Aviaeology

1/72nd & 1/48th - British Squadron Codes and Serial Number Characters Sets

Sheet Number: AOD72C01, 02, 03 & 04, AOD48C03, 04 & 05

Reviewed by  Paul Bradley, IPMS# 35554

MSRP: $4.29 each Website: www.aviaeology.com Remember those really useful decal sheets put out by Modeldecal in the 70s and 80s that consisted entirely of British code letters and numbers? They enabled the modeler to recreate a specific aircraft for which standard commercial decals were not available, and came in a variety of colors and sizes. Of course, Modeldecal went out of business many years ago, and there have been occasional attempts to plug the gap since then. Aviaeology, a Canadian company that is new to me, has now released what I hope to be the first sheets of many that will finally close that gap again. The first four sheets to 1/72 are as follows: AOD72C01 - RAF & FAA Aircraft Codes 36" Dull Red. AOD72C02 - RAF & FAA Aircraft Codes 36" Dark Grey. AOD72C03 - RAF & FAA Aircraft Serials 8" Dull Red. AOD72C04 - RAF & FAA Aircraft Serials 4" & 6" Night Black. The three sheets to 1/48 that I received are: AOD48C03 - RAF & FAA Aircraft Serials 8" Dull Red. AOD48C04 - RAF & FAA Aircraft Serials 4"& 6" Night Black. OD48C05 - RAF & FAA Aircraft Serials 8" Night Black. Both official and ad hoc characters are included on these sets, and they cover the styles used by RAF, FAA and other Commonwealth aircraft during the period before, during and immediately after WWII. There are enough repetitions and variations to apply to many models. With the aircraft codes, the varnish is only applied over the codes themselves, meaning there's little chance of silvering. The remaining sheets are printed with the varnish in horizontal strips over the characters, meaning that there will be a need to trim each letter individually in that plane. This is a vast improvement over the continuous varnish layer found on the Modeldecal sheets, which meant careful trimming all around each character. According to Aviaeology, these decals are compatible with the Micro/SuperScale systems and also with Solvaset, though I would advise testing first, as Solvaset is much stronger than the others. These should prove very useful indeed, and will be a worthy replacement for my shrinking stocks of Modeldecal character sheets, at a very reasonable price. Many thanks to the good folks at Aviaeology for the review samples.