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Polish Decal Team 1/144 Polish Tu-154M

By Chris Banyai-Riepl

The Zvezda 1/144 Tu-154M is a nice  little kit, and one which lends itself  well to aftermarket decal options. The first of these to show up here is also the first decal sheet from a new company, Polish Decal Team. For their first sheet, they have chosen a very good subject, that of the Tu-154M from the 36 Special Transport Air Regiment, based in Warsaw, Poland. Two options are provided: aircraft 101 and 102. Aircraft 101 is of particular significance, as this aircraft crashed in April 2010, killing the President of Poland, his wife, the chief of the Polish General Staff, the president of the National Bank of Poland, the deputy foreign minister, a dozen members of the Polish parliament, and several other high ranking Polish military officers and government officials.

The Tu-154 is a large airliner, and this decal sheet, logically, is also large. The sheet provides a complete set of decals for the red cheatline and tail markings as well as the engine markings. The only red left for the modeler to paint is the wing and stabilizer tips, although there are extra strips that could be used for that purpose (although they are there to fill in potential gaps in the cheatline). For finishing, you couldn't ask for a simpler paint scheme, as this plane is overall white, including the wings and tailplanes. The only other painting required would be the leading edges of the wings, stabilizer, and engine nacelles in polished aluminum, and a burnt metal hot section on the back of the engines. The rest is going to be decals.

In addition to the basic livery, this sheet includes quite a bit of stenciling. As the color scheme is fairly bland, the inclusion of these markings will go a great way to enhancing the look of the finished model. There are door outlines, including cargo hatches, overwing exit walkway markings, hoisting and no step markings, and more. The instructions are very thorough in marking out their location, so there should be no problem in getting these put on in the right places.

This is a great first sheet for a new company, and I am excited to see their future releases. According to their website, we can expect to see some more Tu-154 decal sheets as well as a couple for the new Hasegawa 1/144 Embraer 170. Visit their website for ordering information, as their distribution is limited for now. I am sure it will not take long for these decals to become more widely available, though, as they are of high quality and well researched. My thanks to Polish Decal Team for the review sample.