Yanks with Roundels
Part 1 - Martlet/Wildcat, Hellcat, Avenger, Corsair

Xtradecal, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

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The Hannants’ company, Xtradecal has recently released three sheets in 1/48 scale that provide markings for American manufactured aircraft in service with the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm during World War II.

X48102, Yanks with Roundels Part 1 provides markings for five aircraft in all, the details of each are as follows:

• Serial AJ148, Grumman Martlet Mk. II (Grumman F4F-A Wildcat) of Naval Air Squadron 888 and marked as A7-Ø from 1942 when it was embarked aboard the HMS Formidable. The machine is painted with Ministry of Aircraft Procurement equivalent US manufactured paint shades of dark slate grey and extra dark sea grey upper surfaces over sky undersides.
  

• Grumman Gannet (F6F-3 Hellcat) MK.1 serial FN373 assigned to Naval Air Squadron 1839 and marked as ‘J’ at Naval Air Station Eglington (HMS Gannet), Eglinton, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland in the December of 1943. The machine is finished in MAP equivalents of dark slate grey and extra dark sea grey upper surfaces over sky undersides.
  

• Grumman Tarpon (TBF-1 Avenger) Mk.1 serial JZ165 of Naval Air Squadron 852 and marked as ‘2P’ as it appeared at Naval Air Station Squantum, in Massachusetts, USA circa 1943. The machine painted in MAP equivalent shades and its squadron code letters are red with a thin white outline.
  

• Vought Corsair Mk. I (F4U-1A) serial JT145 of Naval Air Squadron 1835 based at Naval Air Station Quonset Point, Rhode Island, USA in the in the July of 1943. It is painted in US paint shades of ANA 613 olive drab in place of dark slate grey and ANA 603 sea grey in place of extra dark sea grey on its upper surfaces and ANA 602 light grey on its undersides in place of sky and wears the squadron code identifying code of 5A.
  

• Vought Corsair Mk. II (F4U-1) serial JT228 belonging to Naval Air Squadron 1833 as it appeared at Naval Air Station Machrihanish (HMS Landrail), at Machrihanish, Scotland in the December of 1943. It too wears the same paint finish as the previous Corsair option and is coded 6A in white.
  

The decals have been produced by Microscale. They are all in perfect register, even the tiny 888 Naval Air Squadron badge that is located in the middle of the red/white and blue fin flash of the first option. Strangely, even though they have managed to get all of the roundels and fin flashes in perfect register they have produced the 2P and 5A squadron codes of the Tarpon and Corsair I options as separate decals that will require you to apply the red decal over the white decal.

The placement guide is A-4 in size, printed on both sides and provides left and right hand side profiles and upper and lower surface plan views of each option in full colour. The sheet provides information on the painting of US produced aircraft with British equivalent shades – a complex and involved subject in itself – as well as information on (and a warning too) on matching modern Federal Standard shades with wartime ANA shades and a link to Bruce Archer’s excellent page here on Hyperscale http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/wildcatfaaba_1.htm that will help you with what you need to do to go about producing a Fleet Air Arm Wildcat.

The decal sheet and the placement guide come packed in the traditional Microscale style paper envelope.

All up an excellent quality and well produced sheet from Xtradecal that will provide you with some ‘different’ markings for the Wildcats, Avengers and Corsairs in your stash.

Thanks to Hannants for this sample.

Text and Images Copyright © 2012 by Rodger Kelly
This Page Created on 4 June, 2012
Last updated 4 June, 2012

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