Brian P: Fightertown Decals

Were they putting Tomcat bomb rails in the kit too? Don’t remember but thought it had 4 or 6 of them.

Kinetic decals are printed by Cartograf and artwork is done by reputable decal companies 👍🏻

I remember when that kit was fairly new in your stash!! Bet it felt great to finally get it built and to do it so well!! Congrats and good job. Scratch built canopy?! Nice!! brian

2 rectangle decals are 36375. Top colors are AK acrylic far left, AK RC Air on the left, MM on the right. Decal across both. FYI, MM 35237 is dead on fs match. Still the best match I’ve seen. Middle bunch of colors is 2 sets of AK RC Air. The triangle is 35237 from Fightertown 48083 or 48086. It is noticeably darker than the AKRCA 35237 paint. You can see very little contrast in the 36375 decal on top of AKRCA 35237. And the 36375 decal is darker than the paint for both 36375 and 36320. FYI, the small blotch on top of the AK/MM 35237 is the Tamiya mix given in the F-14D kit. I think it’s a touch too purple and dark. I’d add a bit more of the x19 and a touch of X18 blue to bring it in match with the MM color. Trying to upload the Tamiya Fs paint test with decals...

Not even close. Why not just use the actual paint? Buy the spray cans and decent them. Or use another brand. Nothing in the Tamiya bottle acrylic line will be close and in the end your model won’t look like the TPS colors...

Tried uploading the paint/decal tests w/ AK RC Air and MM but tsaysbthey are too big. Only have them on the phone so will have to figure a way to downrez them...

Don’t know what other decal makers colors are but we color match print to fs. Cartograf guarantees within +\- 2% color shift. I used those same 35227 decals on test plastic and had a much better result. Tried them on MM enamels and Tamiya spray cans of 35237/36320/36375 and they color worked perfectly...

Dave - unfortunately the AK Real Color Air TPS paints are scale affected so heavily that they don’t work at all for TPS if you’re using low viz decals. The paints look nice but the 36320 is so light that 36375 decals are darker than the paint. And 36375 decals have barely any contrast to 35237 paint. I tested them out and was very hopeful but the results were disappointing. If you’re not using TPS decals, then you’re good...

Gotta say those HB wings suck pretty bad. They don’t fit well together. The ‘riveting’ is massively excessive and imaginary. The slats are wrong in size and in extension. They have have the slat rails coming straight out - not so in the real thing. And the angel and shape of the formation lights edge of the wing is wrong. Basically I see nothing on the HB wings worth saving or adapting. Haseohas it’s own issues with the flaps... Tamiya nailed the wings but they are locked closed... Would like to see AMK knock it out of the park with the extended wings and spoilers.... but still haven’t seen the slat rails. They’ve compromised the attachment strength with solid parts as far as I can see. May work out well... but in real life the only part of the tail that touches the slat is the underside leading edge. I’m excited to see what/how AMK does it and very excited Thor the spoiler option. Perfect realism isn’t needed as long as it fits the part.

There are no Acrylic bottle matches. The above posts are true. They make all 3 in spray cans. But I don’t think their 35237 is close. They have a pretty good match mix on the Tamiya F-14D Kit. If you try to use paints that aren’t close and want to use any low viz decals, you’re in for a disappointment. MrP, AK, Mission and others make acrylics...

But grossly over scaled decals are ok?...🤙

How is it dumb?... I think it’s very cool and allows you to just paint and weather the parts. Decals require a gloss coat and you’re then locked into whatever color they print the decals. The textured parts are amazing and you can paint them however you like. Just at my opinion, but I think this is a new step in technology for exhaust cans. And FYI, all these exhausts and burner cans are 3D printed, not resin cast. They are extremely durable and not prone to chipping and breaking like resin is. Well worth the $$, IMHO. Brian

The Fightertown Decals profiles are accurate profiles. VF-213 jets were overall 36320 with some 36375 on the bottom. The skunk stripe on the line jets was 35237 and there are various grays used for CC work. The CAG 200 jet had 2 blues for the skunk stripe. You can look at a lot of pictures online and see the paint scheme pretty clear. There were touches of 35237 as shown on the instructions. The exception being 204. That one was a replacement jet from another squadron and had the 3 tone TPS. Brian

Wow - I've never heard to that before. Very cool. I just tested AK Acrylics, AK Real Color Air, Testors MM, MRP and Tamiya acrylics bottle mix and sprays. Not a single brand matches another, and a lot of them are really far off. So much that decals printed to FS wouldn't come close... MM was the best for 35237 and 36320 but both bottles of 36375 needed to be lightened to work. I'm really surprised how much variance there is the AK Air line was my hope for a good match but there's is so light in every color that nothing will match... Do you have the paints mixed to standard for you, or you do them yourself. Is it a reference guide that has matching colors mix, or you buy off the shelf paints that match FS? thanks! Your colors look amazing. I especially like your 36375... brian

Manuel - what paints did you use for this? The colors and contrast balance look amazing and very realistic. TIA brian