Sheet:

FCM 72-039: S-2A Tracker

Units: See Review

Price

$

Reviewer:

Scott Van Aken


 

This particular set from FCM is on the S-2A Tracker in South American Service. Fortunately for us all, there is a very good, though somewhat old kit by Hasegawa. There is also a near copy from Hobbycraft or Academy that could be used. I should mention that the nations in this sheet also bought the somewhat different S-2E with the squared of wing tips; this isn't for that version but the very early one with the radome atop the fuselage.

There are markings for five aircraft. All are in the light gull grey over white scheme. The Brazilian and Argentine aircraft will need to have the rudder and elevator stripes painted on. Actually, it is the best way to do these markings as they are quite large. Going left to right and top to bottom here is what is covered.>

The first is from the Uruguay Navy in 1965. In this case, the radome housing is painted white.

Next, from 1/1 Gruppo in 1976 is a Brazilian plane. You'll note that these have a reddish brown radar housing. This particular unit has additional codes for a UP-16 (or utility version) of the tracker from 1978. The profile (not shown) gives an idea of what modifications need to be done to make this version. .

The other Brazilian option is from 2/1 Gruppo in 1976 as well. Markings are quite similar from the previous version aside from unit badges.

The final option is from Argentina in 1965. This aircraft has the blue and white rudder stripes repeated on the elevators, adding quite a bit of color to things.

The decal sheet itself is very nicely printed by Microscale and offers enough markings to do four aircraft. The instructions are very nicely done as well and a detailed data placement guide is provided on a separate sheet. It would be nice to see a complete upper and lower wing placement guide instead of just one wing so we could be sure where all the markings go. All of the colors are provided with FS 595 references.

Thanks to FCM for providing the review sheet.

June 2010

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