Spitfire

Aces of the Empire

Victory Productions

Reviewed by Brett Green

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Victory Productions has created a magnificent decal tribute to the Supermarine Spitfire in service throughout the British Commonwealth during the Second World War.

This amazing decal release features 41 subjects on two single sheet, with a full-colour decal placement guide over four pages. A great selection of aces from Britain and many Commonwealth country (yes - the Welsh, Scots and Irish get a Guernsey too) are included on this sheet, in addition to some colourful subjects that have not been covered to date.

Most major Spitfire Marks are covered here too - the Mk.I, IIa, Vb, Vc, VII, VIII, IXb, IXc, IXe, XII and XIV. Colours are drawn from all theatres and eras, including early Dark Earth and Dark Green, to Ocean Grey and Dark Green, tropical and PR schemes, a couple of Australian variations and even some of the contentious "Blue on Blue" Malta aircraft.

Research has been undertaken by a committee of Spitfire Experten and the results reflect their cumulative knowledge. As far as I can tell, the subject aircraft seem to be very accurately depicted, right down to the little-known use of RAAF Sky Blue codes on Caldwell's Spitfire VIII, and application of the latest thinking for the blue Malta aircraft.

The decal sheets are luxuriously printed by Cartograf. The colours are rich, the decals themselves are very thin, carrier film runs close to the edge of all markings and everything is in perfect register.

I have already used one set of markings on Tamiya's 1/48 scale Spitfire Mk.I. Performance of the decals was excellent - no silvering, no edges visible after a sealing coat of Polly Scale Flat Clear.

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images of the marking options & second decal sheet:

I had some concerns about the shade of Sky used on the decals, but a comparison with both Tamiya and Gunze Sky paints that I had in hand suggest that the colour used on the decals slightly darker than the model paints, but is a fairly close match.

The image to the right is not a good representation of the actual colour (on my computer it looks browner than it does on the sheet), but the shade/brightness is a fair comparison.

Further comparison with the Sky paint chip in my Bible of RAF colours, "British Aviation Colours of World War Two" edited by John Tanner, also suggests that the decal colour is a shade too dark.

In my opinion though, the decal "Sky" is still well within acceptable parameters, and is much better than many other attempts at this elusive shade.

Victory Productions' new Spitfire decals are carefully researched, professionally presented, beautifully printed and perform impeccably on plastic - where it really counts.

The only real problem with this release is that you will need a very large collection of Spitfire kits and lots of spare time to finish all 41 marking options!

This is a very impressive production!

Highly Recommended.

Thanks to Victory Productions for the review sample

Review Copyright © 2003 by Brett Green
Page Created 05 June, 2003
Last updated 14 August, 2003

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