One of the great things about modeling today is the huge variety of decals and aftermarket accessories available for the modeler to choose from. Whether it’s decals, resin sets, photo etch, or just about any other type of accessories, it’s a good bet someone in the world will be making it.
Mark Tutton of Starfighter Decals is one of those people. Mark was gracious enough to send me some great decal, photo etch, and resin sets to share with you, so this week I’ll be featuring Starfighter Decals products. (Be sure and check out part II and part III also!)
Starfighters Decals is well known for the decal and resin sets designed for Monogram’s 1/72 scale biplanes. What you may not know is they also carry products for many other great models, in a variety of scales.
Today we’ll take a look at some very interesting decal sets for pre- and early WWII US aircraft.
First is a set of decals for the Academy/Hobbycraft 1/48 P-36 kit. These decals let you model seven different variations 16th Pursuit Group Hawks stationed in Panama prior to the war. All are natural metal finish birds, with very colorful markings for each. With the decals in the set, you can build up to two aircraft, but of course if you use kit decals for some of the markings, you could make use of Mark’s decals for several additional builds. A very colorful instruction sheet details placement of the decals and painting. The decals are printed by Cartograph, and look excellent.
Next is a very interesting and diverse set of decals that comprise the 72nd scale Pearl Harbor Defenders set. This set lets the modeler build several aircraft that were present in some way at Pearl Harbor. Markings for two P-40s, two P-36s, and an F4F-3, SBD-3, and PBY-5 are included. The P-40s include markings for the planes flown by LTs. Welch and Taylor, and the P-36s flown by Rassmussen and Brown. Brown’s aircraft includes options for a NMF bird, or an olive drab over neutral gray option, depending on the modelers personal research to decide which they feel is correct. The decals are beautifully printed. This set would be an excellent basis for a club build!
Last, we’ll look at a set of P-40B decals which would look great on Airfix’s new-tool 1/72 P-40B kit. (Or any other P-40B kit in that scale…. but I highly recommend the Airfix one!) Four options for olive drab over neutral gray P-40Bs are included, one of which represents a P-40G remanufactured to P40B specs. As with the other sets, the decals are beautifully printed, and sufficient decals are provided in the set to build two different aircraft. However, if kit decals provide the various national insignia and rudder stripes, then this set could be fully used up to model all four aircraft.
If you haven’t checked out what Starfighter Decals has, I highly recommend you give Mark a visit today. He has a lot of great products, and is always adding new sets to his already very diverse portfolio of decals, resin and photoetch.
Thanks so much to Mark Tutton and Starfighter Decals for these review samples. I greatly appreciate it!
