Mitch K Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Title says it all, I suppose. I'm assuming Xtradecal X72145 for medium sea grey codes, but what about black serials? I've looked at Modeldecal MD104, but it doesn't seem to have the letter "P" which would be a serious omission, from my point of view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Boak Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Does it have R? Or B? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted May 21, 2015 Author Share Posted May 21, 2015 Does it have R? Or B? Cheers Graham! Goes ABCDEFGHJKLS,which seems somewhat eclectic/selective. I might be able to use the "P" from an Airfix decal sheet, assuming the sizes match accuately... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sky Pilot Posted May 21, 2015 Share Posted May 21, 2015 Mitch K Have you tried this search - 1/72 wwii raf numerals and letter decals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troy Smith Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Title says it all, I suppose. I'm assuming Xtradecal X72145 for medium sea grey codes, but what about black serials? I've looked at Modeldecal MD104, but it doesn't seem to have the letter "P" which would be a serious omission, from my point of view. Hi Mitch. The problem here is this, RAF codes, certainly in the Medium Sea Grey era, 1939-1941, well, the only really consistent part of the code letters is a 6 inch stroke, and that was not an absolute! They were supposed to be 48 inch high, but this doesn't fit on fighter fuselages, the largest IIRc were the 40 inch used by 32 Squadron. There was no standard 'font' so to speak. So, they vary in height, width and style. Also in code order... Have a read here... http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/p/137680/1433121.aspx#1433121 And you will soon see that a sheet of generic codes probably won't have the style or size you want if you want to be really accurate. Serials are a bit better, as they were supposed to 8 inch high on fighters, but the first two Hurricane production batches have 6 inch high serials fot example. If you wish to make a model of an aircraft without a reference photo, then use a plane from the same sq/era as a guide, as the codes tended to be basically the same in a squadron at the same time. Putting 'raf codes' and 1/72nd into the Hannants search engine gets this http://www.hannants.co.uk/search/index.php?adv=1&product_category_id=&product_division_id=&manufacturer_id=&product_type_id=&code=&scale_id=956&keyword_search=raf+codes&setPerPage=50&sort=0&search_direction=0&save_search_name=&save_search= example from Aviology, Colorado, Modeldecal and Xtradecal. Raf Serials gets this http://www.hannants.co.uk/search/index.php?adv=1&product_category_id=&product_division_id=&manufacturer_id=&product_type_id=&code=&scale_id=956&keyword_search=raf+serials+black&setPerPage=50&sort=0&search_direction=0&save_search_name=&save_search= a couple of sets from Aviology, but IIRC Modeldecal did these as well. HTH T 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rossm Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 What about this one http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X72157 MD104 is intended for pre-war period. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 X72-157 may work but really it's meant for postwar types and the font used is correct for these. Very few ww2 types would use a similar font. Personally I now draw the serial myself as I noticed too many variations among types Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted May 22, 2015 Author Share Posted May 22, 2015 Mitch K Have you tried this search - 1/72 wwii raf numerals and letter decals. Yep. It gets me a ton of search results, but doesn't answer the question of whether they are (a) correct, or ( of decent quality, hence my question here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted May 22, 2015 Author Share Posted May 22, 2015 Cheers all. I've got a photo (several in fact) of the aircraft in question. I think I'm going to have to go with the Xtradecal option as nearest/least worst for the codes. My handpainting/signwriting skills don't run to codes! For the serials, I might trry the Modeldecal sheet, print them myself or dig out my aging Rotring pens (cheers Giorgio!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sky Pilot Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Troy In addition to helping Mitch K you have certainly helped me - dashed confusin' init' John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Mitch, I should have been clearer and say that I draw my codes on a PC and then print them. I'd not be able to use a Rotring, my handwriting skills are very limited Speaking of serials, Ventura did a sheet in MSG many years ago that included many variations. I don't know however if they ever did a set in black. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Russell Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 You need a friend with Illustrator, CorelDraw or Flash skills and another friend with an Alps printer. Or a lot of money to pay for custom decals. As noted, there is no standard "font" for codes so generic decal sheets may or may not be close enough for your eye. Unless you model in 1/24 or are very critical you can probably get away with "near enough" serials. Edit - seeing Giorgio's post just arrived above, he's the sort of guy you need to cosy up to (:>) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 You need a friend with Illustrator, CorelDraw or Flash skills and another friend with an Alps printer. Or a lot of money to pay for custom decals. As noted, there is no standard "font" for codes so generic decal sheets may or may not be close enough for your eye. Unless you model in 1/24 or are very critical you can probably get away with "near enough" serials. Ed, it's true that some skills with a drawing software are needed, however it's necessarily said that the cost would end up being prohibitive. Black serials can be printed on any laser or inkjet printer easily with the right paper. A letter sized Bare Metal sheet costs less than £3 and would last for many models. The MSG codes are of course a different story, as they cant' be printed easily. Even an Alps may not print MSG well as IIRC these printers didn't like greys. There are companies that supply decal printing services and recently I found one local to me that would print a full A4 sheet for €20. Ok, it's expensive for a single set of codes, but on an A4 sheet I may easily squeeze markings for 4 or 5 different models. There's also another alternative: draw the codes and search for someone who can make masks from the same drawing. Even in 1/72 scale, RAF squadron codes should be large enough to be made as masks easily 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Russell Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Skills with drawing software are gold. The same skills are needed and we have found it's pretty much as difficult to do masks and templates as it is to do decals. It's always nice to get a colour that people think is 'accurate' but literally dozens of threads here show that it is not possible to please everyone. I have found that a range of Alps colours are okay for fresh, fresh outlier, partly faded, faded, weathered, very weathered MSG, depending on the prejudice of the modeller (:>) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted May 22, 2015 Author Share Posted May 22, 2015 Rotring pen for serials - old school, baby! Back in the day, I did all of the illustrations for our scientific publications this way. Then got someone to drum scan or macro photograph them. Such fun! Such fun!!! Mitch, I should have been clearer and say that I draw my codes on a PC and then print them. I'd not be able to use a Rotring, my handwriting skills are very limited Speaking of serials, Ventura did a sheet in MSG many years ago that included many variations. I don't know however if they ever did a set in black. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rod mcq Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Fantasy Printshop do a range of RAF WWII letter and number decals sheets. This is their 8 inch serial number/letter sheet http://www.fantasyprintshop.co.uk/RAF-8-Serial-Numbers-and-Letters-WW11-1-72-scale_AOTL0.aspx?nh=55321 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woody37 Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 Ventura Decals V7252 do 8" serials in black, I got a set recently. They have different styles in the set too, so you should be able to get pretty much any era from them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ed Russell Posted May 23, 2015 Share Posted May 23, 2015 That would be these........... http://www.jaysmodelkits.com/jaysmk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=85_86&products_id=716 There are 1/72 codes and other goodies too.......... http://www.jaysmodelkits.com/jaysmk/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=85_86 Jays are the successors to the Ventura range. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike romeo Posted April 1, 2018 Share Posted April 1, 2018 Hi, I'm resurrecting this thread as I'm doing a 1 72 Tamiya Mossie Mk IV as a bulged bomber from 692 Sqn in 1944 "P3L". Looking for appropriately sized red code letters. Hannants has nothing and a cursory google search also found nothing. I have no CAD drawing skills and won't buy an ALPS printer for this. So, my question is...  Are there any 1 72 decal sheets with 24" RAF red code letters and numerals still out there?  Regards  Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rossm Posted April 1, 2018 Share Posted April 1, 2018 You could try the forthcoming PrintScale sheet for the Mossie https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/PSL72159 which has V3P on it - hopefully you could make an L from a V or one of the other letters on the sheet like T. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike romeo Posted April 1, 2018 Share Posted April 1, 2018 Thanks for the tip, Ross. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Starmer Posted April 4, 2018 Share Posted April 4, 2018 On 4/1/2018 at 7:17 PM, mike romeo said: Thanks for the tip, Ross. Fantasy do a range of red codes and black serials in 1/72. Beaware that up until early 1940 Codes letters were not always MSG but Sky Grey. Thiswas the light toned codes on the pre and early war Battles, Blenheim etc and fighters. The AMO in 1949, cannot recall ~ at present callls for Sky Grey codes andserials on night bombers and fighters where the undersurface black is applied to side surfaces. Look at pix. Those light markings are often shown as white in artwork, like the original Airfix Defiant. Kits world do these light grey codes. Sorry should be 1939, in a rush, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Boak Posted April 4, 2018 Share Posted April 4, 2018 During 1936, the RAE carried out a series of trials to determine suitable colours for codes, and on 7th October 1936 the AM decided to standardise on the grey colour, to be called Sea Grey, Medium to DTD314. Its stores number became 33B/345. AMO154/39 called for the identification codes to be in 33B/157, which is a colour simply called Grey, to DTD308. This colour is not known - some early references to these codes refer to a light blue shade, for what that's worth. Sky Grey was 33B/263 to 265 to DTD308, depending upon tin size.  Quite why AMO154/39 didn't call for Medium Sea Grey 33B/345 I don't know, but it didn't call for Sky Grey 33B/263 either. I think the codes would look lighter in photos had they been Sky Grey rather than MSG. Certainly many if not the majority of photos show quite a dark colour - dark enough to be something other than MSG, I'd have thought, but...  Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mike romeo Posted April 4, 2018 Share Posted April 4, 2018 2 hours ago, Mike Starmer said: Fantasy do a range of red codes and black serials in 1/72. Beaware that up until early 1940 Codes letters were not always MSG but Sky Grey. Thiswas the light toned codes on the pre and early war Battles, Blenheim etc and fighters. The AMO in 1949, cannot recall ~ at present callls for Sky Grey codes andserials on night bombers and fighters where the undersurface black is applied to side surfaces. Look at pix. Those light markings are often shown as white in artwork, like the original Airfix Defiant. Kits world do these light grey codes. Sorry should be 1939, in a rush, Hi Mike,  Thanks for the tip. Unfortunately, they don't appear to have anything appropriate for 1/72 Mossies.  Regards  Martin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FinnAndersen Posted April 4, 2018 Share Posted April 4, 2018 On 1/4/2018 at 9:58 AM, mike romeo said: Hi, I'm resurrecting this thread as I'm doing a 1 72 Tamiya Mossie Mk IV as a bulged bomber from 692 Sqn in 1944 "P3L". Looking for appropriately sized red code letters. Hannants has nothing and a cursory google search also found nothing. I have no CAD drawing skills and won't buy an ALPS printer for this. So, my question is...  Are there any 1 72 decal sheets with 24" RAF red code letters and numerals still out there?  Regards  Martin You can get clear decal sheet to go into common ink-jet printers and you just might be able to print red codes. I've done it to print Spitfire serial numbers in black and it works as advertised.  /Finn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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