Yellow Hammer DecalsYHD48028

1/48 and 1/72 Navy 1 S-3B Viking

product # YHD48028

Review by Steve Bamford on Sept 12 2003

--------------------

This is a new decal sheet from Yellow Hammer Decals. The sheet includes 1/48 and 1/72 markings for the S-3B flown by President George W Bush. President George W. Bush has the distinction of being the first and only sitting President to do a carrier trap aboard a US Carrier. The date of this special event was May 1 2003 as he landed aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln, CVN-72. As you know.....George W. Bush is a former fighter pilot.

The aircraft used for this event was called "Navy 1" while the president was aboard as is customary for any aircraft with the President aboard. "Navy 1" was painted on both sides of the rear of the fuselage and the jet even has The President's name painted below the canopy on the fuselage as you can see in the scan of the decal above. Other than that, there weren't any special markings for the President's unique flight. The tail of this aircraft has the big blue Wolf with a missile in it's holster paint on the tail of the aircraft, which is the artwork for the "Blue Wolves".

The occasion of the President's visit was the a morale boost for the troops deeply involved in the ongoing War on Terrorism.

One big bonus is you get 1/72 and 1/48 markings for this aircraft contained on the same decal sheet. For 1/48 kits you have the AMT/ERTL and Esci kits. In 1/72 you have the choice of a Hasegawa S-3B Viking or the Revell Germany kit.

The decals were flawlessly printed and the clear carrier film is trimmed very close to the crisply printed colored areas, which is always good to see. Colors looked bang on from the Blue wolves aircraft I've seen at a local airshow.

The instructions are clear and easy to follow. FS numbers for the paint needed to paint this Viking are included in the instructions, so I see no problems buying these decals and easily building this very special S-3B Viking.

A very nice product and highly recommended.

Steve

I would like to thank Cutting Edge Modelworks for providing me with this review sample.

Click on images below to see larger images of the instruction sheets