CH-53E Heavy Haulers

Sheet FL48001 released by Flying Leatherneck Decals in April 2008 features markings for eight CH-53E's of the 22nd MEU and contains an impressive reference CD-Rom about the CH-53E. This sheet is designed for Academy's 1/48th CH-53E Super Stallion. Here is a close look on what you get.

Decals

The set contains two decal sheets. The first and main decal sheet contains markings for a total of 8 different machines of the 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU). Two of them including black and white door art, three aircraft have colored door art.

Two aircraft are assigned to the ACE of HMM-261 attached to the 22nd MEU. Three aircraft are from HMH-461 "Ironhorse" and three from HMH-464 "Condors", all of them stationed at MCAS New River, NC.

The main decal sheet is printed by Cartograf. The decals themselves look very thin, crisp and appear to be in perfect register on my sheet. Here is a close up of a few decals that shows the excellent quality:

The second and smaller decalsheet contains the colored door art. This smaller sheet is printed on a continious clear film by Archer Fine Transfers. These 3 decals must be used in combination with the white background decals that are found on the main sheet. Using a sharp blade you should carefully trim the excess decal film from around the door art image. They can be applied like any other decal.

The sheets doesn't contain stencils as those in the kit are complete and accurate.

Markings

Here is a detailled overview of the 8 aircrafts that can be build:

• CH-53E CJ 16 BuNo 162526, HMH-461, MCAS New River, NC April 2008
• CH-53E CJ 20 BuNo 163062, HMH-461, MCAS New River, NC April 2008
• CH-53E CJ 21 BuNo 163063, HMH-461, MCAS New River, NC April 2008
• CH-53E EN 08 BuNo 161533, HMH-464, MCAS New River, NC April 2008
• CH-53E EN 11 BuNo 162001, HMH-464, MCAS New River, NC April 2008
• CH-53E EN 12 BuNo 162481, HMH-464, MCAS New River, NC April 2008
• CH-53E Cadillac 21 - 22nd MEU(SOC) EM 21 BuNo 162521 HMH-461 attached to HMM-261(REIN)ACE
• CH-53E Cadillac 22 - 22nd MEU(SOC) EM 22 BuNo 161955 HMH-461 attached to HMM-261(REIN)ACE

Reference Pictures

Next to the excellent decals you get a CD-Rom containing reference pictures and instruction sheets.

You get a total of 212 high quality reference pictures of the CH-53E. All pictures are of high quality (dimensions go up to 2736x1824px). Combined they take up 219 Megabytes of storage. The pictures are grouped into following 5 folders:

• Cockpit: 29 pictures cover the overhead console, main console, pilot seats, cabin walls, side windows, pedals, stick...
• General Airframe Details: A total of 105 pictures showing the tiniest details of the CH-53 airframe and cabin
• HMH-461: 32 pictures covering the three aircraft from HMH-461 including nosegear and doorart
• HMH-464: 24 pictures covering the three aircraft from HMH-461 including nosegear and doorart
• HMM-261:  23 pictures covering the Cadillac 21 and Cadillac 22 from HMH-461 including  doorart

Below you can see some sample pictures

Adding a CD-Rom with reference pictures related to the subject of the decal sheet is in my opinion a great benefit. I hope this is not a one time action and that we get more CD's in the future when buying our decals.

Instruction sheets

The sixth folder on the CD contains the instruction sheets in PDF format. The instructions are clear and include 2 side views and 1 frontview of each aircraft. Below you can see 2 of them:

Conclusion

Based on the quality of the printing, the amount of markings included and the additional CH-53E Reference CD-Rom I can only recommend this product if you want to build the 1/48th Academy CH-53E. And for $17.00 it is definitely a bargain.