I haven't seen any mention of these on this group, so I thought I would make a few comments, if you will indulge me.
Firstly... this company responds *quickly* . Five days from order to receipt. But... bear in mind that WolfPak Decals are based in the US and I am in the UK!
These sheets remind me of the late, lamented Fox One range. They are very well printed (by Fantasy Print Shop, according to the website). Where they really score is in the instructions. Not only are there decal placement guides and camouflage schemes, but there are tips on how to modify the chosen kits, a short history of each subject, suggested weapon loads and some photographs.
72-001: Five subjects, a KC-135, MC-130E, T-28D, A-10A and an F-4D. The attention to detail shown on this sheet is excellent. WolfPak admit that they are not certain of the colour demarcation lines on the fin of the MC-130E, so the serial numbers are provided in both black and white, leaving the modeller to use his/her best judgement. One aircraft may also have had a tan serial number and this is provided on a seperate small sheet.The T-28D looks rather interesting. It has an odd two tone green and grey camouflage with minimal markings. There there no national markings, only tail codes and serials. Very subdued, which is in keeping with a special ops aircraft. I'm very tempted by this one.
The A-10A is an OIF aircraft. Although it has an ordinary colour scheme, the instructions provide details of some interesting ordnance options including Litening pods and a FACE communications pod mounted on one of the Sidewinder rails. The photograph of this aircraft fully loaded makes it look the business.
Finally, there is the star of the sheet, an F-4D of the 497 TFS, 8TFW based at Ubon AFB in 1972. At first glance this appears to be a standard Vietnam era aircraft, but it is somewhat out of the ordinary. It had Pave Phantom and Pave Sword mods and was used on night-time "Owl FAC" forward air controller missions over Hanoi. In keeping with the night role, it has black undersurfaces. The instructions provide very detailed comments on the modifications and hints on how to build a Pave Sword pod. This one will look stunning when built.
The national insignia on this sheet have seperate red bars, which must be positioned accurately by the modeller.
72-004: Four subjects, three of which are linked. An F-4D from the 555TFS, two early F-15As from the 555TFTS and a Thailand based F-102A. Again there is an additional smaller sheet, this time to correct an error on the main sheet.The F-4D is one of the few "Combat Tree" equipped aircraft. Combat Tree was a highly secret system which could read the IFF transmissions from NVAF Mig-21s enabling them to be identified as hostile and engaged from beyond visual range which was the ideal envelope for the AIM-7 missile. As Combat Tree was so secret, it had a self destruct feature that was triggered by operation of the pilot's ejection seat. The consequences of a seat pull during maintenance while the self destruct was not disabled were quite serious and so Combat Tree equipped aircraft had a big red warning sign on the side of the nose.
This F-4D was flown by Captain John Madden and Captain Chuck DeBellevue on 9 Sept 72. During that mission they killed two Mig-19s. DeBellevue had previously been Steve Ritchie's WSO in four other Mig kills and so on this flight DeBellevue became the highest scoring USAF ace during the Vietnam war. Steve Ritchie's F-4D Mig Killer was also a Combat Tree aircraft.
There is a minor error with this scheme. The decals give the serial number as 60-267. It should be 66-267. However, this isn't a problem as there are suitable replacements on the sheet.
The two F-15As are interesting. They are from the first batch delivered to the 555TFTS in 1974. One is in the short-lived Air Superiority Blue scheme, the other in the standard Compass Ghost Scheme, but with Korean War style high visibility bands on the wings and fins. This was a very well-known aircraft at the time, together with another aircraft that had red and white stripes on the wings and nose. The instructions give details of the changes required to represent these very early aircraft: removal of the countermeasures suite from Bay 5 behind the cockpit, removal of the undernose antennae, filling in the chaff and flare dispensers and replacing the ACES II seat with the earlier ESCAPAC.
Finally, there is a camouflaged F-102A used in Project Stove Pipe attacks along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. This is a late production aircraft with Case XX wings.
In contrast to the first sheet, the national insignia on this sheet have the red bars already incorporated. The national insignia for the F-15s are correctly missing the blue surround.
I'm very impressed with these sheets. I will be starting on the blue F-15A very shortly. One thing worries me, however. The chaps at WolfPak seem to have access to a window into my psyche. These sheets could have been targetted directly at me. I don't like aircraft with anniversary or commemorative markings. I much prefer ordinary line jets. But... a line jet with a little something out of the ordinary is almost irresistible to me. There's just no *way* I can pass up the Owl FAC F-4D.
As for those two F-15As... As I kid I can remember F-15s coming into service. The blue ones were the very epitome of modern jet fighters and every kid wanted a model of one. The yellow-striped one was even more special. I can remember admiring a photo of it in Scale Models and promising myself that one day I would build a model of it. Now - nearly 35 years later - this (big) kid is finally going to get his model!
But what about the other two sheets? 72-003 has an A-7D used in the Mayaguez rescue. 72-002 has a Misty FAC F-100F. What are the chances of me passing up these sheets? Zero, that's what! Okay, so I'm never going to build any KC-135s, C-130s or B-52s but the other bits on the sheets more than make up for the big stuff.
Highly recommended.