Thanks to their success with the Pearl Harbor sheet, Starfighter Decals has decided to do one on the US Navy participants at Midway. This is a pretty well done sheet with markings for five aircraft and a total of fourteen different options. All of these are int he blue-grey over light grey camouflage scheme and with the then-new insignia without the rudder stripes or any red markings.

Going by the order on the cover sheet, we have SBD-3s. You get planes from Lt.Best of VB-6 in B-1, Cdr McClusky in the air group six CAG bird, Ens Larsen's #17 from VS-3, and an unknown pilot's S-9 from VS-8. Hasegawa is the recommended kit though these markings should fit any 1/72 Dauntless.

First of the F4F-4 Wildcat group is Ed Bayless' #23 from VF-6 followed by #1 of Lcdr Jimmy Thatch from VF-3. Next is #10 of Lt(jg) Art Brassfield, also of VF-3 and the last is Ens Steven Gross' F17 of VF-8. There is no recommended kit, but Hasegawa probably has the best, followed by Academy and there are others.

Moving to Devastators, we have Ens Morris' #3 from VT-6, Lcdr Waldron's T-16 from VT-8, Lcdr Lindsey's #1 from VT-6 and Lcdr Massey's #1 from VT-3. The recommended kit is by Airfix, but for those who have or can get the Valom kit, that one is probably a better, though more difficult to build, representation. As a note, Encore has recently released a bagged Airfix kit at a very good price.

There is a single SOC-1 of Lt(jg) Wilhelm of VCS-5. No kit recommended for this one either, but I am pretty sure only Hasegawa does one of these.

The last option on the sheet is a PBY-5A as piloted by Ens Jack Reid from VP-44. Minicraft is the kit of choice for this one.

Decals are superbly printed and provide enough common markings to do one of each plane. This includes wing walk areas and prop tip markings.

I think that putting together different aircraft from a specific battle or campaign is a great idea, and if you think so as well, you need to pick this one up. I should also mention that the sheet number on the instructions should be 72-136.

Thanks to www.starfighter-decals.com for the review sample.

December 2012

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