Tiger Wings is a company from China that has produced decals for the recently released 1/32 and 1/48 kits by AA, Trumpeter and Frog; all of which are made in the PRC. One common thread in all these kits are the lack of decent decals. Whether this is by design or omission I don't know, but it is frustrating to find a kit one wants to build with such poor decals.

The Tiger Wings decal sheet is basically two sheets with a smaller sheet of additional insignia. There are enough decals to cover all the subjects on the instruction sheets. A word of warning is that there are NOT any common markings such as ejection seat warning triangles, so those must be saved from the kit decals. The decals are well printed and glossy, so application on what is basically a gloss white aircraft should not be a problem. Most of the decals are single color and registration on those that are not is spot on. The decals appear to be very well done with little clear surround to them.

As for the subjects covered, there are four demonstrator schemes and one can do at least two regular service aircraft.

There is one scheme for the F-8II demonstrator and three schemes for the F-8IIM demonstrator aircraft. The F-8IIM is the export version of the F-8II and both of them are externally the same. As you can see from the sheets to the left, the demonstrator aircraft are quite colorful. Not shown are the diagrams for wing colors and the scheme for operational aircraft. 

Operational planes carry the Chinese insignia (demonstrators do not) on the tail and wings, with red numbers on the nose. That is it!!

The demonstrators all have wing and stabilizer flashes in what appears to be either red or blue. Those will have to be painted on by the builder. 

What is probably the worst part of the sheet is the lack of color callouts. There are numbers in boxes which seem to apply to specific paints, but without a color chart, one is not really sure of what specific colors are to be used. I have been able to figure out the 8 is silver, 156 is white, and 340 is either black or a green radome color. The wing flashes are in 34 and I'm not sure if that is blue or red, though I suspect blue. The ventral fin colors on the demonstrators are 322 and, on one version also in 58, though I am clueless as to what colors those are.

Other than that, the decal sheet is very welcome and one that I will definitely use on my F-8IIM!

Review copy courtesy of me and my wallet!! If any of you manufacturers or shop owners want to send products for review and building, please contact me.