Reviewed by Ken Bowes

Aeromaster Decals' 1/48 scale Thunderjet Fighter Bombers of the Forgotten War
will be available online from Squadron.com

This latest release from the Eagle Strike/Aeromaster stable is an interesting diversion from their usual subjects. F-16 Israeli Barak (Thunder) provides seven IDF F-16C and D aircraft from six squadrons. The subjects themselves are a mix of Block 30 and Block 40 build airframes. Furthermore the D models have the large square spine often associated with IDF aircraft, but now being seen more recently on Hellinic, Singaporean and UAE Air Force F-16s.  

Israeli Air Force aircraft, with their indigenous modifications and combat record are always interesting modelling subjects. For this sheet the Eagle Strike team have come up with some of the most striking aircraft in current service, all being characterised by interesting Squadron tail art incorporated into the camouflage pattern.

For those who have previously used Eagle Strike Decals the package should come as no surprise. Included in the ziplock bag a full colour A4 instruction sheet providing side views of all subjects and a generic top/bottom view to assist location of the myriad of stencilling. The decals themselves are spread over an A5 sheet plus a small supplementary sheet, all the unique markings being on the larger A sheet and national markings and maintenance stencils for one aircraft on the smaller B Sheet. 

Subjects included on the sheet are: 

• F-16C 313 of 110 Sqn Knights of the North

• F-16D 050 of 117 First Jet Squadron

• F-16C 502 of 117 First Jet Squadron

• F-16C 534 of 105 Scorpion Squadron

• F-16C 020 of the Air Force Flight Test Centre

• F-16D 083 of 109 The Valley Squadron

• F-16C 355 of 101 First Fighter Squadron 

Eagle Strike attributes the research and design of this Sheet to Ra’anan Weiss, the man behind the Isradecals Aircraft of the Israeli Air Force Book Series, which is instant assurance that the subjects are correctly portrayed. Isradecals themselves have done a sheet for F-16 Baraks, which is equally good. The advantage does fall to Eagle Strike as they have chosen specific serial/airframe combinations whilst IsraDecal provides generic sheets of numbers allowing a greater range of subjects at the expense of ease of application. 

The one possible drawback is that Eagle Strike has not provided any information on the histories of any of the subjects on the sheet. This is cited as being for IDF security reasons. As there is no information provided to help the modeller identify the sub-type of F-16C/D or the units they come from references are essential. The recently published IsraDecals Aircraft of the Israeli Air Force Number 4 is probably the authoritative source. For those looking around the Internet a good online reference to help identify the subjects on the sheet is available at http://www.scramble.nl/ in the Israeli Air Force Order of Battle section. 

I have used Eagle Strike decals before they have proved to be trouble free, easy to apply and respond well to applications of Micro Sol/Set. This sheet is printed in Italy by Cartograph and is among the best decal printing I have seen. Helpfully the Sand tail art is colour matched to the recommended Model Master Sand, hopefully preventing the usual mixing required to match decals and paint. The modeller is well served for this subject with excellent Hasegawa and Italeri kits available of the F-16C/D. For those who wish to model the large spine F-16D, then Cutting Edge make a useful resin conversion for the Hasegawa kit. 

Eagle Strike has once again come up with an excellent product.

Highly recommended.

Thanks to AeroMaster / Eagle Strike Products for the review sets

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

Review Text and Images Copyright © 2004 by Ken Bowes
This Page Created on 22 March, 2004
Last updated 22 March, 2004

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