Interesting aircraft, good kits - lack of decal choices

[Wez]

I was in my local ModelZone the other day and saw boxes for the Revell F89D/J Scorpion, I've got this kit, I've had it since it was first released, it's a very nice kit but there's one thing that's always bewildered me about this subject and many others like it and that is why aren't there more decals for this kit.

The kits come with interesting schemes but the Scorpion was used by many, many regular units as well as plenty of service with the ANG so there's a plethora of schemes but I can only think of a couple of aftermarket decal sheets which were released around the time that the kit was originally released - but these only cover about a dozen schemes out of many, many more options but there's loads more of very colourful schemes that aren't covered.

I can't help but think that more of these kits would be sold if there were more schemes available, I know I'd buy more.

So I got thinking about other neglected subjects that there are great kits for... ...Hasegawa's F9F-8 Cougar is another kit that springs to mind. The wonderful ESCI/Italeri F-5A/B went for a long time without there being many choices outside the kit options but that's changed in recent years.

Can anybody think of others?

Regards

Wez

Edited June 22, 2013 by Wez

[Dave Fleming]

A little off the 'Cold War' area, but a lack of RFC decals for the Eduard 1/72 Nie 17 kits is a personal bugbear!

Alternative decals for the Heller and Airfix 1/72 Javelins.

[Jennings Heilig]

I just don't think the F-89 has ever been a particularly popular subject, in part because you have a choice (except for very late ANG birds) of natural metal or natural metal. That always puts off about 75% of the modeling public right there.

J

[Flankerman]

Didn't some of the later F-89J's wear ADC Gray ????

It's outside my usual area of interest - but I like the Scorpion so much I built two of them - the Hobbycraft F-89A and the Revell F-89J.....

I wanted to do another one as an F-89B of the 190th FIS covered in yellow stars - but couldn't find any decals for it.

As Wez points out - there aren't that many decal sheets on the market.

Ken

[Julien]

Didn't some of the later F-89J's wear ADC Gray ????

Ken

They did, check out the 5th pic down on this link from the Happy Hooligans.

http://jetpilotoverseas.wordpress.com/category/f-89-scorpion/

However Jenning's answer probably is right, I can only recall the one sheet from Skylancer, and the options on that were less than exciting.

Julien

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Aircraft as mainstream as the F-8 Crusader and F-86 Sabre have a sad lack of decal choices. There are a few sheets available, not not nearly as many as one would expect.

Compare this with the situation thirty years ago when Microscale had literally dozens of sheets for each subject. It's aboy time that someone got hold of the old Microscale artwork and started to re-release these sheets.

[Wez]

I just don't think the F-89 has ever been a particularly popular subject, in part because you have a choice (except for very late ANG birds) of natural metal or natural metal. That always puts off about 75% of the modeling public right there.

J

Jennings,

You may have a point there but I was really just using the F-89 as an example (because it was seeing the boxes in ModelZone which reminded me), there are other examples the F9F-8 for example.

Ken,

Nice Scorpions.

Wez

[Julien]

Aircraft as mainstream as the F-8 Crusader and F-86 Sabre have a sad lack of decal choices. There are a few sheets available, not not nearly as many as one would expect.Compare this with the situation thirty years ago when Microscale had literally dozens of sheets for each subject. It's aboy time that someone got hold of the old Microscale artwork and started to re-release these sheets.

With you on those. Both I like to model and even though you think there are a lot, there are not.

Julien

[Adam Maas]

With you on those. Both I like to model and even though you think there are a lot, there are not.

Julien

There's more than you'd think for the Sabre at least. A quick visit to Spruebrothers finds just shy of 30 sheets for the Sabre, including several that are generics allowing you to do lesser-known USAF, ANG or JASDF Sabres with standard markings. And that doesn't count the 6-8 sheets Leading Edge has done over the last few years for RCAF Sabres.

The Crusader on the other hand is much less common, less than 10 sheets on Spruebrothers and none covering France or the Phillipines.

I would like to see those old Microscale sheets get re-released, but who knows who has the artwork today, or even if it still exists.

[Julien]

Most of those decal sheets are 1/48 and I do mainly 1/72.

There are some decals out there if you are willing to look hard enough, the platz ones are nice. Best Fong from Taiwan do some nice decals in 1.72 and recently LF models did some Spanish Decals. Santa Cruz did some nice Portuguse decals but they are hard to source. Vingtor do some Norway decals and like you said Leading Edge do some nice Canadian stuff. Model Alliance did some good comonwealth decals as well.

Its a shame The old 1/72 microscale stuff has never been re-printed as they seem to concentrate on 1.48 these days.

You are right on the F-8 decals. I have not seen many French sheets, Cutting Edge did one. Also Albatross did one that Had French & Phillipines marking on it, but thats long OOP.

Julien

[Adam Maas]

The Leading Edge sheets at least are all available in 1/72, 1/48 and 1/32. That said, 1/72 is somewhat lacking in good Sabre sheets overall as compared to 1/48 but they're not all that thin on the ground. This is pretty typical for US subjects (where 1/48 is the defacto standard scale, at least in the US), non-US Sabre markings are more common in 1/72. Hannants for example has 14 sheets in 1/72 alone with Sabre options (needless to say with Hannants, these are mostly Canadair Mk.4's, although there's a mix of NAA, CAC and other Canadair marks also).

Interestingly, while Hannants only has two F-8 sheets in 1/72 listed, one is for French Crusaders.

[Enzo the Magnificent]

Santa Cruz did some nice Portuguse decals but they are hard to source.

I'm having a bit of a Sabre frenzy at the moment. A project which I will be starting shortly is to convert the Airfix kit into a Portuguese F-86F-40. I'll be taking the national markings from the new Xtradecal sheet for the Fiat G-91 while the remainder of the markings (all numerals) will come from generic sheets.

non-US Sabre markings are more common in 1/72.

True enough. But it would be nice to have some of those spectacular USAF and ANG markings available again. Microscale did one sheet for the F-86 which featured a jet with red, yellow, blue and white stripes on the vertical and horizontal tail surfaces, nose and drop tanks. That will be an absolute pain to replicate with decal stripes. Might be a good challenge though.

[Giorgio N]

One of the problems with decals today is that many sheets are made in quite limited numbers. Back in the days Microscale had a huge catalogue and every sheet was (or was supposed to be) available. Today things are very different and most sheets are better bought today as they will disappear Tomorrow, as a result even if in theory some subjects could be found in decals form, this means hunting on E-bay.

The lack of decal sheets for certain subjects is what has brought me over the years to keep working on the various home printing techniques. It might have been hard job and sure it's been expensive, but the satisfaction of displaying a model of that aircraft for which I never found decals repays all the efforts

Speaking of the Crusader, Carpena did a sheet dedicated to the French aircrafts in both 1/72 and 1/48. However I agree that for such an interesting subject, the number of decal sheets available is not huge

Enzo, have a look at Colorado Decals if you're interested in Portuguese subjects. They took over the old Carpena line and being in Portugal they have added sheets for aircrafts of their air forces

http://www.coloradodecals.com/Prodp.asp?grup=6

Edited June 24, 2013 by Giorgio N

[Acky190]

FWIW I noticed this issue way back, I had one of the Aeroclub Skyraider AEW conversions which I bought from Hannants (for the catalogue price, not the mental money they are going for now). The only markings for it I could find available were on and Ark Royal Air Wing set which set me back about £15, that's a fair bit to pay for around 8 decals and another load I knew I wouldn't use!

[Julien]

True enough. But it would be nice to have some of those spectacular USAF and ANG markings available again. Microscale did one sheet for the F-86 which featured a jet with red, yellow, blue and white stripes on the vertical and horizontal tail surfaces, nose and drop tanks. That will be an absolute pain to replicate with decal stripes. Might be a good challenge though.

I wish they would re-release them, I have an original of that sheet but kind off scared of using them incase they go into a million bits!

Julien

[Jennings Heilig]

It's aboy time that someone got hold of the old Microscale artwork and started to re-release these sheets.

OMG, I sure hope not! There were a few gems in there, but by and large that old Microscale stuff was crap. In any event, anything older than the past 20 years was done using hand made layups, so it's not possible to simply reprint it. Even if it still existed - which it doesn't.

The market is very smart. If there is a demand (a real demand, not a model discussion board demand) then there will be product.

J

Edited June 30, 2013 by Jennings Heilig