This 16-page booklet continues the series that contains 1/72 and 1/48 decals, profile images, and descriptive camouflage information covering a number of different fighter aircraft in Finnish service during WWII. The text, photos and graphics come from the excellent “Finnish Fighter Colors” books, also published by MMP.
This volume cover six aircraft in detail:
- Hawker Hurricane I, HC-454 “4”, vänr. Orvo Helenius, 2/LeLv 26, 1943
- Hawker Hurricane I, HC458 “8”, ltm. Aarne Arte, 1/LLv 10, 1941
- Curtiss Hawk 75A-2, CU-581 “1”, luutn. Veikko Evinen, 3/HLeLv 32, 1944
- Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-2, MT-201 “1”, maj. Eino Luukkanen, LeLv 34, 1943
- Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-2, MT-213 “3”, ltm. Ilmari Juutilainen, 1/HLeLv 34, 1944
- Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6, MT-435 “1”, ylikers. Urho Lehto, 1/HLeLv 34, 1944
Additional decals and limited references are also included for one additional Hurricane, two additional Hawk 75A-6s, and eleven additional Bf-109 G2s and G6s.
The decals are very thin, and easily snuggle down into crevices and inscribed panel lines without the necessity of softening agents. They’re thin enough for the white to be very slightly translucent, although it's only visible over the demarcation of highly contrasting colors. In my sample, several of the roundels on the second sheet showed some signs of smearing of the blue on to the white, but given the sharpness and near perfect printing of the primary sheet, I wonder if my copy of the second sheet was a fluke. The roundels have about 1 mm of carrier film. The glue tends to dry quickly, so quick, accurate placement of the decals where you want them is recommended.
From a design point of view, given the amount of photographic, illustration, and text information packed within its sixteen pages, this is probably the best reference of its kind that I’ve seen yet. Considering the availability of relevant kits, including the superb new Airfix Hurricane, this is an excellent series of decals for anyone interested in modeling Finnish WW II aircraft. We can only hope that MMP continues this line when their new volume, “Finnish Bomber Colors” is released.
I’m very grateful to Mushroom Model Publications and IPMS for providing his review sample.
