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Thunder Over Pax River
US Naval Test Pilot School Part 1

Air-Graphic Models, 1/72 scale

S u m m a r y :

Catalogue Number:

Air-Graphic Models Item No. AIR72-016: Thunder Over Pax River - US Naval Test Pilot School Part 1

Scale:

1/72

Contents and Media:

1 x A5 decal sheet; A5 booklet of 8 pages; loose leaf model paint reference chart.

Price:

GBP£17.50 incl. shipping from Air-Graphics' website

GBP£19.99 EU Price (£16.66 Export Price) plus shipping available online from Hannants' website

Review Type:

First Look

Advantages:

Great instructions, beautifully produced sheet and a colourful bunch of subjects. Useful paint cross reference card.

Disadvantages:

Some of the photos are a bit small to be really useful.

Conclusion:

Certainly a great sheet for the modeller interested in these colourful schemes, well produced and backed up with great instructions.


Reviewed by Graham Carter

F i r s t L o o k

 

Test and trials aircraft have always held a certain attraction amongst modellers. Witness some of the larger companies like Revell and Hasegawa and more recently Sword, who have all produced some weird and wonderful planes.

Their appearance and schemes are usually eye-catching and add a colourful selection to a collection.

This sheet, like the one recently reviewed on British Military Test Aircraft, allows modellers to put some interesting schemes on more familiar US Naval aircraft.

 


 
The single decal sheet is beautifully printed in gloss finish with perfect register, great colour density and very little carrier film. Best of all, in my humble opinion, they are on blue paper so that the white bits its don’t disappear against the background and so test my ageing eyesight! Thanks Air Graphics!

 

 

The instructions are in a full-colour eight-page A5 booklet with four views of each subject and a few colour images, although I must say some of these are a wee bit small (but I think that producing these to a greater size would make the instructions too expensive). Each scheme has clear colour and decal placement drawings and notes and indicate which decals are to come from the donor kit. Again a list of suitable kits is mentioned.

 

 

The aircraft covered are:

  • Northrop T-38C Talon 158198/10 of USNTPS Patuxent Naval Air Station, 2018 in overall white with red stripes on fuselage and wings, for the Sword, Hasegawa or Pioneer/PM kits,

  • F/A-18F Super Hornet 16554-1/00, ditto, 2014 in Dark Ghost Gray over Light Ghost Gray with red fuselage stripe for the Academy or Hasegawa kits,

  • Eurocopter H-72A Lakota, 166247/72 ditto in 2016 in same scheme as the Talon above for the Heller or Revell kits,

  • DHC-2/U-6A Beaver 151091/34, ditto 2016 again in the same scheme as the Talon with black undercarriage, for the AIrfix or Hobbycraft kits, and

  • DHC-3/NU-1B Otter ditto in 2017 in the same scheme, for the Hobbycraft kit , although that is not mentioned on the sheet.

All-in-all an interesting set of schemes and aircraft that will appeal to the naval aircraft modeller looking for something a bit different an colourful.

 

 

The sheet also mentions a few accessories made by Air-Graphics that will enhance these models.

 

 

Included is a very useful colour cross reference card that lists all the colours used on these aircraft and the model paint company numbers for each. Manufacturers covered are Humbrol, Xtracolour, Hataka, Modelmaster, Gunze Sangyo, Tamiya and Lifecolor. Hataka and Xtracolour produce all of them, with only Humbrol coming close.

 

 

C o n c l u s i o n

 

I would recommend this sheet to the modeller who wishes to add these types of aircraft to his or her collection.

Thanks to Air-Graphic Models for the sample.

Text Copyright © 2021 by Graham Carter
Images Copyright © 2021 by Brett Green
This Page Created on 3 November, 2021
Last updated 4 November, 2021

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