AOA Decals has released a decal sheet (#48024) that updates and supersedes their own #48-001 and #48-006 sheets covering USMC A-6A, A-6B and KA-6D Intruders during the Vietnam War, including markings for an astonishing 19 aircraft spanning the period 1966 to 1973.

There are markings for:

• VMA (AW)-224 Bengals, based on the USS Coral Sea during 1971-72
• VMA (AW)-225 Vikings, based on Da Nang, South Vietnam 1969-71
• VMA (AW)-242 Batmen, based on Da Nang, South Vietnam 1966-70
• VMA (AW)-533 Hawks, based on Chu Lai, South Vietnam (1967-69) & Nam Phong, Thailand (1972-73)

All the aircraft are in the high-viz camouflage of the era. Some of the airframes had black noses, while others had white. Some of the aircraft also had colorfully painted rudders -you have decals for the rudders or you can paint your own using the decal as a template for home-made masks.

The decal sheet also includes details for fuel tanks, tail hooks and stencils for some weapons or even “graffiti” for some bombs. This set includes one single sheet of the AOA #48-023 which has all the stencils required for one airplane. If you purchase more copies of th3 #48-023 sheet, you can model more than one aircraft out of this set (#48-024)

The decal sheet is printed by Cartograph and it looks thin, glossy and it is in perfect register. Likely the color density will be excellent too, as per the Cartograph standard.

A point I want to highlight is the outstanding research that has gone into this sheet. Each airplane has been carefully researched based on the level of details on the description of each profile. In addition to that, there are several pdf files available at https://aoadecals.com/48024/home.htm which describes the typical ordinance used by each squadron.

Truly, this decal sheet doubles up as reference material!

Highly recommended. You will have an extremely accurate Intruder if you use these decals and follow their research.

I would like to thank AOA decals and IPMS/USA for the review sample.