Empire City Decals 1/72 Fighters Over China
By Matt Bittner
We've received the latest example from Empire City Decals, their 1/72 Fighters Over China. In it are complete decals for six aircraft:
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Gloster Gladiator, White "2909", flown by Maj "John" Wong Pan-Yang, 29th Fighter Squadron, Xiaoquan, China, Summer 1938, Dark Green overall
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Henschel Hs 123A-1, White "1506", 15th Fighter Squadron, China, 1938-39, Dark Green over Light Grey
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Nakajima Ki-27, thought to be the personal a/c of the 2nd Sentai, 11th Chutai commander. This plane was shot down and photographed by Soviet troops on August 22, 1939. Overall Grey-Green
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Polikarpov I-153, 56th IAP, Summer 1939 - two possibilities: "Red 29", field-applied Dark Green over Light Grey, upper surface pattern is speculative; or "Red 11", field-applied Dark Green squiggle over Light-Grey
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Polikarpov I-16 Type 10: "Red 5" of the 56th IAP, July-August 1939; "White 2" of the 70th IAP, July-August 1939; or "Red 5/White 7" of an unknown unit, July-August 1939. All are AII Green over AII Blue
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Kawasaki Ki-10II, 72nd Chutak, 2nd HikoDaitai, Shotoki Airfield, China, Spring, 1938. No colors are listed on the instructions, but I would suspect the same Grey-Green as the Ki-27
As far as kits go, I know that ICM makes both the K-10II and the Ki-27. The Gloster Gladiator was done by Heller/Encore and the Hs 123 by Airfix and Italeri (and alledgedly ICM is doing one as well). Unfortunately the problem comes in with the VVS types. There exists no
accurate I-153 in 1/72. The Heller/Smer/Amodel kits all have their faults. Plus, there is no I-16 Type 10 in 1/72 as well. The closest you'll get is an Amodel Type 5, but there are enough differences between the two to make a conversion "interesting", but not impossible. With ICM doing the best later marks of the I-16, it would be nice if they tackled the Type 10 (and Type 5, for that matter).
Be that as it may, these decals are very nice and extremely well printed. They appear to be in register and the color is super. If you're looking for different schemes for these aircraft, then by all means pick up this sheet.
Huge thanks to Empire City Decals for the review sheet. And here's hoping they'll come out with more VVS decals!