Furball Aero-Design/Detail & Scale 1/48 Colors and Markings of US Navy Tomcats Part One Decal First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Furball Aero-Design continues its collaboration with Detail & Scale and this release is a reissue that covers the Grumman F-14 Tomcat from VF-32 and VF-41, including the four aircraft intercepted by Libyan fighters in two difference incidents with the same outcomes: Tomcat: 4, Libya: 0. This set provides markings for eleven distinctive examples, this time sized for the excellent Tamiya kit.

The eleven subjects in this set include:

• F-14A, 159016, VF-32, AE/201, USS Independence, 1983, Skipper's aircraft
• F-14A, 159462, VF-32, AE/205, USS Independence, 1983
• F-14A, 159610, VF-32, AC/207, USS John F Kennedy, 1989, MiG-23 Killer
• F-14A, 159473, VF-32, AC/202, USS John F Kennedy, 1989, MiG-23 Killer
• F-14A, 162701, VF-32, AC/200, USS John F Kennedy, 1990, CAG
• F-14A, 160403, VF-41, AJ/102, USS Nimitz, 1981, Su-22 killer
• F-14A, 160403, VF-41, AJ/101, USS Nimitz, 1982, Su-22 killer (one year later)
• F-14A, 160390, VF-41, AJ/107, USS Nimitz, 1981, Su-22 killer
• F-14A, 160390, VF-41, AJ/107, USS Nimitz, 1982, Su-22 killer (one year later)
• F-14A, 160395, VF-41, AJ/100, USS Nimitz, 1982, CAG aircraft
• F-14A, 162703, VF-41, AJ/100, USS Theodore Roosevelt, 1993, CAG aircraft

In addition to the extensive marking options in this set, there are sufficient airframe stencils for at least three kits. The sheets are printed by Cartograf and the printing is very well done. What's more, none of these decals require the modeler to stack multiple layers of markings atop one another to recreate artwork. This trend by some other decal companies of producing multiple-layer decals is unfortunate as it puts the burden on you to do the work of what should have been done by the decal maker.

My sincere thanks to Furball Aero-Design for this review sample!