Victory Productions 1/48
RA-5C Vigilantes

Victory Productions has released another interesting decal collection just in time for the Trumpeter 1/48 RA-5C Vigilante kit!. This set covers nine aircraft, one of which had the distinction of discovering the Hanoi Hilton during one of its recon flights over North Vietnam. Two sheets of decals are included, one of which is 9" x 12". The first sheet contains the unique aircraft markings, while the second sheet has the national markings and maintenance stencils.

One note here, the Trumpeter kit represents a late model RA-5C Vigilante powered by the J79-GE-10 and had the straight intake sides. These decals have markings for the earlier pre-dash-10 J79s with the rounded intake sides as well as the late model versions. If you're going to model the earlier RA-5C, you can use the decals with the red warning markings for the intakes as templates to reshape the profile with strip styrene. This will save you some time and frustration backdating the aircraft.

The nine aircraft provided in this set include:

• RA-5C, 151615, RVAH-1, AG/601, USS Independence, 1965
• RA-5C, 149297, RVAH-6, NE/701, USS Ranger, 1968
• RA-5C, 149313, RVAH-6, -/702, USS Constellation, 1966
• RA-5C, 150831, RVAH-7, NH/603, USS Kitty Hawk, 1972
• RA-5C, 156621, RVAH-9, AJ/602, USS Nimitz, 1976/77
• RA-5C, 156614, RVAH-11, NG/604, USS Constellation, 1971/72
• RA-5C, 147858, RVAH-11, NH/602, USS Kitty Hawk, 1967
• RA-5C, 156640, RVAH-11, NK/605, USS Enterprise, 1975
• RA-5C, 151627, RVAH-13, NH/605, USS Kitty Hawk, 1967

This set will definitely make your Trumpeter kit stand out as you now have nine alternative schemes, including two camouflaged Vigilantes, to choose from. Definitely recommended!

Victory Productions Decals are available from Stevens International, Sentai Distributors, Skygrid, Hannants, Beaver Corporation (Japan), Airdoc (Germany), Snowy Mountain Models (Australia), and of course directly from Victory Productions (www.victorymodels.com).

My sincere thanks to Victory Productions for this review sample!