The Sunderland is one of my favorite flying boats. There is something about the Flying Porcupine that just makes me go cool. I even got a chance to see one at Fantasy of Flight during the Nationals even though it had been converted to a passenger version.

This new sheet by Aviaeology covers markings for 3 of the Mk.III versions as operated by the RCAF in Coastal Command. All 3 aircraft scored U-boat kills. They all wear similar schemes of white fuselage sides and undersides and either Dark Slate Grey and Extra Dark Sea Grey upper camos or the later version with just Extra Dark Sea Grey. The instruction sheet is in black and white and gives profiles and upper views of all 3 aircraft.

The decals consist off fuselage codes and serials for all 3 aircraft but only 1 set of national markings. Also included are 40 white rings which had me stumped until I read the instructions. These have been provided as a quick fix for the overly large windows in the Airfix kit. A novel idea that beats trying to paint the windows smaller or going through the trouble of actually fixing the size.

Back to the instruction sheet which gives historical information regarding the research done for each plane including notes that apply to other aircraft from the same squadron and timeframe when no photographs were found regarding that version. This is more detail then you find in the average decal sheet. But that isn’t all. Also included is information regarding the bomb racks and depth charges carried by late war Sunderlands and includes scale drawings of these in 1/24th scale with information on how to reduce them to 48th and 72nd scale.

Finally is a page regarding surface preparation and application for their markings.

All in all this would be more than enough for the price but there is still more. There is a tiny separate note in the package advising you to email the company and they will send a full color PDF version of the instructions. So, I did, and got a very fast response from Allison, wife of Terry who is the researcher / illustrator / designer for Aviaeology, advising me the PDF would come in a separate email which it did very promptly. I think this is a great idea to help lower the price of a decal sheet. You get all the information with the decals you need to make the kit but if you have access to a computer and a color printer you can have them in full color also. I would love to see more decal companies adopt this policy.

So, with the extra data, optional color and great customer service I can heartily recommend Aviaeology.

Now, just got to decide whether I will build my Airfix kit out of the box or invest in a few of those aftermarket goodies and do her up right. At least I do know she will be Canadian.