Furball Decals FD 72003: LoViz Devil Dog Scooters

The Marines know a good aircraft when they see it and while the Navy was trading in its Skyhawks for A-7s, the USMC not only continued to use the type, but had an upgraded version built specifically for them. Aside from training and aggressor units, the Skyhawk remained a front line aircraft into the early 1990s when the last unit switched over to something else (usually the Hornet).

For their third 1/72 sheet, this new sheet from Furball Aero-Designs covers the various variants used by Marine air during the lo-viz period. This was basically the last twenty years of their use. The sheet covers 16 aircraft and includes A-4E/F, TA-4J, OA-4M and A-4M aircraft. I'm very pleased to see a number of OA-4M options as this variant has been all but ignored by most 1/72 decal makers.

These are, for the most part, in the three grey TPS scheme of FS 36320/36375/36495 until the later years when the lighter 36495 was deleted.

The A-4E/F options are an A-4E from VMA-322 in 1982 and an A-4F 'super fox' from VMA-142 in 1985.

There are many A-4Ms including planes from VMA 331 in 1982, 311 in 1984, 211 in 1989, 214 in 1989, and 131 in 1993.

The lone TA-4J is with VMA-322 in 1986.

Now for the OA-4Ms. Two of these have the early green/grey upper camouflage scheme and are from 1987. These are with H&MS-32 with one plane having a lighter upper color grey. The rest of the planes are from H&MS-13 in 1980, H&MS-12 in 1984, H&MS-32 in 1984, H&MS-11 in 1988, H&MS-12 in 1989 and finally H&MS-32 in 1990.

The decals provide all sorts of different shades of insignia, serials and 'Marines' markings to enable you to duplicate the aircraft of your choice. There are enough wing walk areas for two planes. You also get an outstanding color and markings set that includes information on each aircraft and a full load-out diagram.

If you are a fan of Marine Air, Scooters or lo-viz camo planes, then this is a sheet you should not pass up. There are kits available from a number of manufacturers, though I feel most will head for the Fujimi version. Note that I used the images from the 1/48 sheet as the layout is identical.

March 2016

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Review sheet courtesy of http://furballaero-design.com. You can get yours now at this link.

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