Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

Aeromaster Decals' 1/48 scale Mosquito Best Seller Part I
is available online from Squadron.com

48176 is the second sheet in the Best Sellers series covering the Mosquito and it provides markings for a further four machines.  They are: 

Hairless Joe, FB Mk VI HR147 of 418 (City of Edmonton) RCAF.  The markings depict when it was a part of 136 Wing, 2nd Tactical Air Force at Middle Wallop in August of 1944.  The machine was crewed by Squadron Leader Russ Bannock DFC and Flying Officer Bobbie Bruce DFC.  It wears a camouflage finish of overall medium sea grey with a disruptive pattern of dark green applied to the upper surfaces.  The provided markings are: 

• TH squadron and individual aircraft Z codes in red.
• Small individual aircraft letter C in sky for the nose.
• Nose art consisting of a white bearded cartoon character with the name Hairless Joe.
• Two separate scoreboards to enable you to depict the aircraft from different time periods.
• Black HR147 serials.
• A pair of 24" fin flashes.
• A pair of type B upper wing roundels.
• A pair of type C1 fuselage roundels, with separate red centres.

FB Mk VI RF784 of 45 Squadron RAF based Jaori, India in 1945.  The aircraft is in overall silver dope with red spinners and black South East Asia Command (SEAC) theatre recognition bands over the wings, horizontal stabilizers and fin (not supplied).  The provided markings are:

• UX squadron and individual aircraft N codes in black.
• Black RF784 serials for the fuselage and fin.
• A pair of SEAC fin flashes
• A set of four SEAC roundels for the fuselage and upper surfaces of the wings.  The fuselage ones have a thin yellow surround to them ala type C1.

Another SEAC aircraft, FB Mk VII HR402 of 45 Squadron at Kumbhigram, India in January of 1945.  This machine was crewed by Flight Lieutenant C.R. Goodwin and Flying Officer S. Potts.  It is in dark green and dark earth upper surfaces over medium sea grey under surfaces camouflage with black spinners.  The provided markings are: 

• OB squadron and C individual aircraft codes in white.
• Black HR402 serial
• A pair of SEAC fin flashes
• A set of four SEAC roundels for the fuselage and upper surfaces of the wings.

FB Mk VI HR130 of 235 Squadron, a member of the Banff Strike Wing in December 1944.  This machine has extra dark sea grey upper surfaces over sky under surfaces with D-Day recognition markings on the undersides of the rear fuselage and yellow spinners.  The supplied markings are: 

• White with yellow outline LA squadron and E individual aircraft codes.  The placement of these is not in the RAF norm as they are displayed as LA-E and include the hyphen.
• Black HR130 serial.
• A pair of 24" fin flashes.
• Type B roundels for the upper surfaces of the wings.
• Type C1 roundels for the fuselage with the red centres as separate decals.

The placement guide is the standard A4 sized sheet with full colour port side profiles of each option in the centre pages with smaller top and bottom plan views on the back page. 

The decals have been "Printed in Mexico".  They are very well printed, thin and in perfect register. 

The recommended kits are the Airfix and Tamiya ones. 

The decal sheet and placement guide come packed in a clear plastic zip-loc bag. 

Another great Mosquito sheet from Eagle Strike Productions.  It gives complete markings (less any stencil data) for four machines in a diverse variety of camouflage schemes

Recommended.

Thanks to AeroMaster / Eagle Strike Products for the review sets

On-line sales are available from the AeroMaster Products / Eagle Strike Productions web site.
 

Review TextCopyright © 2004 by Rodger Kelly
This Page Created on 03 February, 2004
Last updated 11 March, 2005

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