The Little World

The basic structure of the little ESCI kit for the SE5A was rewarding – things fit and lined up. But that did not make the 30-year old decals any better.

I tried, folks. I honestly tried. John France saw me trying and lent me some Micro Sol to try and get the things to lay down on the surfaces. But the age of the decals and their stiff composition meant that nothing was going to unbend them. The fact that they were printed out of register didn’t help either.

I tried some extra Airfix decals for the upper surface of the wings with just as little success. The wings were glossed, so if the decals had been willing to snuggle, there would have been little danger of silvering. But no amount of Micro Sol or Mr Mark Softer let even the Airfix down.

The search for alternatives was complicated by the fact that WW1 RAF roundels have surprisingly small red centres on big insignia. The RAF must have been worried about on-friend combat as they certainly splashed out with the colour. Even the French were more restrained.

The solution turned out to be some eastern European monstrosities that had been bypassed when I built a Wallace biplane. Same size, roughly the same shade of blue and in the end quite amenable to setting solution. I should never have imagined rescue from Russian decals.

No unit markings, as these would have been back to the ESCI sheet. So this is a generic, rather than a specific. Still good for $ 2.