You surely know Brett Green as the creative genius behind the fantastic modeling website HyperScale. He’s also one of the very best modelers in the world and, somehow, finds time to build a LOT of models. One of his latest is the 1/48 Great Wall P-61 Black Widow which appeared in a two-part article in Military Illustrated Modeller Magazine starting with Issue #7.
Brett kindly allowed me to use these three photos of his Black Widow model in its nearly-completed state. Brett commented: “I recently used your Pyn-Up decals for the new Great Wall Black Widow. Amazingly, it is the first time I have used these on a finished model. They worked beautifully!”
Here’s Some Backgroud On Nocturnal Nemesis/Skippy
- The name “Skippy” was painted in yellow with narrow red pinstriping on the left side of the nose and the excellent female artwork and name “Noctural Nemesis” on the right side.
- This aircraft was one of the early P-61As with ANA 613 Olive Drab (41 Dark Olive Drab) over ANA 603 Sea Gray (43 Neutral Gray). In service this paint was extremely worn and showed much flaking and touch-up painting.
- Note the aircraft serial number painted on the booms was Insignia Red, NOT Insignia Yellow as has often been incorrectly portrayed in other sources. We have never found a single color photo showing a yellow serial number on a P-61; in fact, the serials were still being painted red after the aircraft (P-61Cs and F-15 Reporters) were being delivered to the USAAF in natural metal finish.
- The pinstripe around “Skippy” has often been left off color renditions of this plane, or has been shown as white or some other color. It was clearly red, and matched the red checkerboards on the spinners.
- This was a P-61A, so use the short nose provided in the Great Wall or Monogram kit.
FYI, the PYN-up decal set Brett used for this model is PYND48014. I have a couple left.
PYN-up Decals P-61 Black Widow Babes #1.This set has sold on eBay for well over $175! Black Widow Babes #1: P-61A-1-NO, 421 NFS , “Skippy/Nocturnal Nemesis,” 42-5502 , David Cort, in a very worn Olive Drab over Neutral Gray finish; P-61B-1-NO, 548 NFS, “Cooper’s Snooper,” 42-39454, Lt George C. Cooper, Iwo Jima, April 1945. Note the aircraft serial numbers are provided in the correct red color; they were never yellow as has been portrayed in some publications (see decal instructions for more information on this).