Brian P: Fightertown Decals

I still have a few of the 1/48 GE cans. They really were great for the time and still look good. Andrew - I'd venture there isn't a known price that they're worth. Put them on ebay and see what happens. Or I'd say $5-$12 a set is in the ballpark. Probably $10 is fair and notes that they aren't available... -brian

fyi, I can't post the big pictures here and I'm not resizing pictures to post but I can tell you VF-211 changed the paint job several times in 94-97. It had one scheme until June 95, a repaint Nov 95, repaint in May 96 and Aug 96. Late Nov/Dec 100 switched bunos. brian

1 Sized to Hasegawa because the Tamiya kit didn't exist when the sheet was made. 2 Naca vents. Don't know how that didn't get caught on the instructions and no one's noticed in 4+ years its been out. That mistake shouldn't have happened to begin with. 3. buno is correct 161271. 1000%. I'm looking at a clear picture of it. I shot VF-24 and VF-211 at Miramar, Fallon and on the boat from late 1993 until Aug 1996. 100 didn't become 16255 until after the squadron moved to Oceana, so Dec 96 could be correct. But for the date on the sheet, it was 161271. 4. The checkerboard will fit T

This is the decal sheet you want - Fightertown Decals 48085 is fit to Tamiya and is available. http://www.fightertowndecals.com/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=59 48065 was for the Hasegawa kit but for the CAG jet, will still work just fine.

Yeah, I’m just telling you what color blue the dogs were painting their jets. Pretty sure I goofed the color on the Fightertown 48083 sheet (if we sales out a color), but we did match the decals to the Fs color. Printing variations could have affected the actual color. I know Geoff Kruger built that jet and used a blend of Tamiya X-4 and another blue to match our decals. I don’t have or haven’t seen the Furball instructions, so I can’t help there. But the only 15044 paint they’ve used I know of was on their last cruise jets that we (Fightertown) covered way back on 48003. brian

The blue was 15102 True Blue. MM made it. MRP makes it - MRP384. Mr Color C65 is a very close match although I don’t know if they list it as an FS color. Tamiya also has a close match but don’t know the bottle off the top of my head. X-4 I think. Can’t tell you what matches the decals or what the decals were printed too, but the Navy color was 15102. brian

Just looking at it, I think you can get a good feeling for the level of details we did. Printed at Cartograf, fit to the Hasegawa kit and we did as much as we could think of. It's been sold out for awhile. If you're building Tamiya (or AMK), you want 48087 which is readily available. We added more stuff and details. I'm pretty proud of this one 😉 brian

Of course the pilot won't work. There is no pilot out there that's a Blue. Maybe use the Academy pilot and sand down all the detail... I'm just talking about the helmet for a seated Blue Angel 😉 brian

I was just trying to find who makes good Mk83's. Are these the same pieces that were in the BB Bombcat set?... Any chance of a straight Mk83 conical fin set? Nobody makes these. The old hasegawa weapons set bombs aren't even close.

That stashe makes it even cooler! Easier to remove that create 😉 It may not be easily available, but they are out there. I bought 4 online a few years back with no problems. -brian

Those closed F-14D GE nozzles will be most welcome! If you get that slightly curved shape correct it will look awesome! thanks, brian

You did one of the most awesome seated pilots ever made! And no matter what you create, there are always people that want it 'their' way 😉 I know, I'm one of them hahahaha. You keep making the figures that you want. I've found that's the best way to do aftermarket - make what makes you happy. For the time and effort it takes, you have to enjoy and invest the time. And then share what you're proud of and let the customers work it out. cheers, brian

Verlinden 1/32 TOPGUN pilot is perfect for a Blue Angel - HGU-33 with visor down, no mask 😉 -brian

Www.fightertowndecals.com 1/32 are all sold out but pop up online, at resale, ebay and retailers. 😉 brian

You just got scammed. Look at the history. And good luck getting the refund. They will have tracking (even tho you will receive an empty box/usb cable) or the box will get rerouted... just buy from a reputable dealer and pay the $55 like everyone else. $20? Too good to be true and it is. There’s a reason all the listings are below $20. A 1/32 Trumpeter F/A-18F for $19? Yeah, it’s all a scam out of China.

It did have the blisters. We goofed and used the Buno from an earlier CAG Jet. There’s another thread about it here somewhere... CAG11 badge is on the inside of the right tail. There’s very few shots of this jet from the ODS cruise. I used a cruise book with a few shots to piece it together. Brian

Always wanted to build this one... Seen at the NAS Miramar transfer to MCAS Miramar ceremonies. My photo And yes, I have very high res shots of it, including a good tail close up. I wasn't thinking about decals back then, but the tail was too cool not to get a close up 😉

Those Katran nozzles have some really funky shapes and the shroud parts have some strange grid panel lines that don't exist on the real thing... - Closed nozzles aren't fully closed and close at a strange angle and have a kink, kind of like the kink in the F-15 featherless nozzles. - Open nozzles have too long extension of the inner petals. The 2 that I think are tops are: - KA. They have both the exhaust and full exhaust with tubes. They are amazing looking. There is the slightest step in the nozzles to shroud but it's almost not noticeable if done right. The tubes and

eraucubsfan - send me your email and I'll dropbox you a couple of shots of 007 in the 2-tone we did the decals from. -brian

You can use 36375 for all the gray. I'd upload pictures but they are all 3MB or greater...

Totally different. brown/tan/sand. Different patterns and colors. Doing the 3-tone jet would require different markings. You could piece together a few parts but the brown alone would be missing...

Part of the issue with the slat/wings is that AMK didn’t mold the slat bay. They molded the wing smooth all the way and there should be a recessed bay for the slat. So I see in all the builds, people don’t have a mark for where to paint the red. Some have lots of red vs some with almost no red. And if you do too much either way, it looks off. Brian

I love watching this thread and am continuously impressed by your skill and attention to detail. Having built a bunch of the Hasegawa Tomcats, and correcting a few things, I still can only think the way to improve the Hasegawa kit is to build the Tamiya! Hahahaha. Beian

I always was under the impression it simply had to do with the part contract manufacturer. Nothing more than the later made parts had straight and different number of vanes... Just like some of the main tires had tread in the center (5 lines of tread) of the tire, and some didn’t (4 lines of tread)... bris