Icarus Decals 1/72 & 1/48 336 Sqn Anniversary A-7

The latest from Icarus covers another interesting special scheme aircraft from Greece, this time an A-7 Corsair II. As the US Navy retired its A-7Es, Greece picked some up to supplement their fleet of A-7Hs. Fast forward a few years, and those A-7Es were around for some spectacular anniversary schemes. While many are familiar with the impressive Tiger scheme worn by one Greek A-7E, this decal sheet covers another one with a simpler, yet still striking, anniversary scheme.

The aircraft in question is the A-7E, BuNo 160616, from 336 "Olympos" Squadron, 116CW, in 2008. It was painted up this way in November 2007 to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the squadron. The aircraft is overall black, with silver accents. These include mountains on the rear fuselage, an eagle on the vertical fin, the squadron number and Greek flag on the wings, with text and pirate insignia on the forward fuselage. There are quite a few good photos of this aircraft on Airliners.net (just search on 160616), and those show how simple this scheme is.

That said, there is a bit of a challenge in using this decal sheet, as the fuselage silver mountains are not provided as decals. This is very wise, as there really would be no way to get a decal to fit around all those compound curves. Icarus has provided a paper template for the mountains, though, so you can photocopy that and use that to mask the rear fuselage. The silver is a dull silver, so choose a paint that matches the decal. The decals themselves are very nicely printed, and although some are large, there should be no problem in application.

If you are looking for an interesting and fun A-7 to build up, this decal sheet might be just the ticket. My thanks to Icarus for the review sample.