F-16CG / CJ
Numbered Air Forces Pt.1

1/48 scale

Afterburner Decals

Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

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Afterburner Decals has set themselves a very high standard with their initial releases and I am happy to advise that the three new sheets that have just been released show that they have maintained that standard. 

This sheet provides markings for three F-16s flown by the commanders of “numbered Air Forces” i.e., those of the 5^th, 9^th and 12^th Air Forces. 

All of the aircraft on the sheet are all in the standard F-16 Tactical Paint Scheme (TPS) of overall Federal Standard (FS) 36270, with FS36118 upper surfaces. 

The individual machines are: 

• F-16CJ (Block 50 CCIP) 92-3895 of the 5^th Air Force, assigned to its Commander, Lieutenant General Bruce “Orville” Wright based at Yakota Air Base in Japan.  Particularly drab for a command jet, its only concession to colour is the red and yellow stripes to the top of the fin (which you will have to paint yourself whilst the other two options have decals provided for the fin markings).

• F-16CJ (Block 50 CCIP) 94-0049 of the 9^th Air Force, assigned to Lieutenant General Gary North based at Shaw Air Force Base in South Carolina, U.S.A.   Whilst drab courtesy of its TPS finish, this option sports a fair amount of colour courtesy of the squadron colours within the fin band and the full colour squadron and command badges on either sides of the intake and fin.  The fin band marking is a work of art too.  They are three- piece decals with an option of replacing one of the tiny squadron markings with an Archer Fine Transfers printed one.  Care and patience will be required here!

• F-16CG (Block 40) 88-0436, of the 12^th Air force, assigned to Lieutenant General Norm Seip based at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, U.S.A.  Another reasonably colourful (by F-16 standards at least!) its colour is confined to the fin band and individual squadron and command insignia.  This jet also has Archer Fine Transfers decals printed for it.  These are the Air Combat Command shields for the fin and the individual squadron badges for the sides of the intake.

The decals themselves really are superb.  The printing is first rate and the decals are very thin, in perfect register and there is an absolute minimum of carrier film surrounding each design.  The Archer Fine Transfers ones may look a little pixallated in the accompanying images as I had to enlarge them for the review but are perfectly normal on the sheet.  There are three sheets provided, one normal sized one and three smaller ones produced by Archer Fine Transfers.  

Click the thumbnails below to view images full-sized:

The support material Afterburner Decals supply really is first rate and this sheet is no exception.  You get three A-4 sized sheets printed on glossy paper.  The first forms the “cover” for the sheet and shows three small right hand side profiles for each option on the “front” and a generic plan view and left hand side profile on the “rear” with colour keys matched to FS shades. The rear of the sheet shows large left and right side profiles for the 5^th and 9^th Air Force options.   

The second sheet shows large left and right hand side profiles for the 12^th Air Force option on the front as well as detailed instructions and illustrations to assist with the placement of the fin band decals for the 9^th Air Force option as well as a close-up drawing to assist with the painting of the 5^th Air Force tail band including FS matches (an Testors Model Masters paint matches) to the red and yellow paint.  The rear of the sheet contains information as to what a numbered Air Force consist of, individual notes for each of the 5^th, 9^th and 12^th Air Forces and their constituent units, notes on F-16 block numbers with explanations on what SEAD, HARM and CCIP mean and finally, modelling notes for 1/48 scale F-16s including the new Tamiya kits. 

The final sheet is a single-sided affair and contains large plan and profile views to assist with the placement of stencil data. 

The decals and support sheets come packed in a clear plastic zip-loc bag. 

Make no mistake; this is a very nice and complete package from Afterburner Decals.  It provides beautifully printed decals with complete comprehensive and well researched supporting information. 

Recommended.

Thanks to Afterburner Decals for the review sample.

Footnote & Reference Images

A note on weathering of 5^th Air Force F-16s.  There were several of the 5^th’s jets at Avalon 07 and I was fortunate enough to get a close look at all of them.  

What was remarkable was how pristine they looked.  I have included a couple of pics with this review to illustrate this point.

Click the thumbnails below to view images full-sized:

Review Copyright © 2007 by Rodger Kelly
This Page Created on 01 August, 2007
Last updated 24 December, 2007

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