There have been lots of Skyraider decal sheets, but few for the A-1E. Guess that is because there have been darn few kits (like only the Matchbox one in 1/48 and the Monogram version in 1/72), those that have been made are not really that great, and they are also somewhat difficult to find. This is particularly true of the Matchbox version which, I'm told, suffers from many inaccuracies and a huge lack of detail. Perhaps we will be lucky and Tamiya will use its very nice A-1H/J as a basis for an E model.

Anyway, this sheet has five aircraft in a variety of camo schemes, and all from the USAF. You'll see that some of them don't have insignia which was more common on the A-1E than you'd think.

First plane is a light gull grey over white A-1E from the 1st ACS in 1965. These planes were basically turned over to the USAF from the Navy and only had the first digit of the serial removed, as they were on all A-1Es. That made the serial for this one 132619, for those that care.

Next are two planes from the 602 SOS in 1969/70. These planes are in standard SEA camo for the upper surfaces. However the underside is FS 36118 (AKA Gunship Grey). On these two planes the insignia was either never put on or overpainted.

In standard SEA camo is the fourth plane from the 1st SOS in 1970. Unlike the other camouflaged planes, this one has an all black tail code, though it has been outlined in a light tan.

Finally another 602 SOS bird, this time with standard underside light grey and national insignia. Each of these planes had some sort of name on the nose. Actually, many A-1s carried some pretty cool nose art, but none of that made it onto this sheet.

Now, if only we could get a decent kit of this plane in 1/48.......

Another from the bulging S. Van Aken decal collection.

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