Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

Eagle Strike Decals' 1/48 scale Furies of the Fleet Part III
is available online from Squadron.com
 

As the name suggests, 48194 is the third sheet covering the FJ-4B Fury produced by Eagle Strike Productions. 

Given the amount and complexity of markings worn by the machines that Eagle Strike has chosen to depict, only two are featured. 

Both options wear the gull grey and white camouflage of the era that they served in and feature extremely bright and colourful markings that were the norm back then. 

The two options are: 

• FJ-4B Bureau number 141466, the CAG bird of ATG-1 (Air Task Group -1) in 1958.  In common with the sheet's second option, all of it markings are supplied as decals so all you will need to do is paint the basic gull grey and white finish then apply the decals to complete it.  The aircraft wears blue red and yellow trim to the leading edge tip of the vertical stabiliser – the black leading edge of the fin is supplied as a part of the decal too, blue leading edges to the outer wings (and wing tips), and large blue, white and orange shooting star unit marking on the fuselage.  The Bureau number of this aircraft appears to be curved and bent-looking.  At first I though that this was due to mis-printing but a look through the suggested reference, the Squadron/signal in action, soon proved that Eagle Strike have got it right as the bureau number is applied to the one-to-one-scale version in the same manner (picture on the bottom of page 47).

• FJ-4B Bureau number 143493 of VX-5 circa mid 1950s.   The machine wears VX-5's distinctive green and white bands and wing tips which again, are all supplied as decals.

The remainder of the space on the sheet is taken up by a two sets of national insignia and basic stencil data.  The stencil data is confined to the larger more visible items such as the red intake warnings – this decal also includes the cowling lip (which is a bonus as they are a bear to mask) and basic rescue information/warning placards. 

The placement guide is A-4 in size and shows left hand side profiles as well as plan views of the upper surfaces of each option. 

The recommended kits are the Matchbox and the limited run Grand Phoenix ones. 

The decals have been printed by Cartograf.  They are thin, in perfect register and have a minimum of carrier film around each design. 

The decal sheet and the placement guide come packed in a clear plastic zip-lock bag. 

This is another well produced and colourful sheet from Eagle Strike Productions. 

Recommended.

Afterthought 

The Matchbox kit of the FJ-4 is ancient and no longer readily available on the shelves whilst the cost of the Grand Phoenix one really puts it out of reach of the pocket money brigade.   Given this, I was surprised to see this series of sheets from Eagle Strike Productions.  Hopefully, sales of the sheet will be encouraging enough for Eagle Strike to consider producing decals for other limited run kits.

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 TextCopyright © 2006 by Rodger Kelly
This Page Created on 30 January, 2006
Last updated 29 January, 2006

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