Caracal Models 1/48 US Navy/US Marines AD-5 Skyraider
By Chris Banyai-Riepl
Overview
The Douglas AD-5 (later A-1E) Skyraider was a distinctive Skyraider variant, with side-by-side seating and a long blue-tinted rear canopy. While the single-seat Skyraider captures the lion's share of attention, the AD-5 carried some interesting and colorful markings. This latest decal sheet from Caracal Models adds several options for modelers of the multi-seat Skyraider.
The Decals
The decal sheet comes with markings for seven different aircraft featuring a mix of US Navy and US Marine Corps subjects. To cover all the bases, there are two decal sheets in the bag, with one of them being black and white only (there's a lot of black and white markings on these birds). First off, the overall quality of the decals is excellent, with quality printing by Cartograf. In addition to the specific option markings, there are some stencils included as well, making for a fairly complete package.
Jumping into the options, we'll start with the simple first. These would be the standard gray/white birds, with the first being from the Navy's VA-125. This plane carries the NJ tail code and has a black section on the fuselage side for the exhausts. Similarly colored is the aircraft from the Marines' AES-12. No tail code on this one, but it does have the name QUANTICO on the tail. While these two schemes are very similar, one will notice that the Quantico bird has a gray rudder while the Navy one is white. Contrary to common thought, this is accurate, and further examination shows that a fair number of Skyraiders had gray rudders.
Adding a bit of color, the next one is a reserve bird from NAS Anacostia in the 1960s. Standard gray/white camouflage, this aircraft has large 6A tail codes and an orange band around the rear fuselage. This is called out as being fluorescent red, but everything I've seen of the reserve aircraft states that these bands are international orange. Similarly, the second reserve aircraft, an overall glossy sea blue plane from Los Alamitos, is also labeled as having a fluorescent band around the rear fuselage, when it should be orange. This plane has a large white L on the tail, as well as all the usual white markings.
Next up is an A-1G from NATF Lakehurst. Finished in standard gray/white camouflage, this plane definitely has fluorescent markings, with the entire tail and wingtips painted in that color. Additionally, on the tail is a chevron in black/white/fluorescent orange/red. This is a very colorful aircraft with lots of fluorescent colors to stand out.
But it is not the most fluorescent of options on this sheet. That goes to the Skyraider out of NAS Sandpoint in Seattle. While the aircraft says Navy on the side, this was flown by VMA-541, a Marine reserve unit (other Skyraiders at Sandpoint had NAVY over MARINES on the rear fuselage). This aircraft features fluorescent orange lower fuselage, cowling, and rear fuselage, including all three tailplanes. The wings also have fluorescent orange on them, covering halfway back from the leading edge, top and bottom. All of this is over the standard US Navy gray and white camouflage.
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What the instructions don't show is how grimy these planes were, so not only do you get to paint up some incredibly vibrant colors, you also get to go to town in a big way with the weathering. The decals for this version provides a gray surround to the fuselage star and bar and NAVY, as well as the BuNo. While I recognize their goal with this, I would have liked to have seen an added option without that outline, in case you wanted to any kind of fading or shading work on the paint beforehand.
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The final option on the sheet is another very colorful bird, an AD-5U from VU-1 out of NAS Barbers Point. This plane is finished in engine gray, yellow, and either orange or fluorescent red. The instructions say fluorescent red, but some of the photos and paint specs I've seen say international orange. That said, I have also seen some aircraft in that scheme with the fluorescent red color, so it could be that this one had that. The markings are straightforward, with black codes on the tail and white markings on the engine gray parts.
Conclusion
These are some nice and colorful options for a 1/48 AD-5 Skyraider, so if you have the old Matchbox kit (recently re-released by Revell), this is a sheet worth picking up. Just be ready to do a bit of extra research to accurately depict your chosen subject.