Once again, Victory Models comes to the rescue of modelers everywhere with another incredible decal sheet. This time, it is for the Trumpeter 1/48 RA-5C (I assume another will be done for the 1/72 version).

To many, the RA-5C is the coolest aircraft to ever launch from a flight deck. To others (who worked on them), it was one of the most miserable and difficult to work on aircraft ever built. The maintenance man hour to flight hour ratio was horrible. Rarely was there more than one aircraft out of a detachment of four available for ops. But the aircrew loved them. They were fast, they flew beautifully and they were just plain fun to pilot.

This sheet covers nine aircraft from different units and different variants. The Trumpeter kit is a late RA-5C from the 156 serial block. Victory Models does offer a backdate kit for the earlier versions should you wish to do one of those. Perhaps they'll send one in for review as I've never reviewed any of their hardware.

So let's take a look at what is here.

First up is an early aircraft from RVAH-7 circa 1965. This one has light grey markings that are most unusual.

Next is a another early aircraft from RVAH-5 from the Ranger in 1968. This aircraft was the first to bring back photographic evidence of the 'Hanoi Hilton'.

Camouflage was experimented with and this rather undistinguished looking aircraft is from RVAH-6 on the USS Constellation in late 1966.

With its black tail, this aircraft from RVAH-7 aboard the Kitty Hawk in 1972 is quite snazzy looking. Again, an early airframe. Though not shown, there is an additional sheet with this aircraft's white fin stripes.

WIth the green stripe on the tail is this 156 series plane from RVAH-9 aboard the USS Nimitz for one of the last cruises of the Viggie in 1976-77.

Scheme #6 is also a later airframe with the checkered tail common to RVAH-11 aboard the Constellation in 1971-72. It has a sharkmouth intake warning marking.

Another camouflaged aircraft is this early plane from RVAH-11 aboard the Kitty Hawk in late 1967.

RVAH-12 with its red white and blue fin markings is next. This is a later aircraft from the Enterprise in 1975.

Finally, from RVAH-13 aboard the Kitty Hawk for her 1967 cruise comes this early bird, whose crew had a rather remarkable episode!

As I mentioned there is a second, smaller sheet that isn't shown with the tail stripes for the fourth example. There are also insignia and intake warning markings on that sheet so nothing really fancy.

Each scheme has detailed information on the salient features of that particular aircraft so that you can make the most accurate model possible.

Thanks to Victory Models for the review sheet. You can find this and other products by visiting their website.

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and quickly by a site that has 300,000 visitors a month, please contact me or see other details in the Note to Contributors.