Airscale 1/48 Early Allied Jet Instruments Decal First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Airscale from the UK produces a series of instrument face decals and has recently expanded their range as you can see here. In this release, we have typical instrument faces that you'd find in early western jet aircraft after World War II. The instruments provided here represent those from the F-84, F-86, F-100, F-104, F9F, Meteor, Vampire, Hunter, and more. The instruments include altimeters, artificial horizons, turn and bank indicators, compasses, engine tachometers, engine temperatures, and more.

This set provides different styles of each instrument type (where applicable) and there are enough to do several aircraft from this sheet. In addition to the decal sheet, this release also provides a small sheet of clear acetate.

To use this set, simply prepare your instrument panel as desired, paint the wells of each instrument white (preferably gloss so the decal can set on the surface), then punch out a clear disk from the acetate with a Waldron punch set to create the instrument glass. The acetate can be placed with a drop of Future or other gloss clear finish.

With the advent of color-printed photo-etched parts from Eduard, many folks simply wait for Eduard to get around to doing a detail set for their subject, but here is a nice alternative where you can add the three-dimensional detail (knobs, switches, etc.) to your instrument panel and then place these instruments into the faces to complete that masterpiece look.

You can order this set at HobbyZone USA.

My sincere thanks to HobbyZone USA for this review sample!