Mike Grant Decals, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

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The latest release from Mike Grants Decals covers the Hawker Sea Fury in service with the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN).  The sheet is available in 1/72 scale as MG 72-049 and 1/48 scale as MG 48-049.  And a very nice sheet it is too!

The Hawker Sea Fury was operated by the RCN between 1948 and 1956 with total of 74 of them being delivered.  Given the large number of them in circulation you would expect that they wore a wide range of colour schemes and markings.  They certainly did and this new sheet from Mike Grant Decals celebrates them.

The colour schemes applied to RCN Sea Furies are a bit of minefield really but the colours and the patterns used are well documented in a seven-part series of articles by Jennings Heilig right here on Hyperscale.  http://www.clubhyper.com/referenc.htm will take you to the index of the reference page and part one can be found about three quarters down the page.  I would recommend that you read these articles should you wish to produce an accurate model using the decals found on this sheet.

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Markings are provided for seven FB.11 in all as follows:

• TG113 belonging to 803 Squadron circa September 1948.  This machine was in the first batch received by the RCN and it wore the then standard Royal Navy camouflage scheme of Extra Dark Sea Grey (EDSG) on the upper surfaces and fuselage sides, with lower surfaces and the spinner in Sky. The demarcation between the upper and lower surface colours is hard-edged too (easy to mask!).  She wears type C roundels on her wings and type C1 roundels on her fuselage which have tiny black a maple leaf applied to their centres.  She has a type A fin flash as well as white BCK codes to her fuselage, white crew names below the windscreen and a white ensign on her rudder.  Her serial is also applied in large black letters on the undersides of her wings as well as to the sides of her fuselage along with Royal Canadian Navy titles.

• TG118 of 807 Squadron as it appeared in September 1952 when it was a member of the Squadron’s ad hoc demonstration team.  From what I can make out, the machine is in what is termed pattern 2a camouflage scheme (read Jennings Heilig’s part one article to find out about these) of high demarcation dark grey upper surfaces over light grey undersides.  She wears the red, white and blue Canadian roundel with the red part being a maple leaf.  These are worn in all six positions.  Large NAVY titles are applied to her fuselage sides as well as the underside of the starboard wing.  Large black 108 pennant numbers are applied to her fuselage sides and the underside of her port wing.  The spinner is red and white with the white being segmented so it appears as a white star when viewed from the front.  The squadron’s painter must have liked red as there is a black outlined red lightning bolt on her drop tanks as well as a red tip to her tail hook.  The machine’s serial is applied in black on the sides of her fuselage along with Royal Canadian Navy titles.

• 883 Squadron’s VX695 from 1950-1951.  This machine is finished in the Royal Navy scheme of EDSG over Sky and wears 24 inch fuselage roundels with 36 inch wing roundels (upper surface only).  Royal Canadian Navy title and serial is applied in black to the sides of her fuselage.  AAS codes are applied to the fuselage sides and the undersides of her port wing.

• TG114 of 870 Squadron in the two greys “pattern 3” scheme.  24 inch BCF codes to her fuselage sides with large VG and BCF codes in black to the undersides of her wings.  The tip to her spinner appears to be very dark blue.  A yellow NAVY title outlined in black is applied to the sides of her fuselage underneath the cockpit.  Roundels are standard 24 inch to the fuselage and 36 inch to the wings.  Royal Canadian Navy title and serial in black to the sides of her fuselage.

• TG122 belonging to 870 Squadron circa 1951.  Finish and markings are the same as the previous option sans the yellow NAVY title.

• TG117 from 1948 and belonging to the Winter Experimental Establishment.  The machine is finished in pattern 2a camouflage scheme with large areas of her wing tips in red.  She wears 24 inch and 36 inch roundels on her fuselage and wings (upper surface only) respectively.  ZZA fuselage and wing codes in black as are the serial and the Royal Canadian Navy title on the fuselage.

• 871 Squadron’s VW563 from September 1953.  In pattern 2a scheme with large NAVY titles on the fuselage sides and the under side of the port wing.  A few oddities with this one as the red centre maple leaves of her roundels are touching the blue portion – they should not – and the 100 and NAVY titles on the lower surfaces of the wings have been transposed.

The decals themselves are silk screen printed.  They are in perfect register and there are plenty of them on the two sheets provided in the pack.  There is stencil data a'plenty too – two complete sets as far as I can make out.  The pesky yellow dotted “cut here” markings are amongst the stencil data too.

Support material is provided via two A-4 sized sheets.  You get a full A-4 sized page that shows the placement of the aforementioned stencil data via a line drawing with the other sheet showing left hand side profiles of each option on the front and illustrations of the upper and lower wing surfaces on the back.  The back also carries notes on each option.  All illustrations bar the stencil data line drawings are in full colour.

The two decal sheets and the support material come packed in a clear plastic zip-loc bag.

The research for the sheet was carried out by Jennings Heilig, the same guy who authored the above mentioned seven part series covering RCN Sea Furies.

This is another excellent product from Mike Grant Decals as far as I am concerned.  It provides you with first class research as well as excellent decals and support material.

Recommended.

Thanks to Mike Grant Decals for the review sample

Mike Grant Decals are available from his website

Review Copyright © 2008 by Rodger Kelly
Page Created 8 February, 2008
Last updated 8 February, 2008

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