Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

Aeromaster Decals' 1/48 scale Luftwaffe Sabres Part III
is available online from Squadron.com
 

Sheet 48187 is the final sheet in Eagle Strike Productions' Luftwaffe Sabre trilogy.

As with the previous two sheets, this one provides markings for three machines. 

All three aircraft on the sheet are in RAL 6014 gelboliv and RAL 7012 bassaultgrau upper surface camouflage with RAL 7001 Silbergrau undersides. 

The individual machines are:

• Canadair CL-13B Sabre Mark 6 JB-250 of 2./JG 72.  The markings depict it as it appeared at Leck airbase, Schleswig-Holstein in 1962.  A bright machine to say the least!  Apart from the standard national insignia markings it features larges areas of yellow and red trim to its vertical stabiliser, nose and wing tanks as well as large squadron insignia to the side of its fuselage.  Eagle Strike Productions have anticipated problems will arise in the placement over the compound curves of the nose and have printed the yellow and red trim decals with 'V's cut into them.

• Canadair CL-13B Sabre Mark 6 JB-250 of 3./Jabo 43.  A little more restrained than the previous option.  Nevertheless it sports distinctive markings in that it has a white outline to its serial and large squadron shield.

• Canadair CL-13B Sabre Mark 6 JC-236 of 2./JG 73, Pferdsfeld in 1963.  The least spectacular of the three options, it bears the standard markings plus a larger than normal squadron shield to its vertical stabiliser.

The remainder of the sheets markings comprise a single set of national insignia, very complete stencil data set, and the black (with red outline) nose radome markings.  The latter decals are supplied in two different ways, as one-piece decals and as two-piece decals to guard against register problems.  The stencil data is profuse and is in both English and German.  Given that there is a single set of national insignia and stencil data, you can produce a single model using this sheet. 

The placement guide is A-4 in size and shows left hand side profiles of each option as well as plan view of the upper surfaces of a generic machine.  The rear of the sheet shows side and plan views dedicated to the placement of stencil data and given the amount of it, you will be kept busy applying it!  

Be aware that you need to modify your chosen kit.  The placement guide recommends the Hasegawa and Academy kits, and advises you that all of the Luftwaffe's Sabres were Canadair built aircraft and had some differences from their North American built cousins.  It advises that the Sabre Mark 6 had a 6-3 wing with leading edge slats rather than the 'hard' leading edge and were of the short span variety.  Modifications to the fuselage at the trailing edge of the wing are required to reflect the changes in the cooling intakes bought about by the use of the Canadair built Orenda engine.  If you intend to model one of the machines on this sheet, my advice would be thoroughly research the modifications you need to undertake first.   References to the one-to-one-scale machines as well as scale ones abound and a quick 'Google' turned up many to say the least! 

The decals have been printed by Cartograf.  No problems here, they are thin and in perfect register.   

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

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

This is a nice sheet from Eagle Strike Productions.  If you like the F-86 and are looking for an alternative to natural metal finish then this is a sheet worthy of consideration. 

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 © 2005 by Rodger Kelly
This Page Created on 19 December, 2005
Last updated 19 December, 2005

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