eng Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 Is there anyone out there doing decals for the Hasegawa/Revell P-3 in 1/72, preferably USN low-viz stuff? I've got the old Hase boxing of the kit but never really liked the high-viz scheme in the kit and my decals may well be past it now. I've come across a company called VMDecals but the link to their site doesn't appear to work, it was from 2006 mind you. Any thoughts or suggestions? Rgds, Eng Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jabba Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 V M Decals are no more, but Fantasy Printshop has stock of some of their decals including a P-3 sheet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eng Posted February 20, 2014 Author Share Posted February 20, 2014 Top marks Jabba! Absolutely awesome, the sheet I'd taken a fancy to was the one in stock, 5 mins to register and I've got one on the way. Very good selection of decals for sale too, I'd heard of Fantasy Printshop before but never checked out there site. Won't be my last look. Will have to go and dig my P-3 out the loft and build the damn thing now! Thanks ever so much for the rapid reply and for pointing me in the right direction, Kind Regards, Eng Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted February 20, 2014 Share Posted February 20, 2014 Wolfpak Decals also has a smattering of P-3 Stuff on their sheets. Fantasy Printshop stocks them as well for future reference. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eng Posted February 22, 2014 Author Share Posted February 22, 2014 Decals turned up this morning, perfect for the job. Any good reference info out there for the P-3C? Thanks for your help so far folks, Eng Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard E Posted February 22, 2014 Share Posted February 22, 2014 Decals turned up this morning, perfect for the job. Any good reference info out there for the P-3C? Thanks for your help so far folks, Eng There are a couple of walkrounds on Primeportal.net Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don McIntyre Posted February 23, 2014 Share Posted February 23, 2014 (edited) Decals turned up this morning, perfect for the job. Any good reference info out there for the P-3C? Thanks for your help so far folks, Eng Any info in particular you're looking for? I spent a lot of time in and around P-3s for a good part of my life. Some details I remember, some are gone. lol My time was mostly on Gull Gray and White aircraft but I was around for the switch to TPS and then overall Gull Gray. IIRC there are other P-3 aircrew that pop up from time to time here. Edited February 23, 2014 by Don McIntyre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eng Posted February 23, 2014 Author Share Posted February 23, 2014 Richard E - thanks for the heads up on Primeportal, I'll have a noses. Don - I didn't have anything in particulars, just looking for general info/images. One thing you may be able to answer for me was around stencil markings (escape arrows, servicing symbols, etc). The VM decal sheet I bought only has the squadron markings and aircraft numbers. The instruction sheet is a bit poor in that it does not make reference to any stencilling, when the aircraft switched to TPS and other low viz schemes did a lot of the stencilling disappear altogether? I'm thinking I may need to use various low-viz US Navy odds and ends from the spare decals box to fulfil this requirement as I doubt very much there will be much out there specifically for the P-3. Thanks for your replies and help, Eng Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Creepy Pete Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 (edited) I bought the same sheet a while ago too, and found it rather poor, tbh. The printing is nice, but I found a good number of errors and found the instructions lacking. Let me go trough the options to show what I've found. Option 1, the P-3A of VP-19: The tailcode PE should be higher on the tail than on the profile, it says P-3C above the BuNo under the stabilizer, not P-3A. And the remark "use kit decals" just for the roundel is a bit poor, imo. You also need the red prop warning stripe around the fuselage, for instance, but if you look closely it has a white outline on the dark grey part, which is not included in any P-3 kit that I know. Option 2, the P-3C of VP-94 Not much wrong with this one, as far as I can tell, apart from the instruction sheet saying BuNo 151591, which is an A-6 Intruder. Luckily the decals have the correct number. The numbers on the nose might be a bit big, but I haven't seen a pic of this specific plane in 1995 yet. Option 3, the P-3C of VP-1 This one looks pretty good, not much to say about it. Of course, you need to update the Hasegawa kit to more current standard, but this goes for each option on the sheet. Backdating or updating, depending on your choice. Option 4, the P-3C of VP-46 This one is a bit of a mystery. The instructions have been printed in a weird way on this side of the sheet. It tells you to use BuNo decal #36, but that one is for the next one. Logically, you would use BuNo decal #34, but 158146 is a TA-4J Skyhawk. Option 5, the P-3C of VP-4 Another BuNo typo in the instructions, but the decal BuNo is correct. Not that the location of the YD tailcode should be lower than in the instructions. Also, on the real one, it seems that it had some sort of text under the cockpit windows, which isn't on the sheet. Option 6, the other P-3C of VP-4 Yet another typo BuNo, 161047 is a T-34 Mentor, but this time the decal BuNo is wrong too, 151042 was a Skyhawk, which was shot down over Vietnam in 1967. As for the markings, the same error with the YD tailcode again, it should be lower than on the profile. Also, on the photo above, it has an E painted on the fuselage (some award marking, iirc), which isn't on the sheet, but this might have been added at a later time. This is what I could find after some research. These errors, and the lack of any stencils, doesn't make it a good sheet, imo. As for getting stencils, you could get them from an Aussie Decals sheet, the ones on these sheets seem to be useable on USN P-3's. Edited February 24, 2014 by Creepy Pete Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Romeo Alpha Yankee Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Thanks for the critique Pete. I have this sheet as well. I will store these notes with it. It is good to know the Aussie decal sheet is good for USN subjects, I have a few of those. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hoops Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 The best P-3 stencils out there are in the Revell rebox of the Hasegawa kit. It is a giant sheet, and nothing else even comes close. I don't like what they did for the walkways over the wing, printing them in white, but other than that, the stencils are awesome. The walkways should be the same color as the surrounding surfaces (Gull Grey), or darker. They have a rough surface that tends to collect dirt, and make them look darker, but definitely not lighter. For other marking options, Wolfpak has some good ones. They are also printed by Fantasy Printshop, just take a look at their catalogue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KoenL Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 The best P-3 stencils out there are in the Revell rebox of the Hasegawa kit. It is a giant sheet, and nothing else even comes close. I don't like what they did for the walkways over the wing, printing them in white, but other than that, the stencils are awesome. The walkways should be the same color as the surrounding surfaces (Gull Grey), or darker. They have a rough surface that tends to collect dirt, and make them look darker, but definitely not lighter. For other marking options, Wolfpak has some good ones. They are also printed by Fantasy Printshop, just take a look at their catalogue. The stencils for the Tactical Paint Scheme (grey) Orions were quite different from those provided in the Revell kit though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Evalman Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 (edited) As far as I'm aware, the appropriate stencils for the 'low viz' grey USN P3 came with one of Hasegawa's re-boxings. Unfortunately they are hard to find these days. Edited February 24, 2014 by Evalman Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Don McIntyre Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 (edited) Other than rescue markings, the P-3 was not overly well-endowed with stencils, and after a repaint it tended to be even less so. As noted above wing walk areas should not be white! They could range from the color of the surrounding area, to a dark gray to black (although I wouldn't expect black on TPS aircraft). Edited February 24, 2014 by Don McIntyre Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eng Posted February 24, 2014 Author Share Posted February 24, 2014 Wow, thanks ever so much for all this great info. Creepy Pete - the collection of pics is superb and some great research, thanks for posting these. It didn't take me long at all to twig at the vast collection of errors on this decal instruction sheet, however the decals were what I was really after. I'm sure a little bit of artistic license and some heavy weathering will hide the slightly inaccurate stencils that will eventually adorn this bird. Thanks again for the help folks, Eng Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scooby Posted February 24, 2014 Share Posted February 24, 2014 Canuck models do some cool Canadian markings: http://www.canuckmodels.com/ I know you said USN. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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