1:48 Vought SB2U-2 Vindicator (V-156 Chesapeake)

The export face of Vought's first carrier monoplane

The Vought SB2U was the first dive bomber with a monoplane wing to reach the decks of American aircraft carriers. A more interesting fate, though, met its export form. French naval aviation ordered machines under the company designation V-156-F and in May 1940 attacked the crossings of the Meuse with them, where it suffered crushing losses. The British took over a further batch as the Chesapeake and soon found that for small escort carriers the aircraft was too heavy, given its takeoff run.

Three markings, two air arms

The sheet covers a pair of French machines of escadrille AB1 with the fuselage numbers seven and thirteen of the turn of 1939 and 1940, as they looked at the Alprech base. The third variant belongs to the British V-156-B1 Chesapeake with the serial marking AL924, which served with No. 811 Squadron at Lee-on-Solent in 1941. The camouflages offered therefore cover both the European air arms that used the type.

The small thing the result stands on

The French camouflage has hard transitions and its sharp edges easily give away the edge of the film once it is applied. It therefore pays to work one motif at a time, to draw off the excess water with the corner of a paper napkin and to let each piece dry thoroughly before moving on to the next.

This is a separate sheet in 1:48, and neither plastic parts nor paints belong with it.

Why this type of all of them

The Vindicator tends to be rare in display cases, and in an export coat far rarer still. Anyone building the equipment of 1940 gets with this sheet an aircraft that stands apart from the British as well as the German production of the day and is at the same time tied to well documented operations of both users.