Afterburner Decals 1/48 F-2A/B 6 Hikotai Decal First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Afterburner Decals has released another 'super set' of decals, this time focused on the Mitsubishi F-2 of the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force (JASDF). The F-2 is essentially a Block 40 F-16C built to the Agile Falcon configuration with larger wings and tail surfaces. While there are some colorful Vipers flying in NATO, few are more colorful than the Japanese Vipers.

This decal set comes on one large sheet and provides markings for 10 aircraft:

• F-2A, 53-8535, 6 Hikotai, 50th Anniversary Scheme, Tsuiki AB, Oct 2009
• F-2A, 13-8514, 6 Hikotai, Air Combat Meet 2009
• F-2A, 13-8517, 6 Hikotai, Air Combat Meet 2009
• F-2A, 43-8530, 6 Hikotai, Air Combat Meet 2009
• F-2A, 43-8514, 6 Hikotai, Skull Riders, Tsuiki AB, May 2010
• F-2A, 13-8517, 6 Hikotai, Skull Riders, Tsuiki AB, May 2010
• F-2A, 43-8527, 6 Hikotai, Skull Riders, Tsuiki AB, May 2010
• F-2A, 43-8526, 6 Hikotai, Cope North, Anderson AFB, 2009
• F-2A, 63-8537, 6 Hikotai, Cope North, Anderson AFB, 2009
• F-2B, 43-8129, 6 Hikotai, Cope North, Anderson AFB, 2009

The set comes with sufficient stenciling for one aircraft and if you have kit stenciling you can recycle, you can replicate nearly every tail number here. The set also comes with a set of vinyl stencils that solve the edge color of the numbers that straddle the dark blue edge. These allow you to paint the medium blue, lay the masks down, paint the dark blue, then set the numbers into a perfect blend. These markings were sized for the Hasegawa 1/48 F-2A/B kits.

Take a close look at this decal sheet. All of these decals are in perfect register and none require you to stack multiple layers of decals to recreate what you see here. Don't settle for substandard decal artwork, get your Viper markings right here!

My sincere thanks to Afterburner Decals for this review sample!