Afterburner Decals 1/48
Numbered Air Forces Part 1

Afterburner Decals has turned out some impressive decal releases covering contemporary USAF subjects and this one is no exception. This release covers the mounts of three numbered Air Force commanders.

The aircraft presented in this set are:

• F-16C-50P-CF, CCIP, 92-3895, WW, 5th Air Force Commander's aircraft, as flown by Lt Gen 'Orville' Wright, 2007
• F-16C-50-CF, CCIP, 94-0049, SW, 9th Air Force Commander's aircraft, as flown by Lt Gen Gary North, 2007
• F-16C, 88-00436, HL, 12th Air Force Commander's aircraft, as flown by Lt Gen Norm Seip, 2007

The 9th AF CC's aircraft has a rather colorful tail band representing the units under his command. Thats a lot of color in a small area, but Afterburner Decals pulls this off with a three-layer decal. I am normally not a big fan of decals with more than one or two layers, but given the complexity of the art, this is a nice bit of work!

As you can see in the decal layout, this set provides a nice array of maintenance stencils in addition to the national markings and distinctive unit markings. In fact, Afterburner Decals provide sufficient stencils and markings for two complete aircraft.

According to the instructions, this set was sized for the Tamiya 1/48 F-16C kit as this is the only CCIP aircraft available in this scale straight out of the box. You will need the F-16CG kit from Hasegawa for the 12th AF CC's aircraft, and you can use the Shull24.com CCIP update set should you rather render the Block 50s using the Hasegawa kit instead.

Definitely recommended!

For more information about this set and the other releases from Afterburner Decals, visit their website at http://www.afterburnerdecals.com.

My sincere thanks to Afterburner Decals for this review sample!