Gloster Meteor T Mk.7 RAF and Belgian AF

Xtradecal, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Peter Mitchell

In anticipation of their release of the newly tooled 1/72 XtraKit Gloster Meteor T Mk. 7, XtraDecal has produced a decal set that will give the modeller a plethora of attractive liveries to apply to their kit.

In fact there are so many options; it will be hard to choose which version to do... my advice would be to make several Meteor T Mk. 7s!

Markings are supplied for no less than 12 aircraft (7 RAF/RAuxAF, 2 RN and 2 Belgian AF).

This generous assortment of decals are compactly arranged on a single blue coloured backing sheet, the carrier film is thin, resolution and colour density is excellent.

I could be wrong, however the lower saw-tooth pattern for 607 Sqn pennant is perhaps more burgundy than the correct (I think) purple, other than that, the colours presented appear to be correct.

On my review sample at least, XtraDecals otherwise Xcellent quality control appears to have had an uncharacteristic lapse. The registration for the red and some of the black appears to be out of plumb. Consequently the Belgian cockades and some of the RAF squadron pennants are slightly out of sync with the other colours. This has rendered one or two of the options unusable.

Options provided are as follows,

• Gloster Meteor T Mk. 7 VZ637/P. 502 Sqn (RAuxAF) 1950’s Aldergrove. High Speed Silver. Red lightning bolt on Blue pennant.

• Gloster Meteor T Mk. 7 WA612/S. 111 Sqn RAF 1960’s Watisham. High Speed Silver. Yellow outline on Black pennant.

• Gloster Meteor T Mk. 7 WA659. 33 Sqn RAF 1950’s Middleton St George. High Speed Silver, Black over Yellow TT stipes. Day-Glo Red nose, tail wing tips.

• Gloster Meteor T Mk. 7 WH224/Z. “Isle of Sheppy” 500 Sqn (RAuxAF) 1953 West Malling. High Speed Silver. Yellow tail band and wing stipes Green and White “zig-zag” on Blue pennant.

• Gloster Meteor T Mk. 7 VW439/R. 607 Sqn (RAuxAF) 1950’s Ouston. High Speed Silver. Yellow tail band and wing stipes Yellow and Purple “saw-tooth” pennant.

• Gloster Meteor T Mk. 7 WA725/Y. 151 and 43 Sqn RAF 1958 RAF Leuchars. High Speed Silver, Black over Yellow TT stipes. Day-Glo Red tail band and wing tips. Combined Black and White St Andrews cross and checkers pennant.

• Gloster Meteor T Mk. 7 WG949/Z. 603 Sqn (RAuxAF) 1957 RAF Turnhouse. High Speed Silver. Yellow tail band, Black and Red checkers pennant.

• Gloster Meteor T Mk. 7 WS103/709. RNAS Yeovilton 1967. Black overall. Day-Glo Red nose, tail wing tips.

• Gloster Meteor T Mk. 7 WS116/935. RNAS Lossiemouth 1965. High Speed Silver. Yellow tail band and wing stipes Blue rudder.

• Gloster Meteor T Mk. 7 ED40. Belgian AF 1956. Koksjide. High Speed Silver. Yellow tail band and engine nacelles, Red arrow.

• Gloster Meteor T Mk. 7 ED8. Belgian AF 1950’s. Koksjide. High Speed Silver. Yellow tail band and engine nacelles, Red arrow.

Wow!

This is a beautiful sheet which offers a fantastic choice of colourful Meteor trainers. In spite of the registration problems, which I feel is most likely unique to my example, I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to spruce up their Gloster Meteor T Mk. 7s (you will need to do more than one!)

Thanks to Hannants for the review sample

Xtradecals are available online from Hannants' website

Review Text Copyright © 2008 by Peter Mitchell
This Page Created on 29 September, 2008
Last updated 29 September, 2008

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