Wolfpak Decals provides a nice mixture of new and old with this sheet, providing markings for five aircraft.

The first offering is an F-18E from VFA-143. This is the CAG bird with a light blue tail and was flying aboard the USS Eisenhower during September 2014. It wears mission markings on both sides of the nose.

From January 2006 is an A-10A from the 47 FS. This unit has a nice hog nose design that modelers enjoy. As occurred just prior to Desert Storm, where the A-10 did such outstanding work, there is a move afoot to retire the plane as soon as possible, citing high maintenance costs. Perhaps, but the cost of maintaining an A-10 has to be less than that of buying and operating an F-35A, its replacement.

As the EA-18G gets into fleet service, replacing the EA-6B, we get more and more markings opportunities. Such is the case with another CAG bird, this one from VAQ-137 from May 2014.

This one was news to me. Apparently the 194 FS, California ANG, has retired its F-16s and has received F-15Cs from the Montana ANG, which has left its decades long air intercept mission to fly C-130s. Perhaps these are now air intercept C-130 as it does pretty well leave our northern borders unprotected by air defense. This particular plane is one that I saw with the 57 FIS at Keflavik in the late 1980s.

Finally a nice RB-57A from the 7407th Support Squadron based at Rhein-Main in 1956. This glossy black Canberra is one of the planes with the early style canopy so you can use a standard Airfix kit on this one. The sheet includes the red wing walk areas, which is a nice touch.

The instruction sheet for this set is the best in the business when it comes to background information and what may be needed to accurately depict the aircraft being modeled. In addition to the actual placement profiles, there are several additional pages of information that include a history of the type,  kits and update bits for these schemes,  as well as load-out information, and any changes needed to properly model the aircraft in question, assuring you of the most accurate model you can have. A listing of kits and conversion sets is also included. A visit to their web site will get you much larger images of the markings options. As with the previous sheets, these are superbly printed by Fantasy Printshop and without any registration problems. If you have not yet treated yourself to some of the best researched decals around, you should.

Thanks to WolfPak Decals for the review sample.

July 2015

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