Begemot 1/48 Polikarpov U-2/Po-2 Family Decal First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Begemot Decals is an interesting decal company from Rostov-on-Don, Russia that offers a nice array of markings for Soviet-built aircraft. In this release, Begemot provides a super set of decals for the Polikarpov Po-2/U-2 family of aircraft. Let's take a look:

Your eyes are not deceiving you. There are seven decal sheets in this set and I initially wondered if Begemot included markings for every U-2/Po-2 ever built! The answer is no, but there are 79(!!!) examples in this set ranging from simple trainers to high-profile examples from the mid-1930s, the Great Patriotic War (World War II), and through the 1950s. There are several notable examples including one aircraft in North Korean markings assigned to a light bombing unit (Washing Machine Charlie) as well as several who rendered similar 'kindnesses' upon the Germans a decade earlier. The set has colorful civilian aircraft including a polar explorer, distinctive military aircraft including special operations and air ambulance examples, as well as a wide variety of utility aircraft.

Since there are some nice 1/48 scale kits of the U-2/Po-2 out there including the Gavia/Eduard and ICM examples. While these kits don't have some of the interesting configurations shown in this decal set (the enclosed rear cabin for example), this does provide the experiened modeler with some interesting scratchbuilding opportunities. If you're wanting to build the U-2/Po-2 and don't want to use the kit decals, I somehow think you'll find one (or more) good subjects in this nice Begemot release!

For more information about this set and the other releases from Begemot Decals, visit their website at http://www.begemotdecals.ru.

My sincere thanks to Begemot Decals for this review sample!