F-100D in French Service

Spada Decals, 1/32 scale

Reviewed by Rodger Kelly

HyperScale is proudly supported by Squadron

Spada Decals is a new company out of France. 

They join the already crowded world of decal manufacturers but a visit to their website advises that they are first and foremost, a group of passionate modellers that have banded together to produce decal sheets that are: 

• Not done by the larger manufacturers, and

• For models that are new to (or due be released on) the market.

Well, they certainly have met this criterion with the release of this sheet. 

SD-32004 provided markings for six F-100D Super Sabre aircraft in French service for the forthcoming Trumpeter kit.  The individual aircraft are as follows: 

·        F-100D-10-NA 54-2158 - in natural metal finish - of E/C 2/3 "Champagne" at Reims in 1960. 

·        F-100D-5-NA 54-2150 - in natural metal finish – of EC 1/11 "Roussillon" at Lahr in 1966. 

·        F-100D-35-NH 55-2736 – in tri-colour camouflage – of E/C 2/11 "Vosges" at Toul in 1974. 

·        F-100D-10-NA 54-2158 -- in natural metal finish – of EC 1/3 "Navarre" at Reims in 1960. 

·        F-100D-35-55-2739 - tri-colour camouflage – of EC 4/11 "Jura" at Djibouti, in 1976. 

·        F-100D-1 –NA 54-2129 2158 -- in natural metal finish – of EC 3/11 "Corse" at Bremgarten in 1967. 

The decals themselves are printed by Aviprint – nice decals and easy to use! 

Click thumbnails below to view larger images:

All designs on the sheet are in perfect register including the very, very thin yellow line around the French national insignia roundels and the tiny details on the EC4/11 squadron insignia.  The decals are thin and have an absolute minimum of film surrounding each design.  Two sets of National insignia are proved.  A "large" set for the natural metal finish machines and a "small" set for the camouflage wearing machines. 

Unfortunately, not a skerrick of stencil data is provided at all and the instruction sheet advises that "this decal sheet is to be used as a compliment to the kit decal sheet", hmmm, I wonder if they have seen the new Trumpeter kit's decal sheet yet? 

The instructions come via a barely adequate double sided A-4 sized sheet.  I say barely adequate as the profiles are tiny and pixillated.  The written dialogue advises that when camouflaged, the F-100 in French service wore the standard USAF South East Asia Scheme and colours with an "unknown" light blue underside. 

The decal sheet and the instructions come packed in a clear plastic zip-loc bag.

There is no doubting that the Aviprint decals are of excellent quality, however, the supporting documentation lets them down.  Still and all though, I would recommend the product to fans of French military aviation.

Reviewer's Footnote 

Don't dismiss Spada decals out of hand just yet.  A visit to their website at http://www.spada-decals.com/cariboost1/crbst_0.html reveals that they have some interesting stuff in store for us in the near future.  Their basic philosophy is sound and I'm sure that they can only improve their supporting documentation given time!

Thanks to Spada Decals for the review sample.

Review Copyright © 2007 by Rodger Kelly
This Page Created on 11 March, 2007
Last updated 24 December, 2007

Back to HyperScale Main Page

Back to Reviews Page