Rob de Bie

One easy way out is to remove *all* decal glue, by rubbing the released decal over a surface. Then use Future as decal glue: just put a drop on the surface, place the decal in it, brush away the excess. Done! Give it a try on some of the decals you won't use. Rob

I'm all for it! If you want to include more modern stuff too, I can help with a full set of decals that I drew for the AGM-86, shown here: https://robdebie.home.xs4all.nl/models/atomic.htm And maybe you should know that MAI once did a sheet for AGM-28 Hound Dog and ADM-20 Quail. Two more worthy subjects! Rob

The bottom one is magnesium on the F-104G, and it's therefore always painted, FS x6473 on a bare metal aircraft. Maybe it's the same on the XF-104, but it might be unpainted, given the darker color. It's not a dielectric panel, the elevator actuator is housed there. The top one is aluminum on the F-104G. Rob

It would help a lot if you explain what 'US Army ACU and multicam patches' are.. Maybe with a picture or two? Rob

Interesting to watch: Rob

BiilS, thanks for the additional comments. Seems I'm safe with my dark blue and silver rank insignia.Maybe I can ultramarine blue for the tapes with a different ink cartridge. Rob

Yes, that's it! Late fifties TV station, trumpet in the intro, weird characters.. Many thanks! Rob

Wikipedia says that show aired from 1970 to 1977, so it's way older than what I am looking for. I can also add that I think the show only ran for one or two seasons, it wasn't very successful I think.. Rob

Leon's thread "Can't remember name of this 80's TV series (UK)" resurfacing from 2013 made me think of a quest of mine. I'm looking for an American TV show about a pioneering TV station from the fifties. I remember a highly varied staff, a trumpet in the intro, lots of things going wrong, and dry humor. The problem is that I cannot think of a decent way to Google for it, because the search words are so generic. Does anyone know the name? Rob

Maybe I'm saying the obvious, but thin styrene is much easier to roll into a cilinder compared to thick styrene. I've made nice thin-walled cilinders by rolling Evergreen thinnest plastic card (0.1 mm) over a suitable cilindrical shape, gluing it while rolling. You do need to roll it to a couple of layers, otherwise the stiffness kink will give you a balloon shape. Rob

Paul, Rex, ST0rm, det1460, kellyF15, thanks for the many comments! I made the following changes: 1 - I want stateside airman, so dull silver on dark blue will be my choice for the rank insignia. I changed the rank insigna to dark purple, the closest the printer can do the real color of dark blue. I could try to print silver instead of white, to make the insignia less bright 2 - the lettering of the tags is indeed too small to print, they are 4 or 5 print pixels tall. But I hope it will look like text. I swapped the USAF and name tags, made them blue and a bit taller. The blue is too bright, but I have a limited color palette. 3 - the photo inspired to add a patch on the right breast pocket. I picked the Air Force System Command, that seemed suitable to a new aircraft type like the (Y)F-16 4 - lastly I added a watch for the tractor driver If you have any other comments, please let me know! Rob

I'm building Revell's old 1/72 F-16, the H222 box from 1976 with the red-white-blue aircraft on a compass rose. The two figures in the kit turned out to be surprisingly nice, except for the two left hands of the marshalling guy. The figures look a bit boring after more detail painting (not shown), so I started thinking what could be added. Maybe rank insignia and a name and US AIR FORCE tags? I looked at Hasegawa's 'US pilot/ground crew set' (X72-7) but this set does not include any of this. Instead I found this diagram: I drew these markings (for two different ranks) in CorelDraw and positioned them over the figures to size them. But I don't know whether they are correct for a mid-seventies setting? A close-up shows the tags a bit better. The rank insignia should be suitable for an Alps, but the tags are too small to be readable. Are these markings correct and suitable for the mid-seventies? Did I miss anything? Any comments are welcome! Rob

Not an answer to your question, but a helpful tip: cover the vacform canopy with foil, so you can SEE what you're doing. I found that the transparancy is the main problem in cutting and fitting a vacform canopy. I have a tutorial on my website: Canopy masking with Cheap Chocolate Foil. As an alternative you could maybe use removable paint. Acrylic will dissolve in ammonia for example. Rob

Low-viz colors will be difficult for any home printer, and the Alps printer too. Instead of decals you could have masks made. For a 1/32 model that should work well - a club member did a few very nice 1/48 models with masks only. You will have to scan and redraw (in vector) the required markings, then enlarge them to 150%. Illustrator, CorelDraw and Inkscape are typical vector graphics software. Rob

Rex, many thanks for the tip! I was getting kind of desperate to get one.. My U-2C has been on hold for far too long! Rob