- Kit / Product: (MA-48200)
- Scale: 1:48
- Designed for: Airfix, Italeri or Tamiya Hawk
Reviewed by Dave Coward
Our thanks to The Aviation Workshop Publications Ltd for supplying the review sample. Get this decal sheet here now at: www.theaviationworkshop.co.uk
Initial assessment…
RAF aircraft are generally not the most colourful out there nor do they go for those spectacular schemes you see yearly on other European military aircraft, but the one exception you will see is the RAF Hawk Display Aircraft. This aircraft has had a scheme for us Brits to be proud of for the last 3 years or so and this year is no exception. The basis is the all black training scheme with a union flag emblazed over the fuselage and wings.
This is quite a complex scheme and all credit must go to Model Alliance (MA) for producing a set of decals for it. The decal bag itself contains a set of full colour instructions, a sheet of decals and a sheet of masks. Starting with the instructions, this comes as a full colour fold out sheet with 3 view drawing and is printed on quality paper. The sheet also has a full set of paint references and details of how to go about preparing your model for the decals. Next are the decals themselves; these are up to MA`s usual high quality with crisp fine detail – the 4FTS badges being the Pièce de résistance, they are absolutely stunning. The full size scheme is black, white, red and blue and what you do notice is that there are only decals for the white areas of this scheme – so how do you produce the rest? Well MA have realised that the airframe is to complex a shape for decals to conform to and have therefore supplied a set of masks for the white areas – this is the mask sheet I mentioned earlier. These masks need cutting out and attaching to the airframe as per the instructions, the red, blue and black areas can then be painted onto airframe ( you may need to use a white primer here to get a good colour density for the red and blue). My only slight concern is whether the strong colours along the boundaries will show through the white decals when they are applied to the masked areas.
As I said this is a very complex scheme but MA have approached it the only way I see possible and with care it should produce a stunning model. I look forward to trying these decals out; so much so that I have dug out an Italeri Hawk from the stash just to try them out – look out for this as a future project in the Build Now section.
Highly Recommended
Dave C.