Aviaeology Decals 1/48 RCAF Mosquitoes Decal First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Aviaeology Decals has reissued their first installment of RCAF Mosquitoes in 1/48 scale and has made some corrections/revisions in this release. This set is for either the Tamiya or Airfix 1/48 Mosquito FB.VI/NF.II kits. This set looks at the aircraft of 418 Sqn 'City of Edmonton' RCAF which had some distinctive nose art.

This decal set comes on one large sheet and one small sheet and provides markings for four aircraft:

• Mosquito FB.VI, HJ719, TH-U, 418 Sqn, 'Moonbeam McSwine'
• Mosquito FB.VI, HR147, TH-Z, 418 Sqn, 'Hairless Joe'
• Mosquito FB.VI, NS850, TH-M, 418 Sqn, 'Black Rufe'
• Mosquito FB.VI, SZ976, TH-V, 418 Sqn, 'Amigo Panchito'

The instructions are printed in black and white, which means a number of the illustrations are going to be hard to see given that the gray shades blend together. Nevertheless, you can pick out what's happening with a little squinting and render one of these three great examples. This revised set provides coverage for several of these aircraft as they appeared with changes in paint and markings at different times so you can portray your example beyond the usual single snapshot in time.

The instructions have some photo illustrations with them of these aircraft including one of four aircrewmen standing in front of one of the squadron's mounts. One of those crewmen is pilot James F Luma who had been flying with 418 Sqn for some time but had been forced into a USAAF uniform as the United States entered the war. Lt. Luma ended his tour with 418 Sqn with 7 air-to-air kills and numerous ground kills before piloting the Mosquito for special USAAF missions.

For more information about this set and the other releases from Aviaeology Decals, visit their website at http://www.aviaeology.com.

My sincere thanks to Aviaeology Decals for this review sample!