Dutch Profile is a company that has been releasing books and deals sheets for those books for the last couple of years. This particular sheet is in 1/32 and covers a variety of aircraft flown by Dutch pilots attached to the Fleet Air Arm during WWII.

In particular, this sheet covers four Hellcats and a Corsair. These aircraft had two major color schemes. Earlier deliveries were repainted in the Temperate Scheme of  Extra Dark Sea Grey/Dark Slate Grey over sky, while later aircraft were in overall Gloss Sea Blue. The Extra Dark Sea Grey rapidly faded to near Dark Sea Grey after just a few months at sea, so the modeler may wish to consider that color.

As the profiles are included in the 'Dutch in the FAA' book, only the lower wing placement guide is provided on the sheet. This is not really a problem as the FAA was pretty slavish as to just where markings were placed on their planes. There are sufficient markings to do two planes if one chooses wisely. The decals are superbly printed by Decalprint in the Netherlands. A nice touch is that those yellow surround letters are printed separately to prevent registration issues.

The five possible options are:

Hellcat II JX 860 of 1839 Sq on  HMS Indomitable during 1945. This one is overall gloss sea blue.

Hellcat II JX 701 of 1844 Sq also on  HMS Indomitable in the Temperate Scheme.

Hellcat I JX 730, coded K7*F of 1840 Sq, aboard HMS Speaker in 1944. Temperate Scheme.

Hellcat II JX 688 of 896 Sq coded B8*H aboar HMS Emperor in 1945. Temperate Scheme.

The lone Corsair IV (apparently with clipped wing tips) of 1853 squadron, which was disbanded prior to reaching operational status. Gloss Sea Blue scheme.

For kits in this scale one only has to look as far as Hasegawa for the Hellcat and Trumpeter or Revell for the Corsair IV.

March 2008

Thanks to Kits at War for the review sample. Get yours direct.

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and quickly, please contact me or see other details in the Note to Contributors.