Two Bobs Aviation Graphics

 F-14B VF-74 Be-Devilers decal sheet

 Circa December 1993

1/48 scale product #48045

Product Article by Steve Bamford

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VF-74 was the first fleet squadron to transition to the B model of the F-14 in 1988.  VF-74 was also the first squadron to fire an AIM-54 from a B model Tomcat.  In August of 1993 VF-74 took a few of their aircraft and painted them in a stylized "Flanker" style camouflage scheme and took on the fleet adversary mission at NAS Oceana.  The aircraft represented on this sheet show these A/C in December of 1993.  These paint schemes did not last very long though with the squadron being disestablished in April of 1994. 

There are three aircraft represented on this sheet including enough markings for two complete aircraft. 

VF-74 applied a lot of drop shadows to the stencil data and national insignia ofthese aircraft and these have been split up into two decals when necessary to compensate for any registration errors during the printing process.

A/C 101 has the brighter markings with the Be-Devilers tail logo done in red and some of the stencil data being done in insignia yellow.  This A/C also features full color national insignia.  A/C 105 and 107 feature the subdued gray tail markings and subdued national insignia. 

References for this sheet were supplied by a couple of good buddies of the Twobobs.  Bruce Trombecky and Darren Roberts. Bruce is a former aviation photographer for the US Navy and helped them out quite a bit on these.  He probably has the only pics in existence of the undersides of these aircraft.  He also provided the Two Bobs with some good air to air shots of 101 that showed the camo scheme from above.

 

I'm sure lots of you know of Darren Roberts through this website.  He's the skilled modeller that scratchbuilt the 48th scale A-5 Vigilante you can see here on ARC.  Darren's a Tomcat fanatic and gave the Two Bobs some help on verifying the colors used on this jet.  Twenty E-mails later, they knew they had it right!

Bob and Bob want to thank both of these guys for their help.

The printing quality of these decals is up to the usual high standard we've come to expect from the Two Bobs.  Breaking some of the more complicated markings into 2 layers of decals will ensure there aren't any registration problems, which is always a very welcome touch and I for one appreciate the Twobobs for their attention to detail in such ways.

Colours on the decal sheet looks good and are crisp and clearly printed.  The instruction sheets are well laid out and show the planes from both sides as well as top and bottom.  Colours for the camo paint is given in 4 different brands (Testors, Humbrol, Gunze Sangyo and Xtracolor), so you're sure to be able to use a brand of paint you prefer.

These are rare F-14's and will provide some very interesting options for Tomcat fans. 

This sheet is available through http://www.twobobs.net/ and select US Hobby Shops.  Overseas customers can purchase these from Twobobs site or through Twobobs network of overseas distributors.  Remember, shipping is always FREE to US Customers at Twobobs!! 

Steve

Photos and text © by Steve Bamford