In the late 1980s and early 1990's there was a break in the gloom of Naval aircraft camouflage. It came in the form of some color. Tired of years of very dull aircraft, many units had taken to adding something a bit different to their CAG aircraft.

For those of you unfamiliar with the concept of a CAG aircraft, here it is. CAG stands for Carrier Air Group. The CAG is also the air group commander. Each squadron generally allocates two aircraft to receive special treatment. One is assigned to the CAG and it contains the colors of all the squadrons on the ship. As an aside, each squadron is given a color and this is pretty well standardized.

Red is the first squadron and its planes have nose numbers in the 100 range, Yellow is 200, Light Blue is 300, Orange is 400, Green is 500, Black is 600, Dark Blue is 700, Maroon is 800 and 900. Therefore, the CAG bird would have in its special colors, all the different shades used by the squadrons on the ship. Naturally, not all CAGs had nine different units aboard and some of the CAG aircraft only had the first 4 or 5 or 6 colors incorporated. 

All the CAG birds were also called 'double nuts' as the nose number ended in 00. The Squadron commander's plane was also similarly painted, but only used the squadron color. His aircraft nose number ended in 01.

During and after Desert Storm, it was decided that having a black tail on the CAG and Squadron CO's bird did not compromise the camouflage too much and so began a decade of black tailed CAG birds.

This particular sheet is for one of those birds; from VF-32, the Swordsmen.

The sheet is for the Tamiya 1/32 F-14A, though it could also be used for the Revell kit as well. In keeping the the idea of a bit of color, these planes were painted overall gloss gull grey FS 16440 rather than the more difficult to keep clean Tactical Paint Scheme.  The sheet provides all the unit and some stencil markings. Insignia will have to be gleaned from another source. 

It is a fine sheet and one that will make your 1/32 F-14 just a bit different from the others.

Review copy courtesy of me and my wallet! 

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