Royal Air Force Update
2013-14

Xtradecal, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Mick Drover

Xtradecal 1/48 Royal Air Force Update 2013-14 will be available online from Squadron.com

The Royal Air Force are well known for celebrating anniversaries with colourful displays of tail art and flashy markings. This recent sheet from Xtradecal in the UK covers several anniversary markings carried by RAF Tornado and Typhoons during the 2013-2014 flying season.

It’s always good to see enough decals supplied to build all of the subjects on the decal sheet. This is the case here with each of the five aircraft being supplied with the appropriate roundels, codes, crest and tail art to do each airframe. You’ll need to supply appropriate stencilling but this should be easily sourced from either the subject kit or aftermarket suppliers.

The decals are produced to the usual high standard that Xtradecal are known for.

There’s no sign of fuzzy edges or out of register art and the carrier film is suitably thin.

Marking Options

1. Eurofighter Typhoon FGR.4 ZK343, ‘BX’ flown by Flt. Lt. Noel Rees of 29 Squadron, Royal Air Force. RAF Coningsby, 2014. This jet wears the colourful tail markings identifying it as one of the 2014 Typhoon Display team members. The canards also carry a stylised squadron number on a gloss black background.

2. Eurofighter Typhoon FGR.4 ZK308, ‘TP.V’ flown by Sqn. Ldr. Garry Stratford of ‘B FLight’, 29(R) Squadron, Royal Air Force, RAF Coningsby, 2014. This aircraft wore D-Day stripes on the wing and fuselage to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the landings. It is coded TP-V which was the same code carried by Hawker Typhoon Ib of 196 Squadron.*

3. Eurofighter Typhoon FGR.4 ZK342, ‘ED’ flown by Wg. Cdr. Mike Baulkwill of 6 Squadron, Royal Air Force, RAF Lossiemouth, 2014.This aircraft carries World War 2 era camouflage colours of middles stone and dark green. It is adorned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of 6 Squadron first established on January 31, 1914. Appropriate stencils are supplied for this aircraft where they cover the camouflage section of the aircraft.

4. Eurofighter Typhoon FGR.4 ZK348, ‘FN’ flown by Wg. Cdr. Mark R. Flewin of 1(F) Squadron, Royal Air Force, RAF Lossiemouth, 2014. This is the odd one out on the sheet as it doesn’t appear to have any form of anniversary type markings apparent. It is supplied with standard squadron badges and crests as well as codes and roundels.

5. Panavia Tornado GR.4, ZA412 , crewed by Wg. Cdr. D.S. Arthurton and Fg. Off. R.D. Hartley of 617 Squadron, Royal Air Force, RAF Lossiemouth, 2013/14. This GR.4 Tornado from 617 Squadron carries flashy fin art celebrating the 70th anniversary of its mission objective 70 years earlier. The fin art is a motif of a breached Ruhr valley dam in white with red lightning bolts over a gloss black background.

This is a great sheet from Xtradecal not just because of the flashy anniversary schemes but because enough decals are supplied to build all five of the aircraft. Granted that you’ll need to supply your own data and safety stencils from the donor kit or aftermarket sources these markings will look great on their respective subjects. My only gripe is that the plan diagrams are a bit on the small side and there’s no plan view of the camouflage scheme on ZK342, other than that I recommend them.

Reference

http://tangentlink.com/2014/05/28/typhoon-in-d-day-marks/

Thanks to Hannants for the review sample

Xtradecals are available online from Hannants' website

Review Text Copyright © 2015 by Mick Drover
This Page Created on 6 July, 2015
Last updated 6 July, 2015

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