Rock River Rhinos
USS Midway F-4S Phantoms

Afterburner Decals, 1/48 scale

Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

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It seems that of late, Afterburner Decals are making the odd trip back in time and producing decals for aircraft that are no longer in frontline service.  I for one am happy with this especially when the decals are for United States Navy Phantoms!

This sheet provides markings for the twilight operational years of the F-4 in the U.S. Navy, in this case the F-4Ss of VF-161 Chargers from the mid to late ‘80s when they were a part of Carrier Air Wing Five and called the USS Midway/ NAF Atsugi home.

The colour schemes featured on the sheet reflect the period between the outgoing schemes of gull grey over white with high visibility markings to that of the current tactical paint scheme with low visibility markings.

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Thumbnail panels:

Markings are provided for five machines in all:

• Bureau number 153881, Modex 101, the Commanding Officer’s aircraft from 1986.  Finish is overall FS16440 gloss gull grey with the entire upper surface of the fuselage and the entire vertical stabilizer in gloss black.  The aircraft also wears the Charger’s large and distinctive lightning bolt squadron marking on the vertical stabilizer in full colour.  The problem of covering the antenna on the top rear of the vertical stabiliser is taken care of by the providing the lightning bolt with a “cut out” so you can position the marking on the vertical stabiliser and then apply a separate “block” of coloured decal over the antenna once the larger decal has set – this is the same for all options that require it.  The use of colour also extends to the national insignia and stencil/warning data.  Other markings include the air wing identifier (NF) and squadron titles in white.  A nice touch is that Afterburner has supplied the black for the air conditioner intakes on the nose as a decal – these can be a real bear to mask off evenly!

• Bureau number 153840, Modex 102, the Executive Officer’s aircraft from 1982.  This option is in overall FS16440 gloss gull grey with FS36118 gunship grey over the topsides of the radome, canopies and the entire vertical stabilizer.  It wears the high visibility lightning bolt on the vertical stabiliser but all of her other markings are gunship grey on the gull grey areas and gull grey on the gunship grey areas.  National insignia is of the “larger size” worn by the F-4.

• Bureau number 155746, Modex 105, a line jet from 1983.   In overall FS 16440 gloss gull grey with FS36118 gunship grey vertical stabilizer, radome and canopy rails.  Again, her markings are all low visibility with gull grey on gunship grey and gunship grey on gull grey.  She wears the lightning bolt but in gull grey only and the National insignia is of the “larger size” worn by the F-4.

• Bureau number 155570, Modex 111, another line jet from 1986.  Camouflage scheme is FS36375 light ghost grey undersides with FS36320 dark ghost grey on the fuselage sides and upper surfaces of the horizontal stabilizers with FS35237 greyish blue on the upper surfaces of the fuselage and wings.  The colouring of the actual markings is a mixture of all three camouflage colours as appropriate – i.e. a lighter colour over a darker colour and vice-versa as well as black for the ship’s titles and modex.  A hint of colour creeps in with a red outline-only Chargers’ lightning bolt squadron insignia on the vertical stabiliser.  The national insignia as well as all of the other markings have shrunk considerably in size.

• The final option is Bureau number 155840, Modex 113, another line jet from 1981.  Camouflage scheme is as the previous option with the exception of a solid FS36118 gunship grey lightning bolt on the vertical stabilizer as well as the canopy rails (with crew names).  Markings and modex are in FS36118 gunship grey and are of the same smaller size as the previous option.

The placement guides are the standard excellent fare that Afterburner Decals present with all of their sheets.  Three sheets just shy of A-4 in size are provided that show full colour left hand side profiles of each option as well as appropriate upper and lower plan views with the first option having its own sheet that shows left and right hand side profiles as well as upper and lower surface plan views.  The final sheet shows large left and right hand side profiles as well as upper and lower surface line drawings to show the placement of stencil data.

You get two sheets of decals, a large one just shy of A-4 in size and a smaller one that carries the smaller items of stencil data and three pair of intake warnings in different colours.  The decals themselves are printed by Cartograf.  Everything is sharp, clear and in perfect register. Stencil data is plentiful too with (as far as I can make out) two sets being provided including slime lights, spine and wing walkways.

The placement guides and the two decal sheets come packed in a clear plastic zip-loc bag.

The placement guide advises that the decals are sized to fit the Hasegawa kit.

In summary, a great decal sheet from Afterburner Decals.  It provides you with markings that trace the evolution of VF-161’s F-4s markings all on the one sheet.

Footnote

This sheet has been a while in coming.  Afterburner Decals website alerted F-4 fans to the fact that they were working on a series of F-4 decals a long time back, they even included images of what they were working on.  Amongst the images was artwork for the Chargers sister squadron VF-151 Vigilantes.  Hopefully, they will issue a further sheet covering the Vigilantes too!

Thanks to Afterburner Decals for the sample

Review Copyright © 2009 by Rodger Kelly
This Page Created on 19 January, 2009
Last updated 6 March, 2009

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