British Military Transport Aircraft of the 1960s Pt.1

On Target Decals

Air-Graphic Models, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Graham Carter

Now here is a sheet for the modeller with deep pockets or a penchant for the difficult builds as several ( but not all) of the subjects on these sheets are only available as vac-forms or from Mach2. 

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Presented in the familiar tight-fitting zip-lock clear sleeve the set consists of a 12-page A5 coloured instruction booklet and four decal sheets. Due to the large size of several of the subjects the cheat lines occupy two full sheets. All decals are beautifully printed with a gloss finish with excellent register and density and are thankfully printed on mid-blue backing so that the paler markings can be easily identified. A useful recent addition to this company’s products is a Paint card which lists all of the relevant colours by BS number, name and then tin/jar number for the equivalent paint from Humbrol, Xtracolour, Hataka, Modelmaster, Gunze Sangyo, Tamiya and Lifecolor, a great idea I  reckon. 

The last two pages of the booklet contain a number of small colour and B&W photos of the subjects which is a good idea but the images are a wee bit small to be really useful. Might I humbly suggest that it would be better to make these available in larger format through the company’s website? The final pages also include some  excellent guidelines for decal application, including a couple of warnings about the types of solvents to use.

The subjects are as follows:

1. Blackburn Beverley C.1., XL148, U/158 of 30 Sqn in Bahrain, September 1967 in overall High Speed Silver with white fuselage top,

2. Bristol Britannia C.1, XL640, 640 ‘Antares’ of 99/511 Sqn at RAF Lyneham , 1961 in overall Light Aircraft Grey with white Fuselage top and titanium nacelles,

3. de Havilland Dove C.1. VP962 of the British Air Attache in Saigon during the Vietnam War, 1969 in overall High Speed Silver with white fuselage top,

4. Beagle Basset CC.1. XS773, of RAF Southern Communication Sqn at RAF Bovington, 1967, in overall Light Aircraft Grey with white Fuselage top,

5. Lockheed Hercules C-130K C.1, XV199, ’199’ from 48 Sqn RAF Far East, Singapore 1968 in Light Stone/ Dark Earth over black with white canopy roof,

6. Lockheed Hercules C-130K C.1, XV196, ‘196’ from 36 Sqn RAF Air Support Command, RAF Lyneham, 1968 in Light Stone/ Dark Earth over black with white canopy roof,

7. Vickers VC10 C.1, XV106 ‘106’, “ Thomas Mottershead, VC” from 10 Sqn , RAF Brize Norton, 1968 in overall Light Aircraft Grey with white Fuselage top, and finally

8. de Havilland Sea Heron C.20 XM296, Admiral’s Barge for Flag Officer of Naval Air Command at RNAS Yeovilton, 1965 in overall Light Aircraft Grey with white Fuselage top, with green cheat line.

Items 1 - 4 and 7 & 8 all require cheat lines and these are provided on the sheets. The Beverley is only available as a vacform ( although Magna did a resin one several decades ago), the Britannia and VC10 are more recent Mach2 releases, the Dove comes from AModel, the Hercules can use the old AIrfix kit or more recent releases from Italeri or Zvezda, while the Basset and Heron are recent Airfix Vintage releases.

For each choice there is a list of accessories that can be used to enhance the model.

These are an excellent selection of schemes for the aficionado of RAF transport aircraft and are highly recommended if you can lay your hands on the kits ( or have them secreted in the stash).

Shelf space may become an issue!

Thanks to Air-Graphic Models for the sample.

Text Copyright © 2023 by Graham Carter
Images Copyright © 2023 by Brett Green
This Page Created on 7 September, 2023
Last updated 7 September, 2023

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