Starfighter 1/700 USN Decals
By Don Joy
I am going to review two sheets we received from Starfighter:
- 700-107 Lexington Air Group 1941-42
- 700-108 USN Aircraft Insignia Dec 1941 – May 1942
First a word about Starfighter Decals: these have been my go-to guys for aircraft carrier and 1/700 aircraft markings for the last few years. They make sheets that are unavailable anywhere else and the quality of the decals is quite good. The decals are very thin and so caution is needed when working long, narrow pieces. In those cases, I’ve found it necessary to apply microfilm to make the decals easier to place. But with or without Microfilm, they lay down nicely and take Solveset well.
700-108 USN Aircraft Insignia Dec 1941 – May 1942
This is a sheet of aircraft markings for the period indicated. This includes the standard US star insignia with the red centers and the red and white tail stripes for the rudders. These tail stripes were only used in this period by the navy before being dropped to improve camouflage. The national insignia would be either six positions (upper and lower wings and both sides of the fuselage) or four positions (upper left, lower right wing and both sides of fuselage) depending on the timing.
Six different sizes of national insignia are provided corresponding to 24”, 30”, 40”, 45”, 52” and 72” diameters. Unless my counts are wrong (and some of these are tiny!), that’s 98, 72, 232, 232, 155 and 72 respectively. That’s enough for a 
Tail stripes are provided for 4 aircraft types: TDB, F4F, SBD and F2A. They provide enough for 24, 20, 48 and 20 aircraft respectively.
Not mentioned, but in the lower right hand corner of the sheet are stern decals with the aircraft carrier names for CV-1 thru 8: 
The instruction sheet provides two different marking schemes for each type (only 1 for the F2A). As the instructions warn, the schemes changed almost weekly during the period so you need to check your sources and photos. It would also not be unusual to see the same aircraft types in the different marking variations on the same carrier at the same time.
700-107 Lexington Air Group 1941-42
The
The instructions state there are markings for 18 aircraft and, because of the small size, it looks like they mean 18 of each type. You will need to be exceptionally careful with these because they are so tiny. The white decals are very difficult to see against the light blue deal backing.
For both sheets, the camouflage pattern on all aircraft is the same: blue gray upper surfaces and light gray lower surfaces.
There is one mistake on the instruction sheet for 700-107. It describes the national insignia as being placed on upper right and lower left wings. This is incorrect. The insignia would be either tops and bottoms of both wings (6 positions) OR upper LEFT and lower RIGHT wings (4 position) depending on the timing. The instructions in 700-108 call this out correctly.
Other than that minor mix-up, these are good sheets and help fill a void in the available markings. The tail stripes are needed for early war aircraft. The stars and meatballs can be used on carrier aircraft from 1924 until the meatball was dropped in 1942. I have a project right now where these will be put to use.
Thanks to Starfighter Decals for the sample sheets.