Scale 1/72
Manufacturer Warbird Decals
Decal Sheet ID 72-022
Decal Sheet Title C-130J MAFFs Firebomber
Types Featured C-130J

Warbird have been around for some time, but have sold mainly in the US, and as a result this sheet is not currently available in the UK.  It provides markings for MAFF equipped C-130Js from the 115th AS, 146th AW, California ANG (this Air Guard being one of only a small number trained to perform the fire-fighting role). The airframes covered are:-

  • C-130J-30 02-1464 '21464' 
  • C-130J-515 01-1462 '11462'

Both aircraft are in the standard AMC grey scheme - brightened up with Day-Glo Red (FS38903) panels on the fin, wingtips and stabilisers, and with the number '6' in large font on the fin, nose and wing box.

The only stencilling provided are the grey propeller tips and door outlines, as Warbird suggest obtaining stencilling from their C-130 stencils sheet (72-017).

Instructions comprise a single page of black-and-white with a 4-view showing marking applications, and they also reference a company called 'Southern Skies' who apparently manufacture a C-130J-30 conversion (in the UK the Flightpath set, available from DJ Parkin, could be used as an alternative).

The sheet is beautifully printed (by Scale-Master) in perfect register and is the carrier film is very thin. This would make for an interesting model - the only drawback being the need to scratch-build the MAFFs equipment which is currently not available in kit form.

Review by Chris St Clair