It was very nice when Hobby Boss released the Super Tucano in 1/48 scale and now we have a very colorful decal sheet for this plane from Caracal Models. This depicts one of the aircraft of the Brazilian display team, the Equadrilha da Fumaca. I was able to see this team when it visited the US back in the late 1980s and was flying the earlier red painted Tucanos. It was one of the best aerobatic display teams I have ever seen. Unlike the USN and USAF 'flash and dash' displays, the Brazilian team performed all of its maneuvers within the boundaries of the airfield and it was simply superb.

Now that the Super Tucano is in widespread use, the team has a very striking scheme of basically blue with yellow  areas on the wings and tailplanes and a big green flash down the fuselage. This Caracal Models sheet includes the big green fuselage flash, the tail markings and the white outlines for the rest of the markings. It also includes the pointy yellow bit for the nose gear door. The rest will need to be painted, which is really the best way to do schemes like this. Serial numbers are provided for four aircraft and there are sufficient additional numbers provided to do any of the team's planes.

The instructions are quite detailed and keyed to the panel lines on the Hobby Boss kit. The instructions provide a ton of references to assist the modeler in painting these markings. Fortunately there are off the shelf paints that can be used and those are listed. A complete stencil placement guide is provided as well. The decals themselves are superbly printed by Cartograf. I have darkened the sheet to make the white parts more easily seen.