WW II USN Carrier Wings Set A
Reviewed by Timothy Dike
| Dragon has followed up on their detailed Essex class carriers
with another aircraft pack to allow you to expand your air wing. This set
features the late war aircraft found on the typical aircraft carrier during
world war two.
Packed in a handy blister pack are eighteen aircraft molded in clear styrene with two decal sheets. With clear molding you can mask off the canopy and paint the aircraft as usual. When the paint dries you remove the mask and are left with a clear canopy. The drawback is that clear styrene is more brittle than gray styrene and harder to work with. You get six fighters, six dive bombers, and six torpedo bombers. These are the same aircraft found in the popular Essex class carriers such as the CV-9 USS Essex, CV-15 USS Randolph, and CV-19 USS Hancock. Dragon also makes early war aircraft such as the SBD, F6F and TBF in the Carrier Wings A set. |
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| AIRCRAFT | ||||
 There
are three sprues of F6F Hellcats for a total of six aircraft. They are
molded with separate wings so that you can position them folded or down
if you wish. Landing gear and propellers are also separate details. The
molding is sharp and includes recessed panel lines. |
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 There
are three sprues with a pair of TBF Avengers on them. These are also molded
with separate wings, propellers, and landing gear. Nice recessed panel
lines are featured on the surface. |
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 Six
SB2C
Helldivers are included on three sprues. They are molded with separate
wings that can be shown folded. Landing gear and |
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| DECALS | ||||
| The decals by Cartograf include the aircraft stars and
bars that were used during WW2.
BONUS: A new decal has been added to this set. It includes squadron markings for CV9, CV10, and CV11 for the WW2 era. These consist of tail and wing markings for the various types of aircraft. |
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| INSTRUCTIONS | ||||
Exploded and assembled views are shown for each aircraft.
A color sheets shows the markings and painting info for each aircraft type
and the appropriate squadron markings for CV-9, CV-10, or CV-11.
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| CONCLUSIONS | ||||
 This
set is further proof that Dragon is listening to modelers. You asked for
separate aircraft sets and Dragon has provided them via the Cyber-Hobby
label. They went one step further and added a bonus set of decals to give
you an accurate airwing. This set is priced at $7.95 at DragonUSA's
online site. I hope that they will consider doing a similar set in
gray plastic. |
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