What with the advent  of recent kit issues from Hasegawa and Hobbycraft of the early Skyhawks in 1/48, one tends to forget that there has long been a really excellent series of these planes from Fujimi in 1/72. For some reason, 1/72 is overlooked here in the US, especially when it comes to articles in the popular media. I guess it is that 1/48 allows greater detailing that is the cause of that.

Anyway, this was one of the last sheets produced under the Microscale brand before the business was split. Microscale went back to doing decals for trains, and in its place for aircraft, Superscale emerged.

One of the digs leveled against Microscale was its lack of decent instructions, and this sheet shows that . The aircraft profiles are just to show general decal placement and offer no real information beyond that. While there is color information, there is no reference information that we have come to expect.

Nevertheless, this is one of the more colorful sheets for the early Scooter.

The first aircraft is an A4D-1 of VA-93 off the USS Ticonderoga in 1958. It has the blue tail band and the blue/white lower tail markings typical of this unit.

Next is a VA-72 A4D-2N (A-4C) off the USS Independence in 1963. This is a CAG bird with the multi-colored tail markings. It also has a blue and yellow stylized bird marking on the fuselage.

Finally, an A-4B of VA-22 det R on the USS Kearsage in 1963. This aircraft has a rather boring black chevron on the fin with a red bird marking on the fuselage.

Any of these schemes would look good on an early Fujimi Skyhawk

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