Impact Decals 1/48 USMC Intruders Part 1 Decal First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Here is a new decal company on the market and they've turned out a VERY nice first subject for the Revell-Monogram 1/48 A-6 Intruder kit. This set provides an interesting slice in time for the A-6 durig its career with Marine Corps all-weather attack squadron VMA(AW)-224 - the Bengals.

The set starts with an A-6A that was deployed to Yankee Station (Vietnam) while the squadron provided the heavy attack role for Carrier Air Wing 15 aboard USS Coral Sea in 1971.

The second example is an A-6E while the unit was back at MCAS Cherry Point in 1976 before the Navy (and Marines) adopted low-visibility camouflage.

The final example is another A-6E after receiving the TRAM update, new speed brakes and the slime-light formation lighting system.

The three aircraft are:

1. A-6A, 155661, NL/551, VMA(AW)-224, USS Coral Sea, 1971
2. A-6E, 155616, WK/02, VMA(AW)-224, MCAS Cherry Point, 1976
3. A-6E (TRAM), 149953, WK/506, VMA(AW)-224, MCAS Cherry Point, 1992

It is a pleasant surprise to see a well-done set of decals coming from a new company, but for those of you familiar with the work of Jack Morris, you can see his logo on the sheet. It is no wonder these are well done. I've heard from several decal companies lately that complex color decals such as these must be broken up into separate decals, forcing the modeler to apply multiple layers to replicate a single marking. You can see in these images that these beautifully printed Microscale decals are nicely registered and single-layered. Kudos to Jack and to Impact Decals for this excellent work.

Impact Decals can be purchased directly from their website at www.impacthobbydecals.com.

Highly recommended!

My sincere thanks to Impact Decals for this review sample!