Reviews

by Timothy Dike

DECAL SHEETS

Hot on the heels of the recent Ships & Co. 1/700 Ticonderoga kit release, Mark Tutton has created a new set to help you with the correct markings. Mark already makes some really great decal sets that he has printed on his Alps printer, but for this one he went all out and had Cartograph of Italy print them. This means that in addition to featuring the same sharp clear graphics, they are also printed on thin carrier film trimmed around each marking. There will be a minimum of cutting and trimming needed to use these decals.

There are two sheets in the set. The first one has the flight deck markings with numbers printed in white, yellow, and shaded white. There are smaller numbers included and deck lines in white and yellow in continuous and dashed styles. Thin white lines and red and white dashed lines will allow you to do most any postwar carrier realistically.

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The second sheet includes more small numbers in a variety of styles as well as ship specific island numbers. There are runway markings for 50's and 60's era carriers. Jet blast deflectors, helo landing targets, and all kinds of deck and superstructure markings. Hanger deck markings are included for those who like to detail out this part of a kit. A variety of ships names for almost every post war Essex and even some Midways are included with island numbers and other cool graphics.

INSTRUCTIONS

The instructions are a single sheet front and back printed in color with illutrations showing the typical deck markings used on varius carriers from the straight decks to the angled decks. The second pages shows the island markings used on a various carriers during the different time periods. These are well done and will be very helpful for building the Essex of your choice.

CONCLUSIONS

This set can be used on any of the Dragon or Trumpeter Essex class kits, the new Ships & Co. and ISW post war Essex kits, the Loose Cannon or HP Midways and even the old Jim Shirley kit. This is set #700- 70 with a price of $20, an excellent price for this two decal set especially when you consider that you can do such a variety of ships with it and still have marking left over. Mark has gone all out on this set and I would love to see more like it in the future. So I would urge you to support your local ship modeler and get this set. You will be glad you did. You can get this decal set from Starfighter Decals. Check the webpage for more details.