Reviews

Caracal continue to provide decals for interesting subjects and this latest release continues the trend. The C-121 has never been particularly well-served in 1/72, with the Heller kit being the most easily available, but recently a number of detail sets have been released from manufacturers including Fisher Model & Pattern, DMold Modelworks and Plusmodel make this (and it's companion sheets) timely. The two airframes covered are:-

• EC-121D 53-536 from the 551st AEW&C Squadron, based at Otis AFB during 1968. This aircraft was overall natural metal with International Orange bands on the forward and rear fuselage and outer wings, ADC Grey nose between the radome and the orange panel, and another grey panel around the fuselage radomes. This aircraft also carried a large emlem on the left aft fuselage, and squadron badges on the outer fins;
• EC-121R 67-21498 from thr 553rd RW based at Korat RTAFB during 1968. This carried the standard SEA scheme of FS34079, FS34102 and FS30219 upper surfaces with FS36622 lower surfaces. "USAF 21498" on each side of the fin were the only distinguishing markings.

The decal sheet comes in two parts - an A5 sheet with individual markings and a smaller sheet containing "USAF", "U.S. AIR FORCE" and "stars and bars" for the wings and fuselage of the EC-121D. The sheet is printed by Microscale and is in perfect register.

The instructions comprise 4 sides of A4 in full color.

As always with Caracal, this sheet is highly recommended, and a great excuse to pick up one of the "new" Plusmodel kits!

Review by Chris St Clair