I'm going to go on a limb and say that our red plane is Windsweeper after all; I think the grey V corresponds to the toy's chest sticker. He's very much in the background.
Soundwave's grunts, in a bit more depth after a 87-88 toy search:
In the first panel of his address, I believe I see Horri-bull - in his original grey and blue colors. Next to him is Crankcase, Spinister, and who I believe to be Needlenose. Next to Needlenose is..someone with a very Onslaught-ish dark green and black color scheme with what looks to be a large barrel on his back, has a mouthpiece and yellow visor. Below him is either Pounce or Wingspan, arms folded, lookin' all moody.
Up front, before the superior mixing machine, we have Ruckus...next to someone who is completely green and purple. I want to say Skullcruncher but the legs are completely purple, and the chest and groin are green, with a purple pectoral attachment.
Next panel, SW is standing in front of four bots who are of a mostly green and purple coloration, but lighter (No, not our favorite building team
)...and one seems to have some form of shiny sphere in his belly. O_o Next to them, off to the right is someone I can't identify for the life of me; grey torso from the little that can be seen of him, red mouthpiece, light blue visor, grey head-top with what is apparently a fin accessory on top.
Welp, that's that! If only these guys had had more than 3 eps on the show back when I was a kid, I might not have been having such trouble! (Only post-86 figures I owned as a kid were Apeface, the Decepticon Sports Car Patrol, and for some reason Roadgrabber...who I think I still have somewhere. :p)