With the release of the wonderful Tamiya F-14A kit, the decals are coming from Furball Aero-Design to dress up your kit with some of the most striking and memorable markings. This set is titled “Sundowners Anthology” and covers the F-14A as flown by VF-111 Sundowners that cruises with the USS Carl Vinson and USS Kitty Hawk. VFA-111 can trace its history back all the way to 1942 flying Grumman Wildcats. The set includes markings for nineteen (yup, nineteen) VF-111 F-14A’s and covers all of the major and some minor schemes flown by the squadron.

Inside the package, you will find seven full color pages of profiles for each aircraft with detail about the paintings and markings and other significant things such as configurations for each plane. Color call-outs for each scheme are also on the profile pages with colors listed by FS number and name. There is also a single sheet covering the top and bottom profiles for each of the schemes- overall Gull Gray and Tactical. There are three decal sheets included with enough decals to build two planes. One sheet is also the separate sheet 48-059, a stencil and marking sheet, which is also sold separately. The remaining two sheets are huge; 8.5” x 10” and 8.5” x 12” sheets and these cover the markings for each plane. The sheets are printed by Microscale and look great!

The specific markings are for:

• F-14A 160666, "NL 200", USS Kitty Hawk, 1978
• F-14A 160668, "NL 201", USS Kitty Hawk, 1979
• F-14A 160666, "NL 200", USS Kitty Hawk, 1980
• F-14A 160664, "NL 213", USS Kitty Hawk, 1982
• F-14A 160682, "NL 210", USS Kitty Hawk, 1982
• F-14A 160656, "NL 200", USS Carl Vinson, 1982
• F-14A 160665, "NL 203", USS Carl Vinson, 1982
• F-14A 160654, "NL 205", USS Carl Vinson, 1982
• F-14A 160678, "NL 207", USS Carl Vinson, 1982
• F-14A 160668, "NL 213", USS Carl Vinson, 1982
• F-14A 160660, "NL 200", USS Carl Vinson, 1986
• F-14A 160660, "NL 200", USS Carl Vinson, Late 1986
• F-14A 160660, "NG 200", USS Carl Vinson, 1987
• F-14A 161621, "NL 200", "Miss Molly", USS Carl Vinson, 1989
• F-14A 162594, "NL 200", USS Carl Vinson, Feb 1991
• F-14A 162594, "NL 200", USS Kitty Hawk, Aug 1991
• F-14A 161617 "NL 211", USS Kitty Hawk, 1991
• F-14A 160654 "NL 205", USS Kitty Hawk, 1991
• F-14A 161622 "NL 200", USS Kitty Hawk, 1994

I had started an F-14 when these sheets came out and I have always wanted a Miss Molly in my collection and there it was, so it was natural to get this sheet to review and build Miss Molly. As a little background, the F-14A Miss Molly was Carl Vinson’s nurse and so they named a plane for her with great nose art.

I applied them after soaking in water for 10 second and letting them rest. I used Microset to get the area wet and slid the decals into place. They are wonderfully thin with minimal carrier film. The fit on areas like the huge tail decal was excellent. If they stuck briefly and I still needed to reposition, I used a brush with water and slid the decal loose and got it where needed. I blotted the water up and let the decals dry. Except for the shark mouth and tail, I did absolutely nothing and they settled into every groove perfectly. I did use some Microsol on the shark's mouth and tail but very little. When done and dry, I flat coated the kit and the decals look like they were painted onto the kit. Fantastic!

I cannot recommend this set enough. Research, ease of use and nineteen sets of markings; fans of the Tomcat and Sundowners cannot miss this set. Pick one up now and if you need to make more from this set, just add the separately sold stencil markings and you can put all of the remaining decals to use.

My thanks to Geoff Martin and Furball Aero-Design for the chance to review and use these decals.