Model Alliance 1/72 and 1/48 Wings of Stars Decals
By Matt Bittner
As a follow on to The Aviation Workshop's excellent book "Wings of Stars", Model Alliance has released decals covering some of the subjects in the book. The decals have been released in two sets, in both 1/72 and 1/48, and both scales cover the same subjects.
Part I 1/72 Decals
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Part I consists of:
- Boeing P-26A, 18th Pursuit Group (PG), Wheeler Field, Territory of Hawaii, 1939. This is one of the blue-fuselage P-26As that had "gold" paint in its scheme, both the fuselage stripe and the cowl.
- Boeing P-12E, 18th PG, 19th Pursuit Squadron (PS), Wheeler Field, Territory of Hawaii, 1933. Standard olive fuselage and yellow flying surfaces. The top of the wing sported red and blue stripes, as well as red/yellow/blue stripes on the fuselage.
- SPAD XIII, 17th PS, Selfridge Field, Michigan, 1922-23. This SPAD XIII was completely painted in olive with a white tail.
- Curtiss P-36A Hawk, 20th PG, 55th PS, Barksdale Field, Louisiana, 1939. Overall natural-metal-finish (NMF) with a large, blue stripe on the cowl.
- Bell P-39D Headquarters Flight, 31st PG during the "Carolina Maneuvers" in October and November 1941. This is finished in typical OD over Neutral Grey, but with lots of yellow – yellow tail and the letters "UMP" in yellow on the fuselage sides and the wings.
- Curtiss P-40E, 20th PG, 79th PS during the "Louisiana Maneuvers" in October and November 1941. Again, typical OD over Neutral Grey with a yellow stripe on its nose and yellow rings on the wings, and surrounding the stars on the fuselage sides. There is also an alternative with this one – the fuselage stars, at one point, were over painted with yellow circle "blobs".
Part II 1/72 Decals
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Part II has markings for the following aircraft:
- Nieuport 28, 6507, 213th Aero Squadron, Florida, 1919-1920. While the wings were left in the usual French five-color camouflage, the fuselage and horizontal tail were overpainted. The fuselage consisted of blue on the metal sections, with red-and-white stripes on the linen sections (the rear fuselage). The horizontal tail was finished overall in white. This is my personal favorite on both sheets.
- Curtiss P-6E Hawk, '22', 8th PG, 33 PS, Virginia Beach Summer Camp, July 1934. This aircraft had its fuselage finished in Light Blue with the typical yellow flying surfaces. The nose and spats were finished in red and there was a red (outlined in white) stripe on the fuselage.
- Boeing P-12E, 95th PG, March Field, California, February, 1934. Typical finish of olive drab fuselage and yellow flying surfaces. In addition there were yellow and black stripes on the fuselage with a yellow Townend Ring (or cowl). One aspect of this one, though. Note it had the "smaller" fuselage associated with the earlier marks of the P-12, so some conversion will need to take place of the standard Matchbox 1/72 kit.
- Seversky P-35, 1st PG, 27th PS, Selfridge Field, Michigan, 1937. Overall NMF with yellow stripes on the fuselage and a yellow cowl-front.
- Bell P-39D, 31st PG, 40th PS during the "Carolina Maneuvers", October to November 1941. Typical finished of OD over Neutral Grey with white crosses on the fuselage and wings.
- Curtiss P-40B, 20th PG, 55th PS, Hamilton Field, California, 1940. Again, OD over Neutral Grey with a white spinner and fuselage stripes.
Decals are very nicely printed and in register.
Naturally a few of these are duplicates from decals already released from other manufacturers. Personally, I was hoping for some of the more esoteric types, with kits that are either short run (like the MPM 1/72 A-17 and the upcoming Lone Star Models 1/48 release) or resin (like the Pro Resin 1/72 P-1 series). But in a way I can understand Model Alliance's desire to release decals for kits that are more easily obtainable – although trying to find an MPM 1/72 Seversky P-35 is going to be quite difficult. In addition, the Academy 1/72 P-39 is either a 'Q' or an 'N', so I'm unsure what conversions are needed to back-date it to a 'D'.
Even with all that these are excellent decals to be had, a perfect complement to The Aviation Workshop's "Wings of Stars" book. It's awesome to see the current interest in the 'tweener period and I hope to see the trend continue.
Huge thanks to The Aviation Workshop for the review decals.
