geedubelyer Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 Hi folks, I just asked this over in the "interwar" area but realised I might get help here too. I'm hoping to replicate Tiger Moth, G-ANSM in 1/72nd scale and need a source for suitable code letters please. Can anyone point me in the direction of decals or paint masks? Your help is appreciated, Cheers, Guy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Work In Progress Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 (edited) Realistically you are going to have to make your own. It's not hard, just a bit time-consuming. Just get some suitable square-on photography of the fuselage registration, one character centred in your lens at a time, then trace each letter in something like Corel, and laser print them in black on clear decal sheet stock. Blow up the X-height to the correct measurement for the wing registration letters and you will be near enough. Long time since I used to fly 'SM and all my pics of her are from the pre digital photography era, alas, or I'd put them up here. Edited March 22, 2014 by Work In Progress Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul J Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 John Adams (John Aero here) of Aeroclub may be able to help!! Worth a try. Meanwhile, I'll have a look to see if I have those letters to spare. I always make sure I have lots of generic decals to hand!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshiretaurus Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 From studying photos I can tell you the fuselage reg in 1/72 scale should be 20.9mm x 4.4mm, for the wing reg size the wing letters appear to be 75% of the chord ( think the chord might be in the region of 18.5mm) so that would make the letters 13.9mm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul J Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 You sure 20.9 mm height Cheshire! Thats deeper than the kit fuselage!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshiretaurus Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 You sure 20.9 mm height Cheshire! Thats deeper than the kit fuselage!!! Ah, I wasnt too clear on that, thanks for checking Paul, what I meant was the whole reg is 20.9mm from G to M and the height of the letters is 4.4mm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted March 22, 2014 Author Share Posted March 22, 2014 (edited) Thanks for all the help, some super suggestions there. Paul, I think I'll approach John Adams to see if he has anything suitable in the first instance then, if not, attempt some home made versions. Thanks for the size guides Cheshiretaurus they'll come in very useful if I have to make my own. WIP, great to hear from someone who flew her. I got a few minutes on the stick and it was wonderful so I can only imagine how cool it must be to be able to fly a Moth on a regular basis. If I was that bloke who won £108,000,000 I'd have one in my hangar. If you ever figure out how to translate prints into data I'd like to see your images. Cheers folks, Guy Edited March 22, 2014 by geedubelyer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Work In Progress Posted March 22, 2014 Share Posted March 22, 2014 What I need to do is find the prints, then I can run them through the scanner Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted March 30, 2014 Author Share Posted March 30, 2014 Hi gang, I dropped John Aero a line but I'm guessing he's busy as I have n't heard anything from him. I suspect I am going to have to go the home-made route. With that in mind (and to save me having to make a special trip with my camera to take photos of the actual aircraft serials) does anyone know what font is used for G-ANSM please? http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/000291197.html Thanks for any help you might be able to offer. Cheers, Guy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bzn20 Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Failing that. How about Letraset rub down lettering and coat in Kleer or similar? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Black Knight Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Try Fantasyprint. They do a number of different styles of letters in different colours and numerous sizes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garryrussell Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 Problem with the older registration style is that they are not a font as such but measured out and painted by a signwriter. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Work In Progress Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 (edited) Hi gang, I dropped John Aero a line but I'm guessing he's busy as I have n't heard anything from him. I suspect I am going to have to go the home-made route. With that in mind (and to save me having to make a special trip with my camera to take photos of the actual aircraft serials) does anyone know what font is used for G-ANSM please? http://www.airport-data.com/aircraft/photo/000291197.html Thanks for any help you might be able to offer. Cheers, Guy It doesn't use any font. It's not typography of any sort. It's just signwritten lettering. Man with paint brush marks out some pencil lines and string and starts painting. Edited March 30, 2014 by Work In Progress 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshiretaurus Posted March 30, 2014 Share Posted March 30, 2014 This mention of sign writers brought back a memory from an art lesson at school, over 30 years ago, I was probably abound 10 or 11. I remember being shown how to create letters by starting with a grid for guidance, I think we used a 3x5 grid. I noticed most letters (except A & M) on this aircraft had a ratio 1.5 so I made a grid of the same proportions of 8x12 to see if it would fit. It fitted reasonably well within the accuracy and distortion of a photo. you could use this a grid to draw the letters out then scan them in before scaling and printing The A would probably fit a 9x12 grid and the M seems to fit a 10x12 grid. A picture always helps Hopefully this might help Mark 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted March 31, 2014 Author Share Posted March 31, 2014 Excellent stuff. Many thanks for all of the help folks. It certainly explains why I can't find anything similar in word or such like. Mark, I appreciate you taking the time to illustrate that technique. I think you nailed it. Right, I'm off to try my hand in a bit of drawing software..... Thanks again everyone. Cheers, Guy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshiretaurus Posted March 31, 2014 Share Posted March 31, 2014 Thought I'd give it a go this afternoon to learn how to do it my self, used the grid function and the snap to function High resolution file here you could use. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Work In Progress Posted April 15, 2014 Share Posted April 15, 2014 I think that's absolutely first-rate work, Cheshiretaurus - well done. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted April 18, 2014 Author Share Posted April 18, 2014 Big thanks and a huge thumbs-up to Mark (Cheshiretaurus) for the artwork above. Using Mark's high-res file I was able to copy the lettering onto some water-slide decal paper and print off a set of serials for my Tiggie. A bit of jiggling in word got the size about right (good enough for me at least). Here's how she looks in the afternoon springtime sunshine. I took another couple of photos so I'll add them to a quick RFI thread. Thanks again Mark and everyone for the suggestions. Much appreciated. Cheers, Guy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshiretaurus Posted April 18, 2014 Share Posted April 18, 2014 That looks brilliant, very nicely done, glad I could help with the reg 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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