Short Stirling Decals

[Juan R-S]

Hello all,

I came across an old Esci decal No.57(Whitley/Short Stirling). One of the schemes was for a 15th Squadron Stirling Mk I(J-LS).

This aircraft showed a court jester with bombing mission markings.

The aircraft codes are painted in white and I was wondering if they were correct or should they have been mid gray. Also, are

there any pics in the internet of this aircraft? I googled but did was not lucky. My plan is to use them on an Airfix Stirling a friend

gave me as a gift. It is already half built but should be good as a SOB. Yes, I am going "old school" all the way.

Thanks for any help.

[datguy]

Grey seems more likely than white. This photo appears to show the same airframe, but gives a different serial than the ESCI sheet. https://c1.staticflickr.com/7/6044/6385777837_14062762a6_b.jpg

A word of caution: if you haven't used one of the old ESCI sheets before, expect things to go poorly. Mine typically either shatter into a million pieces or they refuse to leave the backing sheet at all.

[Steve N]

ESCI decals also tend to laugh at any decal solvent. I've only attempted to use them once or twice, and couldn't get them to lay down to save my life.

SN

[Admiral Puff]

What they said. You should be OK with the nose art, because it will be going over a (reasonably) flat area, but I'd be inclined to give it a coat of Micro Decalfilm or something like Tamiya semi-gloss clear beforehand, just to be certain. A tiny dab of white glue where the nose art is to go wouldn't hurt, either. Get other markings like roundels, codes and serials from somewhere else - Modeldecal/Xtradecal do generic sheets for everything, IIRC, but if not there should be other sources.

[Vicarage Vee]

If you can, colour scan the decals too. Then if they do disintegrate you have a route available that could produce a replacement without trying to source more Esci ones that are likely to do the same.