APC Decals 48126: Texan

During WWII, probably the most widely used advanced trainer was the T-6/SNJ/Harvard trainer. It was an aircraft that all American pilots flew and was a keystone to the Empire Training Plan. It was also exported to a large number of countries post war. As such there are a considerable number of these planes still flying.

 One of the longest users of the type was the South African Air Force, which kept their planes in service from 1940 until 1995. Of course, these planes were eagerly sought by warbird fans and so many were kept flying, often in their SAAF colors. So that is what we have on this sheet. All the SAAF marked planes are AT-6Ds and are shown painted in overall aluminum with daglo areas on the airframe with the upper wings in dark grey (probably something like dark sea grey. The one plane in camouflage represents a British wartime plane in dark green/dark earth over yellow. It may well have been in these colors when initially used in South Africa during the war.

One thing to note is that the drawings are not completely accurate. By that I mean the area of the aft canopy has an extra set of panes that aren't there on an AT-6D, though I believe are on a Harvard, which these are not. In addition, all these planes actually had the old style canopy with multiple panes rather than the T-6G style shown in the drawings. For the record the camouflaged option and aircraft 7696 are the same airframe and currently based in the Czech Republic, hence inclusion on this sheet. The third plane 7678 is based in Texas.

The sheet is nicely printed and uses an ALPS style printing method that results in an overall clear carrier. These are more durable than ALPS decals, which can easily be scratched. You can use Microset/sol with these without worry. You are provided insignia and data markings for two planes as long as one is the British and one SAAF. Wing walk sections are also supplied which is a nice touch. For kits, you'd be best off to use the old Monogram AT-6 kit as it provides the proper canopy. The last time I checked, the Ocidental kit was a T-6G with the later version. Instructions are well done and there are plenty of images of all three of these planes on the Internet.

June 2019

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Thanks to www.hobbyshop.cz for the review sheet. You can get yours at this link.

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