Victory Productions Decal Releases By Michael Benolkin

Many of you know (or at least heard of) Paul Cotcher and his hobby shop, Victory Models. What you may not know is that Paul's new decal line-up, under the banner of Victory Productions, has kicked off. These new decal sheets represent some impressive research and resources for us modelers!

First up is set 48001 - Vought F4U-5/5N and AU-1 Corsairs. These decals were designed for the Hasegawa 1/48 kit and provide markings for seven different aircraft, including:

• AU-1, 129378, AES-12, Quantico MCAS, USMC

• F4U-5N, 123176, VMF(N)-513, WF-19, USMC

• F4U-5NL, 124559, 3-A-209, Argentine Navy

• AU-1, 129359, VMA-212, LD-10, USMC

• F4U-5N, 122186, VC-3, NP-6, USN

• F4U-5N, 124453, VC-3, NP-21, USN

• F4U-5N, unk, Honduran Air Force

Set 48002 provides the markings for any of the A-4F and TA-4J Skyhawks flown by the US Navy's Blue Angels demonstration team. Victory appears to have overcome several problems encountered with previous Blue Angel decal attempts. One - these appear to be the correct color, and two - they appear to be dense enough that they won't 'fade' when placed on the dark blue paint. Looking good!

Set 48003 is the most impressive set yet - these provide the markings for virtually every F-104G unit in the Luftwaffe. These include: JBG 33 Buchel, JG 71 Wittmundhaven, MFG 1 Schleswig-Jagel (Navy unit), JG 74 'Molders' Neuburg, WTD 61 Manching, JBG 32 Lechfeld, JBG 31 'Boelcke' Norvenich, JBG 36 Rheine-Hopsten, AG 51 'Immelan' Ingolstadt, AG 52 Leck, MFG 2 Eggebeck (Navy unit), JBG 34 Memmingen, WS 10 Jever, LVR 1 Erding. In addition to the wide variety of unit markings and supply of national markings, there are sufficient letters and numbers to replicate virtually any machine from any of these units. Two complete sets of aircraft maintenance stencils are also included so you'll get plenty of use out of this set!

You can order these decals direct from the manufacturer's website at https://www.victorymodels.com. Don't forget to congratulate Paul for receiving the IPMS/USA 2001 Webmaster of the Year award.

My sincere thanks to the Victory Productions for these review samples!