Manufacturer: Whiskey Jack Decals
Order Number 1/48: 48-021
Order Number 1/48: 48-021
Seeing this sheet was the first time I'd ever seen Whiskey Jack Decals. Indeed, they’d only come to my attention
a while ago when news about them was posted in connection with a
Spitfire Internet e-group that I’m part of.
48-021 offers two colour schemes in the life of a very interesting Spitfire, one of the very few to be used by the RCAF based in Canada. Because of that fact alone, I was very interested in seeing this one. You have a choice between a camouflaged RCAF scheme or a natural metal civilian scheme, a difficult choice in this case, since both of them are unique and Canadian, so this airplane should be on every builder’s list, twice.
As TZ138, this bubble-canopied FR Mk.XIVe was used for winter trials in Manitoba in 1946, during which it had a ground taxiing accident by nosing over after breaking through the snow. After repairs, it managed to take off using a pair of jury-rigged Tiger Moth skis, which dropped away as the aircraft cleared the ground (nice photos of this set-up can be seen in "The Spitfire Story", by Alfred Price, published 1982 by Jane’s, ISBN 0-86720-624-1).
The colour scheme is very standard post-war RAF, with Dark Green/Ocean Grey over Medium Sea Grey, no Sky tail band, no unit codes, and just a small bit of nose art to break up the camouflage.
In its post-military career as a racing airplane TZ138 became CF-GMZ on the civil register, and that is the main reason this decal sheet was produced. This is a very nice scheme of natural metal with a red & blue lightning bolt fuselage cheat line, Esso sponsor markings, and a slogan about some place called Edmonton being the crossroads of the world. It also wore two small RCAF roundels over the Spitfire's FR camera windows just aft of the cockpit. One nice touch is the decals given to produce the unique propeller tip markings for CF-GMZ. This design is a red & white scalloped effect on each prop tip that would be a bit challenging to replicate five times for the front of the Griffon propeller.
These decals are extremely thin, crisply printed, and tightly registered. It is only when looking at them under a strong magnifier that one can see that they have been produced using an ALPS printer. There is some very slight ‘jaggy’ edging visible under a magnifying loupe, but it is not apparent to the eye, and does not detract from the quality of the decals at all. Whiskey Jack says that the slight ‘banding’ seen in the larger colour areas disappears under a normal post-decal clearcoat, but truthfully the problem isn’t evident on these decals.
A significant omission for the military scheme is that you are not given any roundels or fin flashes. The Whiskey Jack folks say they can’t produce an acceptable quality roundel yellow, so they would rather not provide their customers with an inferior product. I suppose this is not a real big problem, as the standard RAF markings are generally pretty easy to come by. No maintenance markings are given either, but again these are also readily available. However, it should be noted that photos show that TZ138 had mis-proportioned type C1 upper wing roundels (what you sometimes see on late-war Spitfires when the order came down to convert the type 'B' or 'C' roundels to 'C1' roundels), so it's not a simple case of finding an appropriate-sized roundel and slapping it on the model.
The monochrome instructions are printed on one side of an 8 ½" x 11" sheet. You are given one profile and one plan view of the two airplanes, plus scrap views as needed. There were a couple of errors in my instructions that are worth noting: TZ138 did not have yellow leading edges, and the underwing serial presentation is mixed up – under each wing the last numeral of the serial number should be closest to the wing centreline. I was advised by Whiskey Jack that these oversights are being corrected in current productions of the instructions.
Whiskey Jack recommends clear coating the decal sheet first with Future floor finish, which I did on a scrap area of the decal sheet. Not having a Spitfire FR.XIV ready to try these out on, I then applied these scrap decals to a prepared scrap model surface, part with and part without the Future pre-application. Both tests worked just fine and both decals reacted extremely well to Mr. Mark Softer and Micro-Sol, so there should be no problems with them.
At 2 ½” x 8 ½” this is essentially half of a regular-sized decal sheet. Compared to mass-produced decals from other companies, they are very expensive, but they are the only game in town to replicate this interesting piece of Canadian history. Whiskey Jack leans heavily towards Canadian civil-registered aircraft, from 1/144 to 1/48, with a few 1/35 Canadian Army vehicles thrown in for good measure. Definitely worth a look if you’re looking for an unusual scheme for your next project.
This decal package has a manufacturers suggested retail price of $15.00 Cdn.
Review sample supplied by Whiskey Jack Decals.
Reviewed by Steve Sauvé C0323
48-021 offers two colour schemes in the life of a very interesting Spitfire, one of the very few to be used by the RCAF based in Canada. Because of that fact alone, I was very interested in seeing this one. You have a choice between a camouflaged RCAF scheme or a natural metal civilian scheme, a difficult choice in this case, since both of them are unique and Canadian, so this airplane should be on every builder’s list, twice.
As TZ138, this bubble-canopied FR Mk.XIVe was used for winter trials in Manitoba in 1946, during which it had a ground taxiing accident by nosing over after breaking through the snow. After repairs, it managed to take off using a pair of jury-rigged Tiger Moth skis, which dropped away as the aircraft cleared the ground (nice photos of this set-up can be seen in "The Spitfire Story", by Alfred Price, published 1982 by Jane’s, ISBN 0-86720-624-1).
The colour scheme is very standard post-war RAF, with Dark Green/Ocean Grey over Medium Sea Grey, no Sky tail band, no unit codes, and just a small bit of nose art to break up the camouflage.
In its post-military career as a racing airplane TZ138 became CF-GMZ on the civil register, and that is the main reason this decal sheet was produced. This is a very nice scheme of natural metal with a red & blue lightning bolt fuselage cheat line, Esso sponsor markings, and a slogan about some place called Edmonton being the crossroads of the world. It also wore two small RCAF roundels over the Spitfire's FR camera windows just aft of the cockpit. One nice touch is the decals given to produce the unique propeller tip markings for CF-GMZ. This design is a red & white scalloped effect on each prop tip that would be a bit challenging to replicate five times for the front of the Griffon propeller.
These decals are extremely thin, crisply printed, and tightly registered. It is only when looking at them under a strong magnifier that one can see that they have been produced using an ALPS printer. There is some very slight ‘jaggy’ edging visible under a magnifying loupe, but it is not apparent to the eye, and does not detract from the quality of the decals at all. Whiskey Jack says that the slight ‘banding’ seen in the larger colour areas disappears under a normal post-decal clearcoat, but truthfully the problem isn’t evident on these decals.
A significant omission for the military scheme is that you are not given any roundels or fin flashes. The Whiskey Jack folks say they can’t produce an acceptable quality roundel yellow, so they would rather not provide their customers with an inferior product. I suppose this is not a real big problem, as the standard RAF markings are generally pretty easy to come by. No maintenance markings are given either, but again these are also readily available. However, it should be noted that photos show that TZ138 had mis-proportioned type C1 upper wing roundels (what you sometimes see on late-war Spitfires when the order came down to convert the type 'B' or 'C' roundels to 'C1' roundels), so it's not a simple case of finding an appropriate-sized roundel and slapping it on the model.
The monochrome instructions are printed on one side of an 8 ½" x 11" sheet. You are given one profile and one plan view of the two airplanes, plus scrap views as needed. There were a couple of errors in my instructions that are worth noting: TZ138 did not have yellow leading edges, and the underwing serial presentation is mixed up – under each wing the last numeral of the serial number should be closest to the wing centreline. I was advised by Whiskey Jack that these oversights are being corrected in current productions of the instructions.
Whiskey Jack recommends clear coating the decal sheet first with Future floor finish, which I did on a scrap area of the decal sheet. Not having a Spitfire FR.XIV ready to try these out on, I then applied these scrap decals to a prepared scrap model surface, part with and part without the Future pre-application. Both tests worked just fine and both decals reacted extremely well to Mr. Mark Softer and Micro-Sol, so there should be no problems with them.
At 2 ½” x 8 ½” this is essentially half of a regular-sized decal sheet. Compared to mass-produced decals from other companies, they are very expensive, but they are the only game in town to replicate this interesting piece of Canadian history. Whiskey Jack leans heavily towards Canadian civil-registered aircraft, from 1/144 to 1/48, with a few 1/35 Canadian Army vehicles thrown in for good measure. Definitely worth a look if you’re looking for an unusual scheme for your next project.
This decal package has a manufacturers suggested retail price of $15.00 Cdn.
Review sample supplied by Whiskey Jack Decals.
Reviewed by Steve Sauvé C0323