Notes: All aircraft are overall natural metal, and the sheet does not contain national insignia.

The first of our three subjects covers an aircraft of the 78th TFS of the 81st TFW.  The Bushmasters flew out of RAF Bentwaters, England beginning in 1951.  The unit was a special weapons unit (i.e. nukes), which caused them to use the mushroom cloud insignia on the left side of the aircraft.  The unit was disbanded in mid-2003 at Shaw AFB having flown F-16Cs, A-10As, F-4Cs, and F-101s.

The Thunderbirds flew the F-84F from February of 1955 to June of 1956 after replacing the F-84G.  It was the first Thunderbird aircraft to use smoke systems, but gave way relatively quickly to the more powerful F-100 Super Sabre, making the team the first supersonic demo team in the world.

The Indiana ANG 122nd FW currently flies F-16C/Ds from Fort Wayne, Indiana, but among its predecessors was the 122nd Fighter Bomber Group and its F-84Fs.  Their Thunderstreaks arrived in January 1958, and lasted until 1971 before being replaced by F-100s, and then by F-4C Phantom IIs and by F-4E Phantom IIs.  This aircraft has a little color to go with its natural metal base, mostly consisting of red tips for its wings and stabilizer, as well as the unusual red, white and black Indiana ANG markings along the nose. (Superscale has the Indiana ANG units mixed up as this is the 113 TFS /181 TFG guys from Terra Haute and not the 163 TFS/122 TFG at Fort Wayne unless both of them have the same unit badge! Ed)

Here are the three schemes on Italeri kits as done many years ago by your editor.

http://www.78th-bushmasters.org/index.html

http://www.airforce.com/thunderbirds/2003history.htm

http://www.goang.com/officesite.aspx?office_id=27