History

During the Second World War, Turkey was courted by the Allies, who sought to draw the country into their spheres of influence. One result of this diplomatic manoeuvring was the sale of current inventory front-line fighter aircraft to the Turkish Air Force, despite the pressing need for them at home. This decal covers P-40B and P-40E aircraft flown by the Turkish Air Force.

Turkish National Markings during the time these aircraft were in service consisted of red squares with a thick white border in the underwing position only, a red rudder with a white crescent and star centred vertically just above the midpoint, and a white or black tactical number on the rear fuselage. Most P-40s appear to have had the National marking applied to the upper wing surfaces as well.

First Impressions

These are very thorough decal sheets, which supply markings to do eight different aircraft: 5 B-40Es and 3 P-40Bs (plus one alternative camouflage interpretation of one of the -B models). They are broken down as follows:
P-40E White 710 6th Regiment, 2nd Battalion Gaziemir/Ĭzmir in US equivalent colours of Dark Green and Dark Earth over Neutral Grey with a black spinner;
P-40E AK 992 6th Regiment, 2nd Battalion Gaziemir/Ĭzmir in Dark Earth and Middle Stone over Azure with a black spinner. This aircraft does not carry any National markings on the wings;
P-40E AK 995 6th Regiment, 2nd Battalion Gaziemir/Ĭzmir in Dark Earth and Middle Stone over Azure with a black spinner. This aircraft does not carry any National markings on the wings;
P-40E AK 882 6th Regiment, 2nd Battalion Gaziemir/Ĭzmir in Dark Earth and Middle Stone over Azure with a black spinner. This aircraft does not carry any National markings on the wings;
P-40E AK 680 6th Regiment, 2nd Battalion Gaziemir/Ĭzmir in Dark Earth and Middle Stone over Azure with a black spinner. This aircraft does not carry any National markings on the wings;
P-40B white 17 3rd Regiment, XIVth Batallion Gaziemir/Ĭzmir in US equivalent colours of Dark Green and Dark Earth over Sky Blue with a white spinner
P-40B white 17 3rd Regiment, XIVth Batallion Gaziemir/Ĭzmir in an alternative interprtation of its camouflage scheme: Dark Earth and Middle Stone over Azure with a white spinner;
P-40B white 6 3rd Regiment, XIVth Batallion Gaziemir/Ĭzmir in Dark Green over Sky Blue with a white spinner;
P-40B white 3 3rd Regiment, XIVth Batallion Gaziemir/Ĭzmir in Dark Green over Sky Blue with a white spinner.

This decal was produced to fit any manufacturer's B-40Bs and Es in 1/72 and 1/48.

the decal sheet

The sheet is crammed with markings. All necessary markings and tactical numbers for all 8 aircraft have been squeezed onto the decal paper for the 1/72 sheet. 1/48 builders will need to find 4 more National markings (or mask and paint, a simple job given that they're squares) to do every option on the sheet. This will not trouble a builder wishing to do only one or even two models. All markings are in perfect register, with no blurring or smudging. The fine letters and numbers are crisply printed. The printing was done by Microscale, so we can depend on the decals to be thin and behave perfectly with Set and Sol.

instructions

The instructions follow an innovative new approach being used by small decal producers. They are not included with the decal sheet, but are offered for download from Tiger Head's website in PDF format at their download link: www.tigerheaddecals.com/download/48001_kilavuz.pdf.
The PDF Format allows TigerHead to save printing money for the critical job of getting the decals printed. The only downside to the idea is the small chance that Tigerhead's website could go offline. I recommend that you save a copy of the instructions to your own computer to guard against this small possibility.

Each subject is drawn in a 3 view drawing in full colour showing left side, top and bottom. I could wish for a right side view as well, even though it seems that the camouflage follows the standard RAF pattern for P-40s. The advantage of the PDF format is that you may enlarge it up to 6400%, making distinguishing small details a snap.

Colour swatches are printed on the bottom of each page with the names of each colour used in that particular scheme.




This decal was kindly provided for review by TigerHead Decals.

Please remember, when contacting retailers or manufacturers, to mention that you saw their products highlighted here - on AEROSCALE.