RV Aircraft 72-018 MiG-15

There are times when one is looking for a nice decal sheet to complete a project, and so it was with me and a search for a MiG-15 sheet in 1/72. After some browsing, I located this particular sheet as meeting my desires. However, just about every place that advertised it was out of stock. Finally, I located a place and put in an order. It was one of these deals where you e-mail your request and are promised a quick reply that includes total cost. So one Thursday in the US, I contact a shop in Poland that had the sheet. No reply for many days until about a week later, I get a response from the shop stating that he had sold his only sheet that Saturday at a show. Now why he did not provide it to me is a real poser, but these things happen. Several more weeks pass and I get another e-mail stating that he had the sheet and giving me a price. I paid for it and in about 10 days, well after the kits for which it was intended had already been built, this sheet arrived.

I have bought RV decal sheets before and they generally have a ton of options. This one is no different. There are nineteen markings options on the sheet and while you cannot actually do them all, you can easily to a dozen or more. Perfect for the MiG-15 enthusiast. As mentioned, this sheet arrived too late for their intended kits (which were reviewed a few weeks back), but I still have some MiG-15s to be built so perhaps I'll get a few done before I kick off.

There are planes from the PRC, Taiwan, Cuba, Albania, Egypt, the USSR, the USA, East Germany Hungary, Poland and Algeria. There is even an all black warbird. In several cases there are multiple schemes for a nation. The decals themselves are very nicely printed and I was pleased with the results of the previous sheet of theirs I used so expect this one to be no different. One thing that I did notice is that the little design in the center of the East German option is not there. Perhaps this was not applied on their bare metal MiGs? Note also that the Egyptian wing bands have white in them. I don't think this was correct, but I'm willing to learn.

The only documentation that comes with the set is the cover sheet with profiles. To get the upper and lower views, you are directed to a web site. RV Aircraft are not the only people to do this sort of thing as it is becoming more and more common, the manufacturer assuming that everyone has Internet access and a printer. However, the web site listed on the sheet no longer exists, which leads me to think that maybe the manufacturer is no longer in business. Fortunately, the placement of wing insignia (for those planes that use them) is pretty straight forward and one can make a good guess on the camouflaged Hungarian plane.

While there is no indication as to what kit this sheet fits, I would hazard that except perhaps for the ones with rudder stripes, it should not make much difference.

April 2015

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