Starfighter Decals 1/72 1st Pursuit Group USAAC Part 2 1934-1940
By Matt Bittner
Starfighter Decals has released part two of their series of the 1st Pursuit Group USAAC, this time covering the period from 1934 to 1940. This is definitely timely as Arma has announced their upcoming series of Hawk 75 models (including the P-36) for early in 2025. The subjects covered are:
- Seversky P-35, AC 36-?, 17th Pursuit Squadron (PS)
- Seversky P-35, AC 36-356, 27th PS
- Seversky P-35, AC 36-?, 94th PS
- Boeing P-26B, AC 33-180, 1st Pursuit Group (PG)
- Boeing P-26C, AC 33-196, 17th PG
- Boeing P-26A, AC 33-92, 27th PS
- Boeing P-26A, AC 33-45, 94th PS (all conjecture as no photos have surfaced of this aircraft)
- Curtiss P-36A, AC 38-XX, 94th PS
- Curtiss P-36C, AC 38-210, 27th PS
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Starfighter Decals includes detailed model notes on the instruction sheets, especially for the P-26s. Unfortunately the best kit for the P-26 is still the Revell one from eons ago (even though the Pavla/KP is more recent, is has faults, namely the fuselage has shape issues and panel lines in random places) so will need to be modified to fit the descriptions. Note that the Starfighter Decals Overhaul set is still available for the Revell kit, making it into an accurate rendition of the Peashooter.
With the recent announcement from Arma Hobby of their upcoming release of the Hawk 75 series - to include the P-36 - this is definitely welcome for the two P-36 schemes on this sheet. For the P-35 the best still in 1/72 is the Special Hobby kit.
It's great that Starfighter Decals are still releasing 'tweener decals to help those of us that have a lot of these kits in our stash. Huge thanks to them for supplying this review set of decals.