Caracal Models has come out with another excellent decal sheet for the T-38 Talon in 1/48 scale. After decades of no 1/48 T-38 at all, Sword did a short run version several years back which quickly sold out. Recently Wolfpack brought out a kit and it is for that kit that this sheet was designed. However, just recently Trumpeter has released a kit at half the cost of the Wolfpack kit and it is a mainstream kit. I'm sure these markings will fit that one just as well as the one for which it was designed.

This sheet provided nine markings options in three color schemes.

The first set of color schemes is the short-lived Insignia Blue and White with Red lettering scheme. This scheme was also put on the T-37, though the red lettering was since changed to white. There are three aircraft in this scheme.

These planes are a WF tail code version from the 80th FTW at Seppard AFB in 1987. Next is the boss bird from the 12th FTW at Randoph AFB with a RA tail code in 1987. The third is a WL coded plane from that 82nd FTW at Williams AFB also in 1987.

The next batch are all the standard white scheme carried by T-38s for much of their flying career. The first option is the 'City of Del Rio' from the 47th FTW at Laughlin AFB in Texas with a yellow fin stripe during 1981. Next is a 12th FTW plane from Randoph AFB in 1984 with the number 3 and a blue band with white starts on the fin. The third white option is from the 52nd FTS at Reese AFB in 1990 with the Texas flag on the fin stripe and the letter G on the rudder. This one is the boss bird for the unit.

Finally, we have three aggressor schemes. First is another 12th FTW plane from 1984 in a French Blue and white scheme. Next is an AT-38B verom the 64th FWS at Nellis AFB in 1976. THis is in the 'grape' scheme that was used on Holloman AFB AT-38s as well. The last scheme is a desert scheme, also with the 64th FWS at Nellis in 1975.

The decal sheet itself is superbly done by Cartograf and the sheet comes with a full color placement and markings guide that also shows the upper and lower surface of the aggressor schemes. Usually in a case like this, I am able to pull up some slides from my personal collection to show you how the real plane looked. While I do have a bit over half of the planes on this sheet out of my collection of several hundred T-38s, all but one are in different schemes or with different units. So I am left with just the one to show you, photographed in July of 1986. I have really lightened this one as often the Insignia Blue appears to be Black in most photographs. You will notice that in this case, the travel pod is in white as is the pylon.

This is a great sheet for T-38 fans and now that we have two kits on the market that can use it, I anticipate a lot of folks snapping this one up.