Hobby Decal | AE32001 1/32 F-14A Tomcat in Iranian Service
Reviewed by Chris Sherland
The only other force besides the US Navy to deploy the F-14 Tomcat was (or possibly "is") Iran. Iranian Tomcats were delivered in 1974 and participated in the Iran/Iraq war. Some believe that this fleet (over 80 airframes delivered) is long dead, starved for spares and left to rot, while others report that there are still a few flyable to this day.
Air to air victory claims by Iranian "Alicat" crews range from a dozen or so, to figures well over 150. Who really knows the true combat record of these rare birds?
HobbyDecal's sheet is again a mixed media offering including the now classic dry transfers and standard waterslide sheets (printed by Crossdelta). Both types are well printed and of high quality. It is quite clear that the name HobbyDecal brings with it a level of quality and accuracy that is consistently high.
The research is very extensive and the decals allow for the modeler to squeeze out possibly two of the seven aircraft provided. The schemes covered the entire known operational history of the Iranian Tomcat, both pre and post revolution paint schemes are provided on a huge poster-sized full color instruction sheet that is suitable for framing.
Either the Revell or Tamiya 1/32 Tomcat can be used here and all marking including a vast set of stencils are included.
Thanks to HobbyDecal for the review sample.
© Chris Sherland 2001
This review was published on Saturday, July 02 2011; Last modified on Wednesday, May 18 2016