Afterburner Decals 1/48 F/A-18E VFA-27 Decal First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Afterburner Decals continues to turn out some impressive decal releases covering contemporary US subjects and this latest set is no exception. This set represents the aircraft of the senior staff of VFA-27, 'Royal Maces'.

This decal set provides eight examples of the F/A-18E though in actuality, there are only three different aircraft represented. You have the CAG's mount as it appeared each year between 2004 and 2008 (five examples), two of the skipper's aircraft over two years, and one of the executive officer's aircraft (XO).

The examples presented here include:

• F/A-18E, 165860, VFA-27, NF/200, USS Kitty Hawk, 2004, CAG aircraft
• F/A-18E, 165860, VFA-27, NF/200, USS Kitty Hawk, 2005, CAG aircraft
• F/A-18E, 165860, VFA-27, NF/200, USS Kitty Hawk, 2006, CAG aircraft
• F/A-18E, 165860, VFA-27, NF/200, USS Kitty Hawk, 2007, CAG aircraft
• F/A-18E, 165860, VFA-27, NF/200, USS Kitty Hawk, 2008, CAG aircraft
• F/A-18E, 165861, VFA-27, NF/201, USS Kitty Hawk, 2005, CO aircraft
• F/A-18E, 165861, VFA-27, NF/201, USS Kitty Hawk, 2006, CO aircraft
• F/A-18E, 165862, VFA-27, NF/202, USS Kitty Hawk, 2005, XO aircraft

This decal set provides you with the sufficient stencils and markings to replicate two of these aircraft. If you look over the decal sheets, you can see that the set provides national markings, stencils, walkways, cheat lines (stripes) for the CAG, and formation (slime) lights.

With the nice variety of F/A-18E kits available on the market now, such as Hasegawa, Italeri, and Revell, these markings will give you some nice options. The instructions indicate that these are sized for the Hasegawa kit, so you're on your own to tailor these markings should you choose one of the other kits instead.

My sincere thanks to Afterburner Decals for this review sample!