Speed Hunter Graphics 1/48 USAF Phantom MiG Killers Part I Decal First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Speed Hunter Graphics is a new brand of decals that is part of the Reid Air Publishing group and it looks like we'll be seeing markings to go with all of the great photo titles that have been published to date. This first offering covers six F-4C/D MiG killers as they appeared over a decade after their victories. This set is just in time for Academy's 1/48 F-4C/D Phantom II kit!

The six examples presented here include:

• F-4C, 63-7676, 154 CG/HI ANG, Hickam AFB, 1984
• F-4C, 63-0589, 191 FIG/MI ANG, Selfridge AFB, 1979
• F-4C, 64-0776, 142 FIG/OR ANG, Portland IAP, 1989 **
• F-4C, 64-0829, 482 TFW/USAFR, Homestead AFB, 1982
• F-4D, 66-7554, 906 TFG/USAFR, Wright Patterson AFB, 1983, 'City of Fairborn'
• F-4D, 66-7550, 507 TFG/USAFR, Tinker AFB, 1989 **

As a bonus, Speed Hunter Graphics also provides two of these aircraft in 1/32 scale and those are marked with double asterisks (**) in the list above.

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.

This set provides several complete sets of maintenance stencils and markings to replicate at least two kits in 1/48 scale (and if you use some of the stencils from the kits, you can do more!). This set is designed to work with the Academy or Hasegawa 1/48 scale and Tamiya 1/32 scale kits.

These markings are available directly from the publisher on their website www.reidairpublishing.com.

My sincere thanks to Speed Hunter Graphics for this review sample!