Superscale has provided one new and one old scheme for us this time. The all-new scheme is for the black F-18B flown by the Naval Fighter Weapons School. I'm sure it was included on this sheet because it is an axiom in the scale model business that black airplanes sell, and so do decal sheets for them. The other is for a standard line bird from VMFA-225. I'm not sure if this exact scheme has been printed before, but the unit has several sheets to its credit. No date is given for the Marine aircraft.

To Superscale's credit, I'm glad to see standard line birds on decal sheets. To me, we too often have no choice on a unit other than the CAG or CO's plane with its non-standard unit markings. Having a normal plane to model is refreshing. Of course, the recommended kits for these markings are from Hasegawa, mainly because other than Testors, no one else does a two seat Hornet in this scale.

Apparently the NFWS bird is light on data markings so all that neat stuff on the sheet is for the VMFA-225 bird. A comprehensive placement guide is provided for finding a place for all those data markings. Just a note, on my sheet, the Top Gun badge was a bit off register; the yellow bits shifted a bit to the lower right. The yellow in the Viking's unit markings is fine.

April 2007