Fairey Gannet

Xtradecal, 1/48 scale

The overall appearance of an aircraft can be described in a variety of terms.  Examples of this include Supermarine’s Spitfire -graceful, Republic’s P-47 Thunderbolt - pugnacious and De Havilland’s Tiger Moth - utilitarian.  However, even the most gracious aviation enthusiast would be hard pressed to find a complimentary term to describe Fairey Aviation’s Gannet! 

Having said that though the Gannet did wear a variety of paint schemes that were designed to both make it both inconspicuous and highly visible and this new sheet in 1/48 scale from the UK based company Xtradecal supplies markings that illustrate this.  Three different colour schemes are represented on the sheet. 

The individual options are as follows: 

• AS (anti-submarine) Mk.4 Carrier on-board delivery (COD) XA466 of Headquarter Flight, 849 Squadron Fleet Air Arm based at Royal Naval Air Station Lossiemouth on the North East Coast of Scotland in 1977.  The machine is finished in the then standard extra dark sea grey over sky camouflage scheme and sports a sky banded black spinner.

• AS Mk.1 XA457 of 825 Squadron Fleet Air Arm at Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose Cornwall in 1957.  Also finished in extra dark sea grey over sky with a sky banded black spinner but with a little colour by virtue of red and white chequer board on the upper finlets of the horizontal stabilisers.

• COD Mk.4 XA454 based aboard HMS Victorious in 1964.  Finish is overall RAF blue-grey with white markings and a black spinner.  She also bears Rear Admiral’s command pennants, Flag Officer Aircraft Carriers (FOAC) titles and a white kangaroo “zap” which was no doubt applied by some “ruddy Colonial”.  A pair of HMS Hermes badges is also included for this option and I suspect that this has been done in error as Xtradecal also provide markings for this machine in 1/72 scale when it was aboard the Hermes in 1964 and the markings have been “carried across” when the decals have been up-scaled to 1/48 Scale.

• The final option is XG882, a T.Mk.5 belonging to Headquarters Flight of 849 Squadron Fleet Air Arm based at Royal Naval Air Station Culdrose in November of 1964.  Finish is a very bright high speed silver (paint) with dayglo red panels to the nose tail and wings.

A single set of roundels are supplied and they are applicable to the first option only so you will have to find the appropriate roundels from another source should you wish to model the two other options – a small nitpick here, I would have thought that the roundels applicable for two options would have been preferable to roundels for just one option! 

The decals themselves have been printed by Superscale and are superb with everything, including the tiny squadron shields, in perfect register. 

The placement guide is a departure from the Xtradecal issues of the past.  This time, it is printed on glossy A-4 sized paper and is in full colour – excellent!  Left and right hand side profiles of each option are provided as well as a generic upper and lower plan views of the first and second options and upper and lower surface plan views of the red and silver option. 

The decal sheet and placement guide are packed into a paper envelope with a clear panel ala Superscale style. 

There is no advice as to a suggested kit but my bet is that they will find a home on more of the Classic Airframes kits than they will on the Dynavector vacform ones!  

A nice sheet from the fellows at Xtradecal. 

Recommended.

Thanks to Hannants for the review sample

Xtradecals are available online from Hannants' website