Canadair CL-13 Mk IV /
F-86 E(M)

in AMI Service - Part II

Stormo Decals, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Graham Carter

This Canadian decal company specialises in aircraft of the Italian Air Force from war time until the present. This latest sheet was sent directly to me and is designed to suit the newish Airfix kit of the Sabre.

According to the spiel on Part 1 in this series, and I quote verbatim:

“ Italy operated 179 Canadair CL-13 Mk.IV/F-86Es from 1956 to 1976 which were then repainted from their ex-RAF Gray (sic)/Green livery to all aluminium. The CL-13 in Italian service corresponded to the F86 E-6 with an E 10 cockpit built by Canadair which the RAF referred to as the Mk 2 and then modified as the Mk 4 with a retrofit 6-3 wing.”

I am certainly not knowledgeable enough to counter any of this and that the five aircraft on this sheet are in the earlier scheme before they were stripped to be bare aluminium.

They are beautifully printed with great colour density and featuring a bare whiff of clear trim to worry about. The background sheet is a pale blue which really helps identify the edges of each subject - I do not like decals printed on white sheets as my ageing eyes fail to pick some subjects out. Thank you Stormo!

The clear and well-written instructions fill both sides of an A4 sheet and each subject is illustrated with a colour port profile and some have starboard views as well. A separate sheet has a set of generic top and underside views to show the location of all decals and stencils and is very clearly marked. There is also an additional sheet giving the background to the system of application and some hints re the proprietary decal materials to use, although I do object to the use of ‘allot’ rather than ‘a lot’ (but that is probably just me).

There are sufficient sets of wing-walks , stencils and roundels to build three complete aircraft. Unlike set 1, there are no cockpit placards.

The five examples covered in the decals area as follows:

The first three are in Dark Green and Dark Sea Grey (not Gray!) over PRU blue - all of them RAF colours hence the Grey and not Gray, please! :

1. 19848, 2-58 of 2a Aerobrigata, at Novara-Cameri AFB in 1958 with a white nose,

2. 19502, 4-65, of 4a Aerobrigata at Pratica di Mare AFB in 1957 and

3. 19666, 4-85 also of 4a Aerobrigata at Pratica di Mare AFB in 1957.

Then there is 

1. 19596 4-12 of the aerobatic team Pattuglia Acrobatica “Cavallino Rampante” of $a Aerobrigata at Grosseto AFB in 1957 in a spectacular Ivory cream uppers with blue tail and wingtips and red nose, cockpit surrounds and fuselage stripe. The blue parts having white stars and tail badge of a rearing stallion. The wing undersurfaces are all blue with stars on the tips. Italian roundels occupy six positions. All in all a very tasty subject indeed! And then there is...

2. 19829 of Pattuglia Acrobatica “Lanceri Neri” of 2a Aerobrigata at Cameri in 1959 in an equally tasty scheme of gloss black upper surfaces with nice badge and “Lanceri Neri” script in white along the forward fuselage, and the under surfaces of all flying surfaces are decorated in the red/white green Italian stripes. Italian roundels occupy four positions on the uppers.

These last two schemes will certainly encourage me to invest in a couple of Airfix kits!!

If this is your interest area then I would recommend this sheet wholeheartedly as it is a quality product.

Thanks to Stormo Decals for the sample.

Text and Images Copyright © 2021 by Graham Carter
Page Created 21 November, 2022
Last updated 21 November, 2022

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