The Douglas F4D-1 Skyray was not one of the Navy's more successful designs. It did have the quality of being able to climb better than just about any other aircraft at the time and was quite maneuverable, however it wasn't particularly fast and was really unable to carry much of a payload. The follow-on redesign, the F5D Skylancer, was able to overcome all those problems, but was beaten out by the F-8 Crusader.

Despite that, the F4D was one of the neatest looking aircraft ever to fly. Until recently, it was poorly represented in the kit department. In 1/72 you had Airfix and in 1/48, Lindberg and Microscale as well as a few vacs. This all changed a few years back when Tamiya produced a kit of the Skyray in both 1/72 and 1/48.

This sheet is one of the older ones by Microscale and was designed for the Lindberg kit as well as their own very simple stand model. Though a couple of the schemes are offered in the Tamiya kit, the others should fit without too much trouble.

Here is what is on the sheet, starting from the top. All are in gloss gull grey over white except for the third aircraft. All common markings have to come from the kit.

First off, there is VE/10 from VMF-115 that offers red, white and blue tail stripes.

EK/10 from VMF-114, another Marine unit, provides a nice rudder band with the four card suites on it.

The third one is a very nice drone controller from NATC. This one has a dark grey fuselage with a black spine and Day-Glo tail along with yellow wings, those wings having Day-Glo stripes on them. The sheet provides the NATC markings and serials.

Fourth is from VF-213, NP/310. The large tail band is in black and white.

Finally, there is AF/110 from VF-74. This aircraft offers a red lightning bolt aft of the cockpit and a red rudder with white stars.

Review copy courtesy of me and my wallet! 

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