Scale 1/72
Manufacturer Xtradecal
Decal Sheet ID X72090
Decal Sheet Title Air National Guard and Foreign Twosairs
Types Featured A-7K

This must count as one of my most wanted sheets since I found out it was going to be produced!  Prior to the release of the new Hobby Boss A-7K, the only way to build a two-seat A-7 was to use one of the two Maintrack conversions, and no decals were available other than a few Microscale sheets and a sheet by AirDoc.  This new sheet covers most of the units which operated the A-7K with the exception of the 4450th TG at Tonopah AFB (see Haydn Hughes' build of the Hobby Boss kit here).

All together, 12 different aircraft are covered, including Greek, Portuguese and Thai examples.  The 9 ANG airframes are as follows:-

  • A-7K 73-1008 "AZ" from the 195th TFTS, Arizona ANG, in wrap-around SEA scheme - this was the A-7K prototype;

  • A-7K 73-464 "AZ" from the 195th TFTS, Arizona ANG, in the two-tone gloss Grey scheme  (FS 16118/FS16270);

  • A-7K 73-464 "AZ" from the 195th TFTS, Arizona ANG, in the gloss Euro-1 scheme (FS14079/FS16081);

  • A-7K 80-292 "SD" from the 175th TFS, South Dakota ANG in the two-tone Grey scheme;

  • A-7K 80-288 "VA" marked as "Rebel Rider" from the 149th TFS, Virginia ANG in the Euro-1 scheme;

  • A-7K 78-469 "CO" from the 120th TFS, Colorado ANG, in the 2-tone Grey scheme;

  • A-7K 81-0077 "IA" from the 124th TFS, Iowa ANG, in the 2-tone Grey scheme;

  • A-7K 79-461 from the 188th TFS, New Mexico ANG, in the 2-tone Grey scheme; and

  • A-7K 73-1008 "PR" from the 198th TFS, Puero Rico ANG, in the Euro-1 scheme

Very limited stencilling is provided with the sheet, which is nicely printed and in-register.  Look for many of these sheets to appear on model displays in the near future - quite a few on the USAF SIG display I suspect!

Review by Chris St Clair