Bombshell Decals came on the decal scene with …well, a bang. Their latest release is based on the Monogram A-26B Invader. The glass nose version was used in Korea and was quite colorful with its overall gloss black paint scheme. The subjects of this sheet are two aircraft which sported Esquire girl nose art.

The decals are printed by Cartograf, so you know they are in perfect register and will respond well with setting solutions. In my opinion, Cartograf decals are the best in the world. The decals are on a single sheet of 5.5” x 8”. You can see the quality in the decals by looking over the Esquire girls. They are perfectly rendered and are some of the best looking pin-ups available in decal form. They have perfect shading and blending to make them exactly like the real thing. Beautiful work by Bombshell and Cartograf. This is the new standard for nose art.

First flown in December of 1944, the Heinkel He 162 Volksjager (people’s fighter) was known as the “ninety day wonder” as it went from an Air Ministry requirement to prototype in a mere three months. Like the other jet fighters of the day, it relied upon the BMW 003 turbojet engine, which was highly demanded as the Second World War drew to a close. The plane was 29 feet 8 inches in length, had a wingspan of 23 feet 7 inches, and stood 8 feet 6 inches tall. The A-2 variant carried a pair of 20mm MG 151 cannons with 120 rounds per gun. Depending on the source, between 238 and 320 of these aircraft were built. Something that I found unique is that the Volksjager, which is often referred to as the Salamander, was built under the code name “Sparrow”, which is what the Heinkel company called the plane during construction.

The Parts:

This product contains four pieces cast in white metal which replace the struts and gear for the Bronco kit. The molding is clean, with no “step” along mold release points. The details match kit parts, rivet for rivet, but with no flash (kit parts have a little flash).

The SAC main landing gear struts are molded as “one” piece whereas the kit main gear struts require two pieces to be glued together to form one strut.

Assembly:

We’ve all seen the notice, “no assembly required”, but other than attaching the SAC parts to the Bronco kit, there isn’t any assembly required to prepare the SAC parts. The SAC parts fit nicely. They are snug and tight and fit into the Bronco kit just as the original parts fit.

Painting:

I prime metal parts with an inexpensive primer found at Wal-Mart and Target. Use a primer of your choice.

Conclusion:

Now the United States Air Force’s “Air Dominance Fighter,” the F-22 Raptor is arguably the world’s most advanced and capable air-to-air fighter aircraft. As part of the competition between the F-22 and F-23, the “YF” prototypes were flown, studied, and evaluated. Revell’s latest Snap-Tite aircraft offering, the YF-22, is a faithful reproduction of the winning prototype design.

Molded in light gray plastic with a sprue of tinted clear containing the canopy and another molded in black with the base, the kit convincingly captures the lines and essence of the YF-22. Camden, age 6, assembled the 15 kit parts in no time flat with minimal guidance from Dad. Since no painting instructions were provided, we opted to leave it “natural plastic.” The peel-and-stick “decals” flew on over the ensuing 20 minutes, and in less than an hour, Camden had completed his replica of the world’s most advanced fighter and had it buzzing around the house hunting for MiGs.

This decal sheet is a “supplementary” set, meaning that it contains the “graffiti” used to mark up a specific F-104G, that being # D-8337. The markings inside the package do not include the national insignia, data, stencils, and other standardized markings that one would most likely find on any F-104 flying in the Royal Netherlands Air Force. Existing Dutch Decal markings that can be used to mark your F-104 prior to the “graffiti” being added is a product from Dutch Decal, product number “DD48043”. Just so you’ll know, these same markings are available in 1/72nd scale and 1/32nd scale, including the supplementary graffiti sheet.

The broadside, or “instruction sheet” if you will, included in the product package, contains a 4-view drawing that illustrates the location of the graffiti markings. While there is some text in English, you simply do not need any of the text to locate and apply these decals.