Despite being a Korean War era aircraft, the A-1 Skyraider was still in USN fleet service as a medium attack aircraft when the Vietnam War intensified. Its ability to carry a large payload and its long loiter time made it perfect for this conflict where enemy air power in its usual areas of operation were minimal or non-existent.

This was not lost on the USAF who decided to not only deploy the type themselves, but to supply them to the growing VNAF. Since the USN had a surplus of airframes, it was not hard to get them. Those aircraft transferred to the VNAF were often overhauled and repainted prior to issue and so early planes were an overall ADC grey. Later, as the USAF started turning over more airframes, they were painted in the SEA scheme or a local one with green and brown upper surfaces. There were a variety of markings on these planes and the bright fuselage bands of the early  use of the planes has made them quite a favorite for modelers.

This sheet includes schemes for 1st, 514th, 516th, and 518th Fighter Squadrons.  The markings provided span from the early 1960s to 1970 and also include two Skyraiders that were retrofitted with the Yankee extraction system. There are 11 options for ten different aircraft.

There are sufficient markings to do at least two planes and perhaps even more. The set is designed for the Trumpeter kit, though should fit the Z-M version with little trouble. In fact, the fuselage bands are a bit long to allow it to fit this kit. Other than some of the early planes, these aircraft were not stencil intensive and some had none at all so few are included. You can glean others you may need from the kit decals. Decals are superbly printed by Cartograf and will definitely result in a superb model.

If you like your Skyraiders extra-large, then this set is for you.

January 2017

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Thanks to AOA Decals for the review sheet. You can find this sheet at this link, where you can also see profiles of each markings option.

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and fairly quickly, please contact the editor or see other details in the Note to Contributors.