Sheet:

Aeromaster 48-531 for F-14A Tomcat

Units: VF-21 & VF-154

Price

$7.00

Reviewer:

Scott Van Aken

Here is a fine F-14 decal sheet. Both aircraft are from the USS Independence, circa January 1991. They are also both CAG birds so have the then-popular black tails with the full CAG colors in them. A nice change from the usually boring TPS grey scheme of most Naval aircraft. These planes were both painted overall FS 16440, gloss light gull grey. This also adds to the clean look of the planes and makes them MUCH easier to paint. If you can believe the drawings, they are also both equipped with the TV pod under the nose. These items were very much in short supply, so often if a pilot wanted or needed one for a flight, they'd have to be robbed from another plane that was down for maintenance.

The first plane from this sheet is from VF-21. In addition to the black tails, it had a black area around the cockpit. This is provided as decals should you wish to use them. Personally, I'd try to paint the black as I doubt the decals, especially the back one, will fit well.  When the Independence went to Japan, the air group stayed the same in terms of squadrons, but changed to CAG 5 and got NF tail codes. VF-21 has since been disestablished.

VF-154 was one of the last squadrons to switch from the F-4 to the F-14. This CAG bird is a bit less colorful than the VF-21 version as it has no black around the canopy. Unlike its sister squadron, VF-154 is still with CAG 5 in Japan, and if history holds true, (as it did for the CAG 5 F-4 squadrons) will probably be the last F-14 squadron in the active Navy.

Please note that the sheet may look a bit short as I'll often crop off common markings to save on server space.

Review sheet courtesy of my decal collection.

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