Model Alliance Limited Edition Decals

Premier Plus Range
 
F/A-18 Hornet

Swiss Fliegerstaffel 11
Tiger Meet 2004 Special
 

Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

HyperScale is proudly sponsored by Squadron.com

Someone at Model Alliance must like Tiger Meet aircraft!  This is the second recent sheet from them that provides markings for aircraft that participated in the 2004 Tiger Meet conducted at the Schleswig-Jagel Air Base in Germany. 

This time the markings are for F/A-18C (the placement guide calls it an F-18C) J-5011 of Fliegerstaffell 11, Swiss Air Force. 

As with the vast majority of the aircraft taking part in this competition; J-5011 was specially painted up for the occasion.   Whilst the airframe wears the standard paint scheme of light and dark compass greys, the two wing-mounted drop tanks, AIM-9 wing tip missiles and the outer faces of the vertical stabilisers have been given the "tiger treatment". 

The best feature of this sheet is that all of the tiger markings are provided as decals so that no careful masking is required.  Simply paint the airframe in the standard F/A-18 colour scheme and add the decals. 

Click the thumbnails below to view larger images:

Apart from the tiger markings, Model Alliance also provides a fairly comprehensive set of stencil data as well as Swiss national insignia. 

The placement guide advises that the tiger markings for the AIM-9s have all been made oversize to assist in the difficult placing over the guidance fins.  Patience and settling solution will definitely be needed here!

All of the tiger markings – with the exception of the tail ones - seem to match the photographs of the one-to-one-scale J-5011 that can be found on the net.  The tail marking looks a little soft to my eye though. 

The decals themselves are good quality and produced by the silk screen method.  They are thin and glossy and have very, very little film surrounding them. 

The placement guide is via two A-4 sized sheets that contain colour profiles of both sides of the machine as well as plan drawings of the upper and lower surfaces.  Two small photographs of the aircraft are also carried.  As well as showing you where to put each of the decals, the guide also provides information on painting of the airframe, cockpit and ejector seat and many other small details.  A nice touch! 

The decal sheets, there are two of them, and the placement guides come packed in the ubiquitous clear plastic zip loc bag. 

A downside?  Yep, they are not cheap but then again, you should expect that from a limited-run specialist decal. 

Make your own mind up about the tail marking, but other than that, this is a well researched and presented product. 

Recommended.

Postscript 

A quick Google bought up a stack of matches to J-5011 wearing these markings but the best by far was the AviaMagazine.com website.  Follow these links to have a look:

 http://aviamagazine.xs4all.nl/gallery/photoview.asp?id=3303479129

 http://aviamagazine.xs4all.nl/gallery/photoview.asp?id=3303474910

 http://aviamagazine.xs4all.nl/gallery/photoview.asp?id=3303478954

Thanks to Aviation Workshop / Model Alliance (UK)  for the review sample

Model Alliance products are available online from the Aviation Workshop.

Review Copyright © 2005 by Rodger Kelly
Page Created 18 May, 2005
Last updated 17 May, 2005

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