Speed Hunter Graphics 1/48 Elegant Eagles 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 offering covers six F-15C MSIP II Eagles with a nice mix of commanders' aircraft, MiG killers, and the colorful splinter aggressor.

The six examples presented here include:

• F-15C MSIP II, 83-0017, 1 FW, Langley AFB, 2004, Wing CC's aircraft, Mirage F1 kill
• F-15C MSIP II, 84-0012, 422 TES/53 W, Nellis AFB, 2007, operational test aircraft
• F-15C MSIP II, 84-0014, 144 FW/CA ANG, Fresno IAP, 2013, Wing CC's aircraft, Su-22 kill
• F-15C MSIP II, 85-0114, 44 FS/18 W, Kadena AB, 2014, Sqn CC's aircraft, two MiG kills
• F-15C MSIP II, 85-0125, 104 FW/MA ANG, 2012, Wing CC's aircraft, MiG kill
• F-15C MSIP II, 78-0494, 65 AS/57 W, Nellis AFB, 2013, spinter paint scheme

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 three complete sets of maintenance stencils and markings to replicate at least three 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 Hasegawa 1/48 F-15C kit (though you'll need an aftermarket set to update the kit to MSIP II).

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!