Furball Aero-Design/Detail & Scale 1/48 Colors and Markings of USAF Super Sabres Decal First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Furball Aero-Design continues its collaboration with Detail & Scale and this release covers the F-100D Super Sabre during the early days of the Vietnam air war, before they were given the Southeast Asia camouflage.

The subjects in this set include:

• F-100D-50-NH, 55-2894, 416 TFS, Bien Hoa AB, RVN, 1965
• F-100D-30-NA, 55-3797, 416 TFS, Bien Hoa AB, RVN, 1965
• F-100D-25-NA, 55-3604, 416 TFS, Bien Hoa AB, RVN, 1966
• F-100D-20-NA, 55-3535, 416 TFS, Bien Hoa AB, RVN, 1966
• F-100D-85-NH, 56-3405, 307 TFS, Tuy Hoa AB, RVN, 1966
• F-100D-30-NA, 55-3712, 307 TFS, Tuy Hoa AB, RVN, 1966
• F-100D-70-NA, 56-3054, 481 TFS, Tan Son Nhut AB, RVN, 1965
• F-100D-70-NA, 56-3063, 481 TFS, Tan Son Nhut AB, RVN, 1965
• F-100D-90-NA, 56-3285, 481 TFS, Tan Son Nhut AB, RVN, 1965
• F-100D-70-NA, 56-3055, 481 TFS, Tan Son Nhut AB, RVN, 1965

In addition to the extensive marking options in this set, there are sufficient national markings and airframe stencils for two examples. The sheets are 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.

A few notes here as it appears that the color profiles were prepared in a hurry:

• The squadrons are identified as the 416st TFS, 307st TFS, and 481st TFS.
• The first four subjects are identified from the 416th, the first two are from 1965 while the 416th was deployed to the 33rd Tactical Group at Tan Son Nhut. They rejoined their parent unit, the 3rd TFW at Bien Hoa in 1966. The second two examples are are from the 90th TFS (dark blue tail art, the 416th had light blue tail art), also part of the 3rd TFW at Bien Hoa in 1966.
• The next two examples are the 307th TFS/31 TFW at Tuy Hoa in 1966 and these are fine.
• The last four examples are for the 481st TFS/33rd Tactical Group at Tan Son Nhut in 1965, and these too are fine.
• Finally, there is no indication for which kit(s) this set was designed to fit, though there are really only two choices: the venerable but still best Monogram kit or the Trumpeter kit with the flat lower intake (among other things).

My sincere thanks to Furball Aero-Design for this review sample!