McDonnell Douglas A-4 Skyhawk
Part 2 - Royal New Zealand Air Force

On Target Special Decal

Air-Graphic Models, 1/72 scale

Reviewed by Graham Carter

A mouthful of a title for a specialist sheet for one of the world’s best known and popular small fighter-bomber aeroplanes. It comes in the familiar clear zip-lock bag and consists of one large sheet and a small additional one.  Also included, and very necessary, is a sixteen-page full colour A5 instruction booklet that covers the range of the possible applications of the markings. This includes a number of colour images of the examples on the sheets. 

The markings cover the period from the 1970s green/tan over pale grey,  a late 1980  one in bare metal, through the Australian-purchased examples in Aircraft Grey/Light Admiralty Grey mid-80s period, then the two greens/dark grey overall schemes of the late 80s up to the overall dark green in the late 90s-2001 period.

There is also the delightful all-gold display example with red and white stripes.

Also included is a paint guide listing the required colours by name and FS numbers produced by Humbrol, Xtracolour, Hataka, Modelmaster, Gunz Sangyo, Tamiya, Lifecolor, SMS and MRP. It's a shame that Vallejo has missed out. Only the first two are enamels, the rest being acrylics.

Some of the aircraft are A4Gs but a few are the different A4K Kahu examples which have a different fin, among other features, so some conversion work will be required although there is a promo for a resin conversion set, CS-31 towards the rear of the booklet.

I’m not going to list all seventeen  examples, Suffice to say that you can build the whole gamut of schemes used by the RNZAF, from the high-vis Kiwi red and white roundel period, the red/blue kiwis, through to the low-vis black markings used at the end of its service. Details can be gleaned from the Hannants site. As we have come to expect, the decals are beautifully printed in gloss on a mid-blue backing sheet with zero carrier film to worry about. Colour density is great and register perfect - the squadron badges are works of art. There are no stencils provided as the modeller can get those from any of the available kits and there are plenty out there to use. Each aeroplane is treated to a full page four-view set of colour drawings showing schemes and decal placement. The vast number of spare serials indicate that you could probably build every one of the RNZAF examples if you have the reference material. 

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These are a very interesting range of schemes and markings and if this is your interest area and your stash allows for the number of choices, then the sheet comes highly recommended. A collection of Skyhawks does not take up much room on the shelf!

Thanks to Air-Graphic Models for the sample.

Text Copyright © 2025 by Graham Carter
This Page Created on 5 June, 2025
Last updated 5 June, 2025

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