AOA Decals is new and a very welcome addition to the realms of decal manufacturers. Their first set of releases are for the Hobbyboss 1/48 A-6A kits. This review is specific to their Intruder Airframe Stencils which are made for High-Viz gray over white schemes. The stencils are applicable to A-6E, A-6E TRAM and KA-6D also. There are enough stencils to do one airframe. A first inspection of the approximately 1/3 size sheet revels perfect alignment and great color. They are printed by Cartograf which is great. The instructions are six pages of superb direction and show the different locations for the A-6E and KA-6D stencils.

The first thing I noticed with this set is how comprehensive it is as far as covering the entire aircraft. By that, I mean that the following is fully covered by the decals in this set:

• Full pylon stencils
• Two styles of Jet Intake – Danger chevrons
• Two styles of engine exhaust Danger arrows
• Three styles of crew Rescue arrows
• Two styles of optional Danger triangles
• Two styles of port and probe area warning circles
• Two styles of Speed Brake Warnings
• Three color options for stabilator trim indicator arrows
• Both GRU-5 and GRU-7 ejection seats
• Crew boarding ladder stencils
• A-6E TRAM and KA-6D specific decals
• Covers AN/ALE-18 and AN/ALE-29A chaff systems & AN/ALR-15, AN/APR-25, and AN/APR-45 receivers
• Landing gear stencils

You can see that the ejection seat, landing gear, boarding ladders and other various options are covered and that is a step above the usual decal manufacturers. It is also well above the kit manufacturers. As an example, each pylon is fully decaled with seventeen separate decals. The addition of landing gear stencils is also a superb touch. Decals are provided for both types of ejection seat used also.

Comparing these to the kit decals, which are good, these are much crisper, much better researched and much more complete. With modeling modern aircraft, stenciling is very pronounced. This set will provide a large visual upgrade to your Intruder as well as enhancing its accuracy.

Highly recommended! My thanks to AOA Decals and to IPMS/USA for the chance to review them.