Afterburner Decals 1/48 F/A-18A/B Aussie Hornets Part 1 Decal First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Afterburner Decals has turned out some impressive decal releases covering contemporary US subjects and once in a while, they break out of that genre. In this set, Afterburner Decals tackles the F/A-18 Hornets of the Royal Australian Air Force.

This set features the distinctive markings of three commanders' aircraft, one anniversary aircraft, one combat veteran, and severl line aircraft. This release is Part 1 and covers aircraft out of 3 Sqn out of Williamtown, 75 Sqn out of Tindal, and 77 Sqn also out of Williamtown. The eight aircraft featured in this set are:

• F/A-18A, A21-13, 3 Sqn, 90th Anniversary Colors, 2006
• F/A-18A, A21-55, 3 Sqn
• F/A-18B, A21-103, 3 Sqn, 2006
• F/A-18A, A21-29, 75 Sqn, Commander's aircraft, 2007
• F/A-18A, A21-38, 75 Sqn
• F/A-18A, A21-48, 77 Sqn, Commander's aircraft, 2007
• F/A-18A, A21-7, 77 Sqn, 2006
• F/A-18A, A21-20, 77 Sqn, Operation Falconer, 2003

Afterburner Decals provides its usual high-quality instruction sheets to depict the colors, marking placement, and all of those door number markings. What's more, these decals are printed by Cartograf, so you won't be seeing any decals here that you'll have to stack one atop another to replicate artwork. If you wonder just how good the Cartograph printing is, look at this image to the right showing the clarity of that fine-print stenciling.

You can use your favorite F/A-18A or B model kit for this project and there are enough stencils and national markings to do two complete aircraft. The instructions do walk you through the upgrades that these aircraft have been equipped with and where to get the parts to replicate these details.

My sincere thanks to Afterburner Decals for this review sample!