i feel at this point i am sprue brothers best customer.I just ordered the decals and an aires f-14A and B cockpit.If Tims do arrive its cool i have a second set.

Yeah I was unaware that you sent them out Tim, when were they sent. I’ll keep my eye out for them and announce once they land.

Q’ yeah that’s what I figured, so now I do wait a bit longer.

In the mean time I starting a 1/48 Hasegawa F-14A Atlantic Fleet Squadron kit, not sure which decals I plan to use. I’m also working out a deal to buy Revell’s VFA-102 CAG F/A-18 from another modeler (fingers crossed).



Happy Modeling,
Joe

Hi all.
Dont worry Joe I have only sent Justins out. I am trying to find some alternative envelopes that will survive the journeys around the globe. I will email everyone when I send their decals. Cool looking Hornet Joe, what are the kit decals like?
All the best.
tim

Postoffice

Tim the Revell sheet is not all that bad. They're made by DACO-Astra which the sheet includes the 2007 CAG and CO jets and you get the jet exhaust pipe rectangles, plenty of data and decals for the cockpit and instrument panels.

Happy Modeling,
Joe

One of the things we consider when laying these things out is....what a PITA they are to hack apart, LOL! We figure that a guy good enough to assemble a model kit, is decent with an x-acto....so keep this in mind....Cartograf does SUCH an excellent job that it allows us to trim the clear layer to such a fine degree that its invisible to the naked eye around the edge of the art. So, if you are trying to x-acto your way around decals, you don't have to worry about cutting thru any clear surround on the decals...you can trim VERY close to them and not damage the carrier film.

This is a REALLY cool thing BTW. It always makes me kind of sad when we dispatch all the review samples, because I know they aren't going to get used...and we make them to be used. The very best thing about doing this is seeing a guy's final product...we LOVE seeing the markings on models!

And see them you shall. Just waiting for mine to arrive so I can war-game what markings I'll put on my build. Thanks for this opportunity too Scott, much appreciated. "Q"

I second what Red said!

cant wait to put these puppies on a plane and you can always send samples are way

Scott, if it makes you feel better..........I never turn down free stuff. Would it be asking too much for you to send me a Hasegawa F-15C kit....with those decals?

I'm looking forward not only to trying out these Afterburner decals but adding an F-15 to my display cabinet.
BTW, do you have any plans for the future to add some older jets into the mix or even some non-US markings? I'm having a heck of a time finding some decent decal options for a Mig-29 I'm gonna build shortly.

Hermon

Joe, will you PLEASE do a build blog on that F-18? I wanna see how that Revell kit turns out with a master at the controls. I'm kinda getting tired of plunking down $70.00 for Hasagawas with no weapons loads.


Hermon

I could go for some Jolly rogers markings for an F-4 phantom....................................what..............................its on my Christmas list

I'm with Hermon on the weapons load you figure for 70$ you can get some stinking missiles

Dude! Get outta my head will ya? That's exactly what I was thinking.


Hermon

ps: Seriously, stop reading my mind. You're starting to freak me out.

We've branched out a bit with the 2 Mitsubishi F-2 sheets...more of those on the way, as well as some other JASDF subjects. We steadily have begun to track back in time a bit, especially on some of our "history" sheets that cover a unit over a period of time. The research is what's interesting to me.

This year being the 20th anniversary of the Gulf War, we have some cool stuff on the way for vipers, Intruders, eagles and one subject Geoff said he'd kill me if I talked about.

We have 4 REALLY nice scooter sheets, and plans for more RAAF subjects in scooters and F/A-18s....and if somebody could come up with decent references on Polish MiG-29 stencils, we could finish this sheet....

http://www.zone-five.net/showthread.php?t=6200


In terms of how to use the decals, they are standard Cartograf fare, and perform amazing. When we started I was a MicroScale snob...I always thought of Cartograf printed decals as "thick".

What we discovered pretty quickly though, was Cartograf's carrier film was every bit as thin as MicroScale's...the "thickness" comes from the ink, which is FAR more opaque and color dense than MicroScale, plus they can print one-piece decals, as opposed to having to split them up into 2 and 3 pieces to adjust for registration issues. The end result is a decal that is incredibly easy to use, and adheres superbly. If the art is a solid piece, meaning that there are no gaps where there is carrier film present (such as between letters) they can actually be applied to flat paint, as there will be no visible carrier film visible to silver.

They are perfectly compatible with standard setting/conforming solutions, but they really don't need much help...I use a small dab of Micro-Sol usually.

The one thing I have noticed is that they tend to want to "grab" where you place them the first time, so I use a little bit of Micro-Set and a lot of water on a paintbrush to move them around...some guys use a tiiiiny amount of dishwashing soap to lubricate things up. The nice part is that they are durable, and can take a lot of abuse without tearing.

Cartograf makes us look great, LOL! I'd like to take credit for the performance, but that's all Cartograf.

..uhm, should I leave?

Just curious about these decals, seems like a lot of people really like them.
Are all of them spoken for?
And if so, I was wondering if these sets provide enough decals to make more than 1 aircraft? If they do and someone wouldn't mind sharing whatever they don't want to use I'd be cool with that.
I don't really have a preference which decals they are, I just would like to try them out and see what they're like.

Man.....we're NUTS about choices, LOL! Some of these sheets have markings for 18 or 20 aircraft...the limiting factor is stencils, but with the exception of the F-2 sheets, they all have minimum 2 sets of stencils.

Wow, so basically one could make a minimum of two aircraft per set? The stencils for the most part are what put me off from decal sets because they usually only come with one set.

We're pretty fastidious about stencils....remember we're model geeks first and foremost, dekkel purveyors a distant second....pisses me off as a consumer when I get limited by stencils. The F-2s just have SO many stencils that took up SO much room, we could only fit 1 set on....but we figured that anybody crazy enough to stick them all on would NEVER do it twice voluntarily Those are the exceptions, otherwise we provide 2 complete sets of stencils, and also make dedicated stencil sets for vipers, super bugs, F-15Cs and a brand new one for F-4 SEA schemes. We'll throw some F-2 stencils out this spring, and maybe some for C hornets and strike eagles.

Yeah, I saw the F-4 stencil set when I was looking through your site and it's pretty crazy, of course so are a lot of us when it comes to detailing stuff I didn't see the other stencil sets, but it's nice to know that they are there. That's another good idea that you've implemented.

Hey Jeremy, I'm doing set #48-067 F-16C Beware the Thunderbolts, and I'd be perfectly happy to send some across the ditch to you if you want mate.

Cheers, D

Mmmm... Trumpeter 1/32 RAN Scooter.. Tasty...

Sure thing Damian, like I said, I'm not picky.. besides, it'll give me an excuse to join another one of Justin's campaigns

so can I get some f-4s in the jolly rogers scheme you know you want to?

Jeremy, I could split my set with ya if you want to do an F-15. No problem.

Scott, the Gulf War stuff sounds really cool. A lot of possibilities there with so many units deployed in that theater. And I seriously hope someone steps up with some detailed info on the Mig-29's. I'd like to see some of those as well.


Hermon