Syh@rt Decals 1/48 F-16AM Falcon J-015 'Solo Display 2009' Dutch Air Force Decal First Look

By Michael Benolkin

First Look

Syh@art Decals is an interesting aftermarket decal producer from France that specializes in those special paint schemes worn by NATO aircraft for Tiger Meet, Anniversary, or special Airshow duties. Most of their decal line is produced in 1/48 and 1/72 scale with selected subjects in 1/32 scale also covered.

In this release, we have one of the Dutch Air Force's magnificent airshow color schemes worn by an F-16AM Block 15 MLU Fighting Falcon during the 2009 airshow season. When you look at photos of the full-scale subject, all you can do is admire the paint scheme and wish someone would produce the decals for that scheme. Well here they are.

This one subject is reproduced with decals on three sheets. You paint the airframe an orange metallic overall with black trim as indicated in the instructions. From there you apply the red markings and distinctive Dutch markings to replicate this beauty. The instructions identify the orange as FS783216 and the black as FS27038. The black is semi-gloss black from FS 595, but the orange reference is not a valid FS 595 color code. Syhart Decals had a special run of an enamel-based orange metallic produced and they're working on an acrylic version to be released soon.

The decal printing is very nicely done and while the lion markings appear dull red in the image, they are a very impressive metallic reddish-copper on the sheets. I can only imagine how nice this scheme would look over that metallic orange and semi-gloss black paint!

For more information about this set and the other releases from Syh@rt Decals, visit their website at http://syhartdecal.fr.

My sincere thanks to Syh@rt Decals for this review sample!