Scimitar F1

I love the masks that 1manarmy makes for stencilling on 1/32 aircraft. Building a VF-161 Phantom I am hitting problems with the gray colour of all the current decal manufacturers markings being wrong. I have tried making masks for the BuAer number and USS Midway on my Cricut but it chews through the masking material. I had no luck with custom decals getting the right colour. I even asked Sven who is 1manarmy and he is just too busy. In short does anyone have an idea of how to create really fine masks - probably using a laser cutter? Or even better able to cut them for me? Any help would be much appreciated! Will

It may be logical but it is not correct. When I was building the Airfix Mk1 in 2020 I wanted to check this out. I was at Duxford and they had a Mk 1 so I asked if I could get some detail photos that they agreed to kindly. So under the wing I went and had a look for myself. And yes the walls of the wheel well are not perpendicular to the wing lower surface. They are at an angle with the join with the upper surface behind the join to the lower surface.

I got permission to climb under a MK1 at Duxford - the wheel well was definitely slanted.

Really impressive - what boxing did you use?

Fantastic builds - are there any good shots of the original TT5?

The EDSG is more interesting. The sample mix here is mush more of an outlier than the Sky one. Most of us will only have been exposed to EDSG on FAA aircraft as there are so few wartime shots of Coastal Command aircraft im colour and the I don or think the films were particularly accurate. Almost every shot of an FAA aircraft (and I am partial - check out my username!) appears much lighter than the paints of the same colour. Every time this is mentioned fading is immediately wheeled out as the resin for the disparity. Seeing this I am not convinced by the latter argument - particularly as Carrier borne aircraft are constantly retouched up and so should look like they had the pox but do not really. I think that this may have an explanation! @Casey please keep up the great work. You have moved the argument on more in this thread than I have seen. Colour is a science and not an art in as much as it is measurable and repeatable - your technical approach has merit!

To my eye this looks pretty much on the nail

Thank you for the detail shot - you can never have enough! Will

That is what I thought but have seen at least one other now (not that I can remember the type!)

Spot on @Steve McArthur it is something to do with the brakes - incredibly they are the brake lines themselves! It only became clear when we reviewed the technical manuals. Not sure the best way to render - it may be photo etch.

There may well be a 3D printed 1/32 version available but please do not hold us to that!

A bit more of the CAD to show. There is at least one issue that I have already fed back to the designer. Took us a while to work out why there appears to be 2 torque links on the main UC?

That is a good idea and we will look to do that!

I only like them when they are appropriate for the scale thickness. Wing fences in IM plastic, for example, just do not have the finesse. Our intention is to make them easy to use (I.e. a groove on the upper wing surface to accept the wing fence.) and design in from the start. Yes it is in 1/48.

The wing fences will be etched to get scale thickness and are looking at how to make their use straightforward. We are looking at where we can utilise PE to improve accuracy on things such as the U/C doors where it will be combined with IM plastic.