Afterburner Decals 1/48 F-4E/F-4G 3rd TFW Decal First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Afterburner Decals has released another 'super set' of decals, this time focused on the F-4E Phantom IIs and F-4G Wild Weasels from Clark AB in the Philippines This set provides a very nice cross-section of color schemes from the early Southeast Asia through the Europe One wrap-around camouflage schemes through the Hill One pattern worn until the Phantom's retirement from the USAF.

This decal set comes on one large sheet (plus a small sheet with walkway outlines) and provides markings for 16 aircraft:

• F-4E, 73-1199, 13th AF CC's aircraft, 1991
• F-4E, 73-1075, 3 TFW CC's aircraft, 1991
• F-4E, 71-1086, 3 TFW CC's aircraft, 1991
• F-4E, 71-1073, 3 TFW CC's aircraft, 1990
• F-4E, 72-1065, 3 TFS/3 TFW, 1991
• F-4E, 68-0513, 13th AF CC's aircraft, 1984
• F-4E, 71-1083, 3 TFW CC's aircraft, 1988
• F-4E, 68-0483, 3 TFW CC's aircraft, 1984
• F-4E, 68-0310, 90 TFS/3 TFW, 1984
• F-4E, 71-0237, 3 TFS/3 TFW, 1987
• F-4E, 68-0312, 3 TFW CC's aircraft, 1981
• F-4E, 69-0290, 90 TFS/3 TFW, Sqn CC's aircraft 1983
• F-4E, 69-7261, 3 TFS/3 TFW, 1978
• F-4G, 69-0249, 90 TFS/3 TFW, Sqn CC's aircraft, 1990
• F-4G, 69-0291, 90 TFS/3 TFW, 1990
• F-4G, 69-7551, 90 TFS/3 TFW, 1990

This decal set will greatly enhance the Hasegawa kit with decals for at least two kits. If you look at the nice printing from Cartograf, you don't have the nonsense of separate red bars for the US star and bar national markings as done by some other decal makers and all of the artwork is done as a single decal for your convenience rather than forcing you to stack decals atop one another as done by others. Nice work Afterburner Decals (as usual).

This is a nice set and will add some colorful sharkmouth options for your next Phantom project.

My sincere thanks to Afterburner Decals for this review sample!