Decals

Martin Oostrom
My first recollection of a Tomcat is a Jolly Rogers one. So I consider that the purest form 😉

Martin von Schreckenstein Författare
I think I first saw tomcats in the JAG TV show? hmm what do they fly there?

Martin von Schreckenstein Författare
A quick youtube search has shown some TPS VF-143 cats. not bad either. Also Jolly Rogers decals are literally in every kit🙂 could almost build the entire squadron🙂

Patrick Hagelstein
Whoah!!! This is worth looking into! Curious how those decals turn out Martin.

Günther Debiscop
J.A.G. serie re-used a lot of movie parts from either e.g. Top Gun or US DoD approved clips. So almost all F-14 units came along the serie...

Cuajete
Following!

Ekki
Watching.

Martin von Schreckenstein Författare
The testing decals are very difficult to position and tear/warp easily. nevertheless, the first test has shown a lot of fails. the stripe thickness is ok but length is wrong and the modex number is too big. a lot of other things are incorrect size as well, having me retreating into minimizing my effort (most of the generic stencils will probably not be printed and just used from the kit box). really hoping a second test is a little more successful so that I can print something less unwieldy. the academy kit is probably not the best for this either as the proportions are quite different from the data i am using

Spanjaard
i love cats 🙂

Holger Kranich
We all love Cats! 😄

Martin von Schreckenstein Författare
The decal sheet is almost ready for print. Sadly the star on the stripe is impossible to position so I am going to have them separate. That would be the last change. The decal test cat saw some more action and I tried some tests with the target Finemolds parts as well. All is fine now except for the stripe.

Patrick Hagelstein
So, do the Academy one and FineMolds one line up that close to each other?

Martin von Schreckenstein Författare
Well mostly they do, although if you are using panel lines as reference (which you probably are), there is a significant offset and also the fact that Academy is missing a lot of them makes things difficult too.

Patrick Hagelstein
Check! Gotcha! 👍

Martin von Schreckenstein Författare
the stripes finally fit! calling the printer on Monday!

Martin von Schreckenstein Författare
the sheets have arrived! The stencil sharpness is kinda sub par but the stripes are awesome. I tested one version (have all three versions depending on the modex number) and it fits perfectly. there are some issues with placement on the test kit (my mistake) but I am super happy with the result. Can make a simple instruction sheet for them and ship them out 10 bucks a piece if anyone's interested (PM).

Patrick Hagelstein
That's for the FineMolds kit, right?

Martin von Schreckenstein Författare
I made all this to be used on Finemolds and I used it as a reference when fine tuning the dimensions. Gonna test it tomorrow and post pics so everyone can see for themselves. I do not expect any trouble though. On Finemolds or any other 72 Tomcat.

Patrick Hagelstein
Looking forward to that! 👍

Martin von Schreckenstein Författare
Finemolds test is up. Critique wanted.

Maciej Bellos
The stripes, the modex and the tail look spot on. The roundel needs to get rid of the thin white line around it.

Solid work Martin!

Patrick Hagelstein
Sorry to say but I have to agree with Maciej.... 🙁 Is this a test run of the decals or the full monty? Seems like there's a fine white line around all the red parts as well. That can be trimmed off but that's hard to do with the national markings. Either way, kudos for doing all that hard work and research! 👍

Martin von Schreckenstein Författare
Thanks for the feedback guys. My research has shown that the line is supposed to be there on the roundel, I will try to find some pictures. (maybe it differs plane to plane?) Otherwise the underlying white layer is looking through even where it shouldn't (a little) but it is not visible on 16440 painted surface. This is a full run and I am discovering a few other issues, even more serious than this. I am gonna call the printer and ask about this. They work specifically for modellers and modeller companies so this result indeed feels weird.

Martin von Schreckenstein Författare
Given that they only work with screen printing, there was no possibility of a test print.. Seems like screen printing has more limitations than I expected..

Patrick Hagelstein
Yep, now I see what you mean. Where the Stars'n Bars is in the red band, there is a very fine white line. Good! On the outside though, where it is painted on the grey, it doesn't have that line. But maybe that's what I mentioned before, that everything has this fine white line surrounding it and that's where the printer comes into play. I just feel sorry that the printer couldn't live up to the quality he was supposed to deliver.

Martin von Schreckenstein Författare
Yes, I have to check my source data about the white lines around the roundel outside the stripes. At this point it is difficult to pinpoint exactly where the issues lie. I feel like this is a huge and fruitful lesson but I do not even want to think about the money lost.. The work will continue though!

Martin von Schreckenstein Författare
On the other hand, I firmly believe that, despite the mistakes we found, this is still better than what is available on the market. The entire squadron is there on the sheet! Nobody has that in this scale🙂

Dominik Weitzer
super work on the decals! looking good in my view.
love the F14.

Martin von Schreckenstein Författare
Thank you Dominik!

Martin von Schreckenstein Författare
Hello, I am gonna be printing another sheet and I am looking through the original sheets to see if maybe there is something I could reuse. What do you guys think of the last pics in this album (#12-15)? The screenprint technology obv makes the edges a little fuzzy but the modex numbers at the very least are quite usable, no?

Patrick Hagelstein
As you said, the edges are a bit fuzzy but the modex numbers are crisp.

Spanjaard
Nice job on those decals

Martin von Schreckenstein Författare
Going for round two on the decals. the new sheets will hopefully be picked up for printing by a very solid company everybody knows. Each sheet will have two jets on it too, including all the stencils. I am also making the instruction sheet for them.

Patrick Hagelstein
One modeler is interested for sure! 👍 😉

Saeed Ezadi
You have very Nice collection of Cats Martin. Keep going!