86th FBG Thunderjets

Part One

 

AeroMaster Decals

Reviewed by John Kerr

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The Republic F-84 Thunderjet is similar to Republic's P-47 Thunderbolt in that both were somewhat overshadowed by the best fighter aircraft of their eras, ie. North American F-86 Sabre and  P-51 Mustang.  However just like their P-47 Thunderbolt, Republic's F-84 Thunderjet gave great service to the fledgling USAF and other nations who operated the type.

AMD 48-608 is the first of the "86th FBG" series and covers one extremely colourful F-84E.

F-84E-30-RE Thunderjet 51-624

flown by the commander of the 86th Fighter Bomber Group, Col. George Laven Jr. 527th FBS as based at Neubiberg, Germany in 1951/52.

Talk about one heck of a colourful scheme !   The basic finish is overall Natural Metal finish with Flat Olive Green FS 34079 anti-glare panel and the top of vertical tail painted Light Grey approx. FS 36628.  

There are three Command stripes on the aft fuselage in the three squadron colours of Blue, Red and Yellow (these are on a White band and provided as two decals; left and right fuselage sides).  The nose band comprises of large Blue, Red and Yellow checks (this is a one piece decal).  

The vertical tail and rear horizontal stabilisers are covered in Red and White checks (you first paint these areas White before applying the Red check decals) with the Red extending down the rear fuselage spine (left and right side decals are provided although some modellers may prefer to paint this area instead).  

The lower rear fuselage fairing is Yellow (again, left and right side decals are provided and those same modellers may prefer to paint this area instead).  The wingtip tanks are also painted in the Blue, Red and Yellow squadron colours (you must first paint the wingtip tanks Red before applying the multi-piece multi-coloured check decals).  The underwing large USAF logo decal is split as it spills over onto the undercarriage door.

The decals are designed specifically to fit the Revell-Monogram 1/48 scale F-84E kit, which has several noticeable differences to the TAMIYA 1/48 F-84G (just as there were between the real aircraft).  Simply putting the decals on a TAMIYA F-84G will not give you an accurate F-84E.  I am currently building a Revell-Monogram F-84E after completing TAMIYA's excellent F-84G back in 2000.  I highly rate the TAMIYA F-84G and am very impressed with the Revell-Monogram effort so far.

Although this set covers only one aircraft the finished model will look spectacular.  Applying the nose band, fuselage stripes, tail checks and wingtip tank checks will certainly test your patience... I suggest you have your favourite decal setting solution handy and take your time applying the decals over several sessions. 

The side and surface profiles on the coloured instructions are excellent and include clear instructions on correctly placing the multi-piece decals for the checked wingtip.  The decals themselves are crisp and in perfect register (no bleeding on the edges of the Yellow areas).

Full marks to AeroMaster for tackling such a challenging scheme as they could have easily churned out another decal set on Korean War F-84s.  Three more colourful F-84Es from the 86th FBG can be found on AeroMaster set 48-609.

On-line sales are available from the AeroMaster Products / Eagle Strike Productions web site.