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Remove Before Flight Tags (UK) - 1:48 Eduard


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Remove Before Flight Tags (UK)



1:48 Eduard

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A modern aircraft on the flight-line will usually have lots of Remove Before Flight (RBF) tags flapping in the breeze. They are attached to sensor covers, Foreign Object Debris covers and locking pins, and draw attention to their continued presence if they should have been removed prior to the aircraft's departure.

Adding them to a model gives a sense of scale and realism that is highly desirable (to this modeller at least), but they aren't always that easy to get hold of, or make yourself. Now they are.

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This set contains 26 long, 26 medium and 18 short tags on a fret of Photo-Etch (PE) metal 7cm x 4.7cm. The tags are etched half-way through the sheet to give them a scale thickness, and they are painted on both sides with a typical red/white diagonal stripe. At one end is an eye where the tag is tied to the cover, and as well as a hole in the tag, there is a tiny border of bare metal that depicts the eye itself. Removal of the tags is straightforward, as the sprue-gates are thin and at each end of the tags. Pressure with the end of a curved blade on a hard surface should see them cut through, and if you are careful with the cut, no cleaning up or touching up should be needed.

Conclusion

These tags are a useful tool for any builder of modern jets to have on hand, and once cut off, a quick twist will give them a more natural dog-eared appearance. The parts are numbered, but as there are no instructions the modeller will have to check his references to see where each tag is most likely used.

A fully loaded jet with tags fluttering in the imagined breeze looks impressive, and Eduard have now given us all the tools to do one of our own.

Highly recommended.

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Review sample courtesy of

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  • 4 weeks later...

Etched brass tags always look like etched brass! However, Eduard are listing a set of 1/48 Luftwaffe seat harnesses in *fabric* among their imminent releases, describing this as 'New Technology' (Info Eduard, December 2012)...so maybe they'll catch up with RBF tags one day.

(Now that I have a shedload of etched ones, of course!)

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Now before I shove my foot in it......was it 'only' USA that actually have 'Remove Before Flight' written on the tabs or did the UK have as above & only that?

ATB & great review, thanks............

Some other nations have "Remove Before Flight" written on the flags as well, and I've seen UK aircraft with a mixture of some striped and some written. Israeli aircraft can have a mixture of written flags in both English and Hebrew.

Sometimes it is the weapons that have the written flags while the aircraft's flags are striped. For example, the safety pins for a Paveway IV tend to be "Remove Before Flight", as are some of the pins for UK Paveway III and ASRAAM. That said, sometimes you can see some that are striped.

Check some references for guidance and you should be fine.

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Some other nations have "Remove Before Flight" written on the flags as well, and I've seen UK aircraft with a mixture of some striped and some written. Israeli aircraft can have a mixture of written flags in both English and Hebrew.

Sometimes it is the weapons that have the written flags while the aircraft's flags are striped. For example, the safety pins for a Paveway IV tend to be "Remove Before Flight", as are some of the pins for UK Paveway III and ASRAAM. That said, sometimes you can see some that are striped.

Check some references for guidance and you should be fine.

Thanks for the info Bobski..........

ATB

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At least we have a decent option for RAF style tags, all the others I've tried have not been that great so I made my own from thin lead.

I do wish they'd made them from vinyl like the Aires ones though. The Aires RBF tages are the best ones I've used.

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