F/A-18E

Afterburner Decals 1/48 Superbug CAGs and Special Schemes Decal First Look

By Michael Benolkin

Date of Review	August 2011	Manufacturer	Afterburner Decals
Subject	Superbug CAGs and Special Schemes	Scale	1/48
Set Number	48077	Pros	Eight Super Hornet markings to choose from
Cons	None noted	Skill Level	Novice
MSRP (USD)	Out of Production

First Look

Afterburner Decals continues to turn out some impressive decal releases covering contemporary US subjects and this latest set is definitely no exception. This release covers the latest Super Hornet CAG and special schemes being carried in the US Navy fleet in recent months. In here we have a nice cross-section of F/A-18E, F/A-18F and one EA-18G airframes all designed for the Hasegawa kits.

F/A-18E F/A-18E

The examples presented here include:

F/A-18E, 166434, VFA-14, NG/200, USS John C Stennis, 2011, Navy Centennial
F/A-18F, 166917, VFA-102, NF/102, USS George Washington, 2011, Retro Scheme
F/A-18F, 166621, VFA-103, AG/201, USS Dwight D Eisenhower, 2011, Skipper's Aircraft
F/A-18E, 166901, VFA-195, NF/400, USS George Washington, 2011, CAG
F/A-18F, 166663, VFA-211, AJ/200, USS George HW Bush, 2011, CAG
F/A-18F, 166792, VX-9, XE/260, NAS China Lake, 2011, Navy Centennial
F/A-18F, 165875, VX-23, SD/120, 'Green Hornet' 2010
EA-18G, 166894, VAQ-132, NL/540, COMVAQWINGPAC, Operation Odessey Dawn, 2011

Take a close look at the decal sheet. The sheet is printed by Cartograf and the printing is very well done. What's more, none of these decals require the modeler to stack multiple layers of markings atop one another to recreate artwork. This trend by some other decal companies of producing multiple-layer decals is unfortunate as it puts the burden on you to do the work of what should have been done by the decal maker.

This set provides several complete sets of maintenance stencils and markings to replicate at least two kits (and if you use some of the stencils from the kits, you can do more!).

My sincere thanks to Afterburner Decals for this review sample!