Lightningboy2000 Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 Just recently I started a 1/72 F-5E Tiger and intend to build one of the Aggressors based at Alconbury. I'm slowly going through building Cold War jets based in East Anglia. I've got the Heller kit which includes airframe 01535 "black 35 in the blue/grey scheme. The thing is, the yellow on the sheet has been printed out of register. This is important as the large black numerals are bordered by yellow. Now did Heller notice this and correct the misprint or are all these sheets out of register? If anybody can help out with sparing the decals that would be great. Also can I make up an F-5 that was based at Alconbury with the 1/72 Agressor schemes that are available. Are there sheets for codes, squadron badges or the large bort numbers that they carried? Thankyou all Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lasermonkey Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 There were two or three 1/72 decal sheets by Two Bobs that covered Alconbury F-5Es, though they're sadly long out of print and impossible to find. I've been actively looking for over a year, with no luck. The only other option I can think of is the older Airfix boxing of their F-5E, which had a 527th AS example as one of the subjects. The latest starter set doesn't. Hope this helps, Mark. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 The original Italeri F-5E box included decals for 74-1543 when based at Alconbury in the mid '70s. "Bort" number is 43, a picture can be seen here As I'm not likely to build my F-5E in Aggressor markings, I'm happy to part with these decals if you're interested. Mind, I can't guarantee they are still useable, I bought the kit at a swap meet years ago and the decals must be 25 year old... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tempestfan Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 7 hours ago, Lightningboy2000 said: Now did Heller notice this and correct the misprint or are all these sheets out of register? I guess it's a case of luck. Airfix and Heller decals from that period (I guess you have a mid 90s boxing ?) were notorious for their hit-and-miss Quality - if you got a sheet in Register, you had luck. I guess they didn't care that much, just like Revell. The head of Revell's Abteilung X once told me that they only checked the first sheet in a Batch, if that was OK, the Batch was accepted, after I had sent him about 60 out of Register Sheets. Not Long after, they dropped their local supplier and turned to Cartograf, Zanchetti and I think another Printer also from Italy. I am not sure how many boxings the Airfix F-5E had with Heller, but if there are later ones, chances are that the decals are better, as Airfix decals tended to be better from around 2000 onwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
flyingpiggy Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 14 hours ago, Giorgio N said: The original Italeri F-5E box included decals for 74-1543 when based at Alconbury in the mid '70s. "Bort" number is 43, a picture can be seen her As I'm not likely to build my F-5E in Aggressor markings, I'm happy to part with these decals if you're interested. Mind, I can't guarantee they are still useable, I bought the kit at a swap meet years ago and the decals must be 25 year old... Im sure I'm likely to be shot for this suggestion but...... Set scanner to high DPI copy Giorgio N's 25 yr olds, just in case they blow up ! Next inset decal paper into printer set all settings to max quality and print. Works for me on the old kits that I love to build. If you are really good with image manipulation programs ( what ever they are) you can improve the look of them before printing. And as long as you are just not entering the model for competition they might suffice. Also swerve hefty legal bills and don't offer them for sale!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted February 9, 2017 Author Share Posted February 9, 2017 14 hours ago, Giorgio N said: The original Italeri F-5E box included decals for 74-1543 when based at Alconbury in the mid '70s. "Bort" number is 43, a picture can be seen here As I'm not likely to build my F-5E in Aggressor markings, I'm happy to part with these decals if you're interested. Mind, I can't guarantee they are still useable, I bought the kit at a swap meet years ago and the decals must be 25 year old... Hi Giorgio may I take you up on your offer? Sounds tempting. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted February 9, 2017 Author Share Posted February 9, 2017 19 hours ago, lasermonkey said: There were two or three 1/72 decal sheets by Two Bobs that covered Alconbury F-5Es, though they're sadly long out of print and impossible to find. I've been actively looking for over a year, with no luck. The only other option I can think of is the older Airfix boxing of their F-5E, which had a 527th AS example as one of the subjects. The latest starter set doesn't. Hope this helps, Mark. Many thanks Mark, that "Airfix boxing of their F-5E, which had a 527th AS example", is it this one? If it is I'll have a look around for this as well & build it out of the box for a change. Cheers Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted February 9, 2017 Author Share Posted February 9, 2017 14 minutes ago, flyingpiggy said: Im sure I'm likely to be shot for this suggestion but...... Set scanner to high DPI copy Giorgio N's 25 yr olds, just in case they blow up ! Next inset decal paper into printer set all settings to max quality and print. Works for me on the old kits that I love to build. If you are really good with image manipulation programs ( what ever they are) you can improve the look of them before printing. And as long as you are just not entering the model for competition they might suffice. Also swerve hefty legal bills and don't offer them for sale!!! Hmmm now that's another idea. Did you use an inkjet printer? I recently had a look at ALPS printers after browsing the Syh@rt website and reading how he started out, but all that isn't really what I'm prepared to do. I used to work as a screen printer & know that screened decals are the only way to go if you want to do it properly, but I havn't got the work space or money to start that up. A bit of outside investment and some premises would be nice. Oh & I don't enter my models into competition, only show off at the local club. I wouldn't have thought scanning and printing the odd numeral would do any harm as that's all I need. Now I must contact a few old spotter contacts for some old serial logs! Cheers! Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lasermonkey Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 @Lightningboy2000 That's the earliest boxing which I don't think has the Alconbury markings. The one you want is this one: ..although it has the other option on the box top. These are the decals: Hope this helps, Mark. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted February 10, 2017 Author Share Posted February 10, 2017 Thanks Mark, looks like the register of the yellow is out on that sheet as well. I'll have a look through some boxings when I attend my next show I think. I'm sure I will find a few of these. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 8 hours ago, Lightningboy2000 said: Hi Giorgio may I take you up on your offer? Sounds tempting. Martin Glad to help! Drop me a pm and we Can arrange 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 I had three examples of the boxing in Lasermonkeys post, but all sheets were so badly out of register as to be unusable. Cheers, Andre 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tempestfan Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 A possible source may also be Micro/Superscale, I'm quite certain they had a number of Aggressor/Adversary Sheets, so possibly also covering your Squadron. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob de Bie Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 (edited) 13 hours ago, Lightningboy2000 said: Hmmm now that's another idea. Did you use an inkjet printer? I recently had a look at ALPS printers after browsing the Syh@rt website and reading how he started out, but all that isn't really what I'm prepared to do. If you know how to do vector art work for decals, you can also have them printed by a custom Alps printer. I have a long list on my website: Design your own Alps / OKI custom decals - custom decal companies Rob Edited February 10, 2017 by Rob de Bie 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted February 10, 2017 Author Share Posted February 10, 2017 2 hours ago, Rob de Bie said: If you know how to do vector art work for decals, you can also have them printed by a custom Alps printer. I have a long list on my website: Design your own Alps / OKI custom decals - Custom decal companies Rob Hi Rob, yes I regularly use illustrator. That is really great help thanks, I might make up a sheet (of another subject) for somebody to print. I have some good ideas up my sleeve, a subject that no-one else has covered. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob de Bie Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 10 minutes ago, Lightningboy2000 said: Hi Rob, yes I regularly use illustrator. That is really great help thanks, I might make up a sheet (of another subject) for somebody to print. I have some good ideas up my sleeve, a subject that no-one else has covered. Martin That's great! In that case, study my Alps decal page a bit to understand how to make artwork suitable for an Alps printer. You have a limited palette, and should try to stick to 'pure' colors that use 100% cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Or CMYK and RGB if your custom printer has RGB cartridges. If your try dither print, it's always a gamble how it comes out. Sometimes it looks OK, sometimes it doesn't. I once tried dither printing a colour similar to USAF Insignia Blue, and that came out acceptable to my surprise. Rob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lightningboy2000 Posted February 10, 2017 Author Share Posted February 10, 2017 6 minutes ago, Rob de Bie said: That's great! In that case, study my Alps decal page a bit to understand how to make artwork suitable for an Alps printer. You have a limited palette, and should try to stick to 'pure' colors that use 100% cyan, magenta, yellow and black. Or CMYK and RGB if your custom printer has RGB cartridges. If your try dither print, it's always a gamble how it comes out. Sometimes it looks OK, sometimes it doesn't. I once tried dither printing a colour similar to USAF Insignia Blue, and that came out acceptable to my surprise. Rob Thanks for that Rob and the advice on pure colors, I see what you mean about dither printing. So that whole page was done by you then, have you got a personal link on there, do you do printing? I've made a quick illustration of a couple of bort numbers in illustrator and will see how it comes out from my canon inkjet printer. Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob de Bie Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 18 minutes ago, Lightningboy2000 said: Thanks for that Rob and the advice on pure colors, I see what you mean about dither printing. So that whole page was done by you then, have you got a personal link on there, do you do printing? I've made a quick illustration of a couple of bort numbers in illustrator and will see how it comes out from my canon inkjet printer. Martin Yes, I created the whole page, in an attempt to understand how to design Alps decals, without having an Alps printer Especially the colour palette thing took me a while to understand. In the end I did buy a printer, but I haven't used it much, still learning how to use it, and very afraid to damage it. The print head is very vulnerable, and can be ruined by one piece of hard dirt. So I don't offer a printing service myself, but there are plenty of custom printers. If your artwork is good, Alps decals are extremely nice, almost as good as the best kit decals I would say. So go for it! Rob Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hook Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 6 hours ago, tempestfan said: A possible source may also be Micro/Superscale, I'm quite certain they had a number of Aggressor/Adversary Sheets, so possibly also covering your Squadron. https://www.scalemates.com/kits/228179-superscale-international-72-366-f-5e-tiger HTH, Andre 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tempestfan Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 Jep, that sheet on Scalemates prompted my post. I see if I manage to look up the listing in D&S, to see what was available. 30 years ago 😉 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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