Twobobs 1/48 A-10A Philadelphia Freedom

Here is a new release from TwoBobs Decals which provides another eye-catching subject. This time, they've tackled the Hawgs of the 103 FS, Pennsylvania Air National Guard. If you look at the profiles, you might think that you're getting the anniversary scheme and line aircraft, which you are, but TwoBobs provides markings for sevenaircraft of the 103rd. These include:

• A-10A, 82-0659, 103 FS/111 FW/PA ANG
• A-10A, 79-0170, 103 FS/111 FW/PA ANG
• A-10A, 78-0692, 103 FS/111 FW/PA ANG
• A-10A, 79-0193, 103 FS/111 FW/PA ANG
• A-10A, 80-0184, 103 FS/111 FW/PA ANG
• A-10A, 80-0214, 103 FS/111 FW/PA ANG
• A-10A, 82-0647, 103 FS/111 FW/PA ANG

These markings were will work on any of the 1/48 A-10 kits on the market, but you'll want to take note of the detail notes in the instructions. All of the aircraft in this set are LASTE configured. The Italeri and HobbyBoss kits have LASTE. Most of the aircraft depicted have the EGI mods (which includes the GPS dome aft of the cockpit), and the only kit on the market so equipped (so far) is the HobbyBoss kit. There are a few aftermarket sets to bring the other kits up to LASTE and/or LASTE/EGI available.

Also note that this set will require you to stack multiple layers of decals to create one marking in some cases. This is the ongoing registration problem that Microscale seems to pose and where some decal manufacturers like TwoBobs eliminates the issue by having the modeler do that work instead. Most of the multilayer decals only require two layers, but the Outstanding Unit Award w/Clusters will require four layers. That will leave a nice bump in your paint job.

The door and nose art are nicely done and are only single layer decals.

Aside from the multi-layer decal approach, this set is recommended!

For more information about this set and the other releases from Twobobs Aviation Graphics, visit their website at http://www.twobobs.net.