Undoubtedly one of the best known C-130s is the US Marine's 'Fat Albert'. Not only is it used to transport support personnel and spare parts, but it also puts on quite a show by itself. If you have never seen a Blue Angels performance, you need to attend a local air show. It is probably the only time you'll ever get to see an aircraft perform a JATO assist take-off and the way the pilots maneuver the plane is really something to be seen.

Those wanting to model this aircraft have not been well served aside from a few times that kit makers have included these markings in a kit, but those have been few and far between. Especially left out of this are 1/48 Hercules enthusiasts. Now that is not the case. Though the Marines use a C-130T, it appears that the only big scale Hercules, Italeri's C-130H, is quite usable in this regard. It seems that all the external bits are the same or easily modified.

Now on to the decal sheet. It is huge, measuring 9 x 12.5 inches in size. It includes all of the markings to properly build a nice replica save the very large stripe and nose band, which frankly, are better painted on. This is not an ALPS sheet but a standard water-slide production. The sheet does not come with a placement guide, but really, you don't need one, though I've been told that one is in the works. The decals are superbly printed and the red bars for the insignia are separate items to prevent issues with placement.

Steve does not yet have a web site so to order this sheet, you'll need to e-mail him at steplford@yahoo.com or do an e-bay search for modelsteve_fifty. Since this is a short production sheet, you'll need to get one soon to prevent disappointment if it sells out.

My thanks to Steve Ford for sending in the review sample. Contact him at this e-mail for more details.

If you would like your product reviewed fairly and fairly quickly, please contact the editor or see other details in the Note to Contributors.

Back to the Decal Review Index