I was quite pleased
when my local shop phoned me that this sheet was finally in and ready for me to
come down and pick up. I had seen the sheet in the shop earlier but it
always sold out. Now that I've got it in my hot little hands I can see why
it's such a good seller. The quality is typical stunning Leading Edge
quality. This colourful decal sheet depicts the Canadian built F-86.
These were identical to the US versions except the Canadian versions had more
powerful engines. The difference in engines always gave the Canadian
pilots the edge when going up against the American F-86's in flight demos.
I learnt this bit of info from a Canadian former F-86 pilot I bumped into at an
airshow a couple of years back. But I digress...back to the decal
review. This decal sheet...has enough markings and full stencils to do one
of 3 Canadian F-86's....either from 410, 439 or 441 squadrons. This sheet
has sold very well due to it's high quality and the amazingly readable
tiny, tiny stencils....and there's a lot of stencils. As you can see
below...there are actually 2 decal sheets in the 1/48 scale. I've heard
people have been buying this sheet just for the stencils alone....and after
seeing the high quality of the printing, I can understand why. But for
myself, I was in love with the Tiger scheme on the tail. There are 3 pages
of instruction sheets. The first page shows all the decal markings
placement for the 3 different planes. The second instruction sheet shows
the stencil placement, painting instructions and modifications needed to be done
to the kit to make it a true Canadian F-86. These modifications are all
very minor. The third page of the instruction sheets has 3 line drawings
of the cockpit control with text telling what each switch etc is. Also on
this instruction sheet are line drawings of the ejection seat and line drawings
of the wing tips showing what modifications to do to make the wing tips
correct in 1/32 and 1/48 scale. By the way...the flag on the tail is the
Red Ensign....the flag Canada used before it's current Red Maple Leaf
flag. For my money, this decal sheet was a very good purchase and will
make a very enjoyable build and a stunning model when complete.
Steve Bamford
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