Here's the decals from the Estes kit and oldrocketplans.com.There were also two Air Force stars and bars decals using white ink for the wings.
While the Estes kit had you paint the molded in canopy black, I decided to use the cockpit decal from the Odd'l Rockets Fighter Fleet models. The blue colors were changed to gray. The intake decals are round to fit the end of the BT-5s. The gray "boxed" elevon decals are a darker shade for a better contrast over the lighter gray overall paint. On this home print sheet the stars and bars won't have any white.
You can't use the AIR FORCE name without paying a licensing fee these days. I doubt they would ever find out but I won't take the chance. You'd think as a taxpayer you've already paid for the name rights.
Since this is supposed to be a stealth aircraft, the low-visibility version of the insignia would be appropriate -- basically dark grey, with no white background and grey bar instead of red. The upside would be that such markings would be easier as home-print decal, downside would be that it won't be so colourful.
ReplyDeleteFor those who want a more colourful scheme, perhaps a custom paint scheme and markings based on aerobatic demonstration team (e.g. USAF Thunderbirds, USN Blue Angels, etc) could be selected.
Another idea for custom scheme would be "itasha" style (Japanese term, literally translate to "pain car" - cars decorated with theme based on characters from comic/animation/game). Examples of this type of scheme appeared in Ace Combat series of videogame ( https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ace+combat+idol+m%40ster ).
Hi Naoto,
DeleteThese decals ended up as Stealth compromise. The cockpit decal had some blue in it, that was changed to gray. I kept the red and blue in the stars and bars, that's what the Estes kit had. They seem darker because there is no white undercoat on the stars and bars.
I'm not a big fan of the Japanese Anime animation, the paint jobs on the planes are pretty crazy!
I don't think you need to pay a licensing fee for "Air Force" (not even "USAF")--unless something has recently...
ReplyDeleteHi Unknown,
DeleteAs I understand it, Estes (and other plastic model companies that use decals) no longer use the AIR FORCE or USAF because the armed forces now charge a licencing fee to use those names.