subjects operated in the former Dutch East Indies by the ML KNIL (Militaire Luchtvaart/ Koninklijk Nederlands Indisch Leger) or RNEIAAF (Royal Netherlands East Indies Army Air Force). As you may have guessed this sheet is to be used with the HK Models B-25J model kit. At the time of conception of this sheet it was planned to be used with the Wingscale B-25J kit. Luuk Boerman was co-operating with Wingscale at the time. The Wingscale logo on the booklet proves this. The decals are well printed and register is perfect on our sample, there is no mismatch. The finish is gloss.

 

 

Covered liveries:

The various scheme options are olive drab with grey undersides, The sheet give the Federal Standard numbers as FS34088 for Olive drab and FS36173 for Neutral Grey. Other aircraft have partly removed paint exposing the natural metal finish. And some aircraft in natural metal finish overall.

 

Very dark blue paint:

What struck us was the dark tone of blue used in the Dutch nationality roundel. This is very dark, at first we thought this was a misprint. After pointing this out to Dutch Decal, Luuk informed us that this actually is correct. The Dutch roundels were applied at the North American factory where they simply used the same blue paint to apply the American star and bar. 

 

Dutch nationality markings:

In the colour artwork it can clearly be seen that the former American star and bars have been painted out with a darker colour of green. Over this the Dutch flags were applied. Some had these flags bordered in white to make them better stand out  to the population below.  The wartime Dutch nationality marking is the black bordered orange triangle. These were removed for service in the Pacific Theatre of Operations because it was felt they resembled the Japanese “meatball” too much. To avoid confusion the Dutch flag was used. After 1947 the flags were replaced by the current tricoloured roundel with the orange dot.

 

Dorsal turret deleted:

Also note that only N5 245 carries the dorsal turret just after the cockpit, the others have the turret removed and the hole faired over. This was because after the cease of hostilities  there was no Japanese threat and these were deleted. Only N5 245 on this sheet was used during the war, the others post war.

 

Weathered camouflage:

It is obvious that these aircraft were worked hard and the paintwork suffered heavily in the hot humid climate. If you like exotic subjects and go to town on heavily weathered liveries then this sheet is right up your alley.

 

 

The sheet covers 7 individual aircraft:

 

• NA B-25J Mitchell N5-245 “Lienke” No. 18 NEI Bomber Squadron, Royal Neth. East Indies Army AF. Batchelor AB Australia 1945

 

• NA B-25J Mitchell N5-246 No. 18 NEI Bomber Squadron, Royal Neth. East Indies Army AF. Tjililitan  1st AB Batavia Java Dutch East Indies 1947

(See photo below. Source: See reference)

 

 

• NA B-25J Mitchell N5-257 No. 16 NEI Bomber Squadron, Royal Neth. East Indies Army AF. Talang Betoetoe 12th AB Palembang Sumatra Dutch East Indies 1947

(See photo below. Source: See reference)

 

 

• NA B-25J Mitchell N5-264 No. 16 NEI Bomber Squadron, Royal Neth. East Indies Army AF. Talang Betoetoe 12th AB Palembang Sumatra Dutch East Indies 1946-1948. This machine was returned to the Netherlands during 1971 after an official request by HRH Prince Bernhard and is on display at the Military Aviation Museum, Soesterberg. 

 

• NA B-25J Mitchell N5-258 No. 16 NEI Bomber Squadron, Royal Neth. East Indies Army AF. Talang Betoetoe 12th AB Palembang Sumatra Dutch East Indies 1946-1948

 

• NA B-25J Mitchell M4 34. No. 18 NEI Bomber Squadron, Royal Neth. East Indies Army AF. Tjililitan 1st AB Batavia Java Dutch East Indies 1947-1948

 

• NA B-25J Mitchell M4 51 No. 18 NEI Bomber Squadron, Royal Neth. East Indies Army AF. Tjililitan 1st AB Batavia Java Dutch East Indies 1947-1948
(See photo below. Source: See reference)

 

 

• NA B-25J Mitchell M-434. No. 16 or 18 NEI Bomber Squadron, Royal Neth. East Indies Army AF.  Dutch East Indies 1948

 

 

Conclusion:

The overall quality and accurancy is spot on. Using our reference we could not find any faults. We tried, honestly.

This sheet is available directly from Dutch Decal or the Aviation Mega Store.

It's a limited run edition, so If you want it get it while you can.

 

Highly recommended

 

Cees Broere and Jeroen Peters

 

Our sincere thanks to Dutch Decals´Luuk Boerman for providing the review sample used here. 

 

 

Reference used: 

De nederlandse Mitchells by Gerben J. Tornij ISBN nr 90-9013058-6

This book covers the operational service of the Mitchell in the Dutch airforce

[James H]

Nice review! I might not like NMF, but I quite like the machines with a mix of olive and NMF. I could go for that.

[seiran01]

Nicely done! I bought this sheet a few days ago and plan to do M451.  Are you aware of any photos or other info on the plane? Can't find anything, anywhere.

 

Thanks,

Mike

[JeroenPeters]

Nicely done! I bought this sheet a few days ago and plan to do M451.  Are you aware of any photos or other info on the plane? Can't find anything, anywhere.

 

Thanks,

Mike

Hi Mike,

You won't believe it, but our review wasn't quite done yet. I've just added a photo of the plane you are referring too. I can send you this photo in higher resolution.

 

Cheers,

Jeroen

[seiran01]

LOL your timing is perfect. Yes please, i'd love a larger version of that photo, would you please shoot it over to mikeswinburne@gmail.com?

Thanks so much

Mike

[Dave J]

Some cool schemes there! But I can see myself building a 3rd B-25!

 

Looking forward to your Build Mike..