The Alpha Jet has been, and remains, a core part of the Belgian Air Component’s arsenal. Perhaps, however, it is more famous for being a vessel for some very creative and colourful paint schemes, these include some plane-shaped national flags, to some more abstract schemes.

Syhart has made it possible to make one such scheme from 2003. This scheme was less extreme than some of the other variants, no less bold. Many have commented that the scheme helps bring to life a ‘what if’ of if the aircraft was the mount of the Belgian National Aerobatics team – The Red Devils.

Of course, the scheme does lack the distinctive Belgian flag on the underside of the wings and tail plane like the actual team, and does not bare the team name. However, the red is very similar and striking.

Now, as per my review (click here) I imagine you could use either the Airfix or Heller versions of the Alpha Jet. Personally, I used the newest Airfix boxing – purely as that was what I had to hand. I didn’t want to do just a normal scheme, and that is when I came across Syhart Decals lovely rendition.

Now these decals do come rather beautifully presented. They  come in a small packet with the image on the left. They also feature some pictures of the real life aircraft, and colour instructions for the decals.

The decals are almost perfect. I had one small blemish on the Belgian flag where the yellow had slightly seeped out (and I basically just cut it off). I was very happy to notice they left the red section of the tricolour blank so that you did not have to painfully colour match.

The instructions also give you paint numbers for Revell paints (which are what I used for my build, all be it being prior to me having an airbrush). The red used was Revell Fire Red 31 Aqua Colour, Acrylic. It’s one colour – so no harder than a Red Arrows.

The decals fit perfectly and are well designed. The silver will go on a bit ‘lumpy’ but dry perfectly flat. None of the decals are too delicate and the vibrancy of the colour is fantastic. I found it very amusing and very Belgian to put them down, the website decal making me smile the most.

What was very lovely was the inclusion of the cockpit-glass decals. These are something that I’ve not seen with many decal packs and were a welcome addition here, as it really helped the cockpit ‘come alive’ in my opinion.

Overall I’d recommend these decals to anyone who wants to build a truly unique Alpha Jet with a high quality finish, that will surely gather a lot of attention from any model admirers. That or anyone who just loves bright colour schemes or Belgium!

Review by Lexi (Little Miss Modeller).