As Kevin from Miscmini announced changed his terms and conditions of his decals worldwide shipment everybody at the other side of the pool became sad. In fact one of the great decal supplier became unavailable for european customers. But emptiness doesn't exist in the market so the new decal suppliers starting to appear across the old world: Bernhard Kleber in Germany, Marc Vancamenhout in Belgium and ... Arek Stamm in Poland.
Traditional way of thinking about decal set is to make a six markings for whole squadron of the same type planes which is obvious, useful and practical. On the other hand we have aces box sets with one plane inside and ... no proper decals. Arek come from this perspective and make decal sets of different planes for one ace pilot. It gives an atractive opportunity to post our favourite aces for leading squadrons of quite different planes.
The natural inspiration for Arek was a list of aces delivered by Warlord Games. Taking into consideration Arek's origins it was obvious that he will start from the pilot with Polish roots: an ace who flew at least four different WW2 era piston engine fighters and one jet from Korea war: Francis "Gabby" Gabreski or Franciszek Gabryszewski (as his known in Poland, from his parents emigrated to America).
Everybody know "Gabby" as a leader of 61FS from the famous 56FG who collect 28 victories on his P47 both: Razorback and Bubbletop versions but it is not common that his first posting after graduation of the pilot school was 45 Pursuit Squadron in ... Pearl Harbor 1941. The unit was equipped with a mix of P36 Hawk and P40 Curtiss fighters.
The P36A from 45th Pursuit Squadron no. 22 is the first marking in the Arek's set dedicated to Gabby. Model of P36A is available as a an STL file (best project by Roman Troyan). My model is painted Olive Drab on upper and mid surfaces and Neutral Grey on lower ones. Traditional pre-war US roundels with red dot inside the star.
The next stop for Gabby was Europe. He was assigned to ferry flights but he wanted to fight. One day he came across Polish fighter pilots and ... became they friends. Due to a goodwill of his superiors he practiced in the Polish 315 fighter squadron
In Polish squadron Gabby used to fly on PK-E Mk IXc Spitfire. The plane was painted in typical North european scheme with Dark Green/Ocean Grey on upper and mid surfaces and Medium Sea Grey on lower surfaces. Alongside the original RAF markings with roundels, fin flash and code letters there were also squadron marking (fighting rooster) and Polish checkers at the fuselage.
At this stage of war the leading edges of the wings were painted in yellow with red markings of the gun barrels. Spinner and beld on the fuselage with Sky type S colour. My model came from the Blue Falcon Hobby range, available as an STL file. It is great in terms of details but with rather fragile wings. Aa far as I know the Warlord planning to restore his Spitfire Mk IX from their portfolio.
The well known part of the Gabby's story is his leadership of the 61 Fighter Squadron equipped with P47C and then P47D Thunderbolt. At the P47C Gabby earned his ace skills. He used to fly many planes, Arek decided to add to his ace set the one from early 1944 with new group markings (red cowling and rudder).
Mine model is 3d printed STL file from Roman Troyan. It was painted in the original USAAF camo: Olive Drab and Neutral Grey. There is also available P47C model from Warlord Games.
The best known Gabby's Thunderbolt was P47D25 Bubbletop 226418 that served since invasion till 20th of July while was crashed during the straffing mission over Germany.
My model is also STL file from Roman Troyan projct. Arek chose a camo from the service during Normandy with full invasion stripes on upper and lower surfaces and fuselage. I decided to use Dark Green/Ocean Grey camo on upper and Medium Sea Grey on lower surfaces. This particular plane was the most complicated one due to the invasion markings and especially on fuselage. I decided to paint my rudder in red rather than use decals from the set.
The last decal from the Gabby set is marking of the F86E Sabre while serving during the war in Korea. My model was as other - STL file from Roman Troyan's design range but Warlord Sabre is now available in new resin. I decided to paint in black grey undercoat and steel basecoat. Marking with regular US yellow bands, stars and stripes and individual pilot markings.
So the full decal set contains of 5 planes: P36 from Pearl Harbor, Spitfire Mk IXc from 315 RAF squadron, P47C and P47D25 from 61Fighter Squadron and F86E Sabre from the 4th Fighter Wing. Decals are available on the Arek's marketplace on Facebook
As far as I know there are much more decal sets in the Arek's offer and many more on his workbench. I hope you enjoy them as I do.
Please find a link to Arek's marketplace
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