| Whiskey Jack Decals |
In spite of the fact that the man behind Whiskey Jack Productions
is a very good friend of mine I will endeavour to be as
unbiased as possible in this review. Having said that I have to say that these
decals are some of the best I have ever seen
and I find it difficult to fault them! I have thirteen sheets in both 1/144
and 1/72 scale and I present four of them for review
here, most of my comments below are applicable to all the samples I have. The
QCA Stranraer scan has been darkened
in order to show the white registration letters.
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WJ Productions specializes in, if you haven't guessed from the
samples on review here, canadian civilian aircraft, although
there is also a small but growing line of 1/35th scale canadian armour decals.
The extensive aircraft range covers 1/144th,
1/72nd and 1/48th scales and has some very colourful and unusual schemes - where
else are you going to find decals for a
Supermarine Stranraer airliner or a Boeing 247 in Chevron Canada markings?
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The decals are printed on an Alps printer and the quality easily
rivals any screen printed decals. The colours are solid and
opaque without any dithering or "dottiness"(?) as I've seen on other
Alps decals and the registration is flawless. The printing
is crisp and clear - even the smallest lettering and logos are readable under
magnification. The "Canada Air Mail" emblems
on the Lockheed 10a Electra sheet for instance are works of art (the image below
is about 3 times actual size!), the union
jacks being less than 1/16th of an inch wide yet they are perfectly rendered
and recognisable.
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One point to note about the Air Mail emblems that isn't mentioned in the instructions
is that although
there are two on the decal sheet, only one is used on the port side entry door
of CF-TCC, there isn't
one on the starboard side. The two TCA aircraft featured, CF-TCC and CF-TCA
survive today and are the
subject of an excellent walkaround in the June 2001 issue of "Scale Aviation
Modeller International".
Note also that the two aircraft have different carb intakes. The Planet Models
Electra has no carb intakes
at all, so you'll have to scratchbuild some anyway!
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If there is a disadvantage to Alps printed decals it is that the
wax inks used are not as robust as those
on lithographed or screen printed decals. WJ cautions you on this in the instructions
and recommends
a clear coating over the whole sheet before application.
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It's usually about this point in the review where the author says something
like "...decals are printed on a continuous carrier
film so you have to cut each marking out individually". Excuse me?!
Don't you do that anyway, or have I been doing it wrong
all these years? You mean you're supposed to dip the whole damn sheet in water
and then hurriedly apply every decal before
they dry up and stick to the backing paper permanently?!? Hmph...! If by chance
you are a strange individual who doesn't cut
each decal out one at a time then I guess you'll find these - or any decals
printed on a continuous sheet of carrier film for that
matter - decidedly inconvenient. For the rest of us who insist on doing things
the old fashioned way, cutting decals apart before
dipping in water isn't really worth mentioning, is it?
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Each sheet comes with a single sided page of instructions that
gives a brief history of the featured airline and aircraft as well
as two or three view drawings showing the placement of the markings and the
changes needed, if any, to model the particular
aircraft. The Pacific Western L188 Electra sheet also outlines the errors of
the Minicraft kit and includes drawings and instructions
on how to correct it.
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If I have to have a minor quibble, and really I do or you'll
never believe this is an unbiased review, it's that I'd like to see a list of
references included with the instructions. These are obviously extremely well
researched decals and I'd like to know what
information is out there, although I suspect that much of Gordon's reference
material is long out of print and unavailable to
mere mortals like myself anyway! On that note however, anyone wanting to build
Matchbox's Stranraer will find a terrific datafile
on the Stranny in the April 2001 issue of "Aeroplane Monthly" which
includes a four page spread on canadian Stranraers - two
of which are on Queen Charlotte Airlines.
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Highly, highly recommended to canadian and/or civilian aircraft
fans or anybody who just wants somethng a bit different.
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Whiskey Jack Decals are available from:
Blue Mountain Hobbies
1049 Ridgeway Ave.,
Coquitlam, B.C.
V3J 1S6 Canada
Phone: 1(604) 931-7177
Fax: 1(604) 942-5754 Or check out their website at: www.whiskeyjackdecals.com
Available in the UK from: Freight
Dog Productions |
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| All images copyright © Whiskey Jack Productions.
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