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1/48 or 1/72 Carrier Airwing Decals?


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1 hour ago, Tomcat124 said:

Does anyone know of any company or companies that make or could make decals for an entire Carrier air wing?  I am looking for them in 1/48 scale but would even do 1/72  scale.   

So you’re looking to build an entire 1:48 air wing? That’s commitment. Finding what you want will depend on the era and airwing composition you want. Personally, a mid-70’s or 80’s wing sounds more interesting to me than a 2010 wing... Too many bugs...

 

I’ve never seen a decal set that covered every airframe in a wing. You would need to buy multiple sets in order to get enough squadron markings, and would need to put together modexes, and of course you have some variation among planes: lo-viz, CAG and XO machines, etc. The modexes should be easy enough; I have seen several sheets that had number jungles for that purpose.

 

Rather than try to have some company make a special set for you, it might make better sense to just buy multiple stock sheets. 

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I am working on a 1980's airwing set in 1/72; from those good times when not everything on a carrier were Hornets; complete with F-14s, A-7s, A-6s, S-3s. Hawkeyes, Sea Kings etc. It is a long term project and will not happen very soon. But it is in the works. 

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SB Decals is toying with doing CVW=8 from the Final Countdown in 1/48. It will include E-2B markings as well. The Aeromaster sheets are hard to find, and they represent a couple years prior to the movie. We're even thinking of putting the "Zero" markings in. 

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3 hours ago, Darren Roberts said:

SB Decals is toying with doing CVW=8 from the Final Countdown in 1/48. It will include E-2B markings as well. The Aeromaster sheets are hard to find, and they represent a couple years prior to the movie. We're even thinking of putting the "Zero" markings in. 

 

Sold for the VF-41, VA-82, and VA-35 markings!

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I've done the entire airwing CAG-8 from the 2005 TR cruise with the last Tomcats Cruise. It's in 1/144...

 

i released a short run custom sheet of all the Tomcats. I then printed 2 lowviz sheets or all the gray Tomcats, Hornets, prowlers, helos, Vikings with Microscale.  And did all the color jets custom. It's never been released...

 

beyween all the decal nakers, you can get a lot of one airwing but no ones ever done all of the squadrons yet

Edited by Brian P: Fightertown Decals
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My main modeling USED to be nothing but CVW-8. Think I have almost every airframe in 1/48, except the E-2B squadron from the final countdown days. Now of course its anything Canadian and PHANTOM!!

 

However , I recommend the new Fightertown sheet. Its excellent for the modern Hornets. Only people I have yet to see do the CVW-8 VFA-37 Bulls. Which are on the soon to build pile.

 

 

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9 hours ago, Brian P: Fightertown Decals said:

I've done the entire airwing CAG-8 from the 2005 TR cruise with the last Tomcats Cruise. It's in 1/144...

 

i released a short run custom sheet of all the Tomcats. I then printed 2 lowviz sheets or all the gray Tomcats, Hornets, prowlers, helos, Vikings with Microscale.  And did all the color jets custom. It's never been released...

 

beyween all the decal nakers, you can get a lot of one airwing but no ones ever done all of the squadrons yet

Wow!!! 

I've bought 4 sets of 48065(F-14D VF-31 Last Tomcat Cruise & Sunset) and 4 sets of 48044(F-14D VF-213 Black Lions Last Roar), I love these decals very much!
I also bought 2 sets of 48033 (EA-6B VAQ-141 SHADOWHAWKS), but the schemes do not belong to the Last Tomcat Cruise.

It will be so great if you can release a 1/48 version of CVW-8 in 2005~2006 cruise, including VFA-15, VFA-87, VAQ-141, VAW-124, VS-24, HS-3 and even VRC-40 Det.1.

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I really like the idea of decals for complete airwings.  There are definitely people who (try to) build models for each squadron from a particular deployment or event, but some of the planes in the airwing aren't exactly popular enough to merit decal sets on their own.  Having a decal set that has representatives from each of the squadrons in the airwing would still appeal to the modellers who only want them for the popular subjects, but it would also be of significant interest to the completists.

 

Some good candidates might include:
CVW-17 from Saratoga during Desert Storm which includes VFA-81, VF-74, VF-103, and VA-35; but also VFA-83 which has only ever appeared in some old Superscale decals, VAQ-132 which last came out from Cutting Edge, VAW-125 which has never appeared in 1/48 with the tigertail and had two fast jet kill marks, VS-30 which has never been done in their subdued markings, and HS-3 where there are NO Navy Seaking decals in the low vis gray for any squadrons.

 

CVW-2 from Midway at the start of Vietnam which includes both the first air-to-air victory of the war with VF-21 and the Skyraider gun kill from VA-25, but also A-4s from VA-22 and VA-23, VF-111 Sundowners during their time in the F-8, a squadron of A-3s (VAH-8), and dets of RF-8A (which there are conversion sets out there for), E-1B, EA-1F (which also has a conversion set, but again no decals).

 

I'm sure there are other airwings which would be good candidates, but I think any of them that have one or two 'famous' aircraft or squadrons would be good choices since they would appeal to people who aren't trying to build full representative airwings.

 

Chris

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Ever since I visited the America during NYC's Fleet Week  in 1991, I've wanted to build at least one aircraft in 1/ 48th from CVW-1 (VF-33, VF-102, VA-85, VFA-82, VFA-86, VS-32, VAW-123, & HS-11) from the post Desert Storm era when you still had everything from Tomcats to Seakings on deck.  I knew it was a long term project because there wasn't a 48th E-2C at the time, and I took a hard pass on the Collecte-Aire resin kit of the early 2000s.  Several of the markings didn't become available until after the year 2000.  I still have Micro/Superscale sheets from that era with low sheet numbers like 48-223.  Since the Kinetic E-2C kit was released, and the expected aftermarket sheets came along, I finally have enough sheets from a range of companies to cobble together very accurate period markings for the entire air wing, in addition to some alphabet jungle (so stealing that description) sheets in both 48th & 72nd to otherwise create non-exsisting titiling for some of the squadrons and the ships name.  Of course, as life would have it, I'm overseas working and my stash is back in storage stateside.

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Hi 

 

Carpena Decals used to do a twin hi viz - low viz CAW 6 set 1989-1990 as based on USS Forrestal.

This two reference (two part) set was released in 1/48th and 1/72nd scale. Must be out of production now but sometimes found on ebay.

 

* 1/72 sheets are 72-21 (Hi viz) and 72-22 (lo viz)

* 1/48 refs are 48-11 low viz and (I suppose) 48-10 or 48-12

 

Featured aircraft are F-14A, A-7E, A-6E, SH-3, EA-6B (low viz sheet) and F-14A,  A-7E, A-6E,  S-3B and E-2C.

 

I used one livery on a 1/72 F-14A long ago and it was not bad at the time. Check it might not be as well researched as some more recent specialised makers decals but I found it was not bad at all. 

 

Best regards - Wishing you well on your project.

 

Eric B.

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3 hours ago, Rex said:

look at these

 

https://www.starfighter-decals.com/stde.html

 

then have a convo with Mark about doing a 1/72 or 1/48 set for you, and the cost

 

he has his entire decal range stored as scaleable artwork (might have to tweak some line widths here and there)

Mark did a great job on a set of 1/100 scale CVW decals for a project at my museum. We built a 1/96 scale USS Oriskany. It wasn't cheap. But, they worked well and we got the markings we needed. Just know that the print quality will not be Cartograf or Microscale quality. At small scales it isn't noticeable, but as the size gets larger, you can see the difference, especially in the grays. For doing small air wings, I highly recommend them.

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He has changed decal companies since then, Darren.

From his 1/72 page "Decals printed by Cartograf of Italy or Canuck Decals of Canada."

I think I remember that he planned to use ALPS for one-time decals such as a 1/72 RF-8 from one of his Air Wing sheets.

Edited by Rex
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3 hours ago, Rex said:

He has changed decal companies since then, Darren.

From his 1/72 page "Decals printed by Cartograf of Italy or Canuck Decals of Canada."

I think I remember that he planned to use ALPS for one-time decals such as a 1/72 RF-8 from one of his Air Wing sheets.

I'm going to guess he used the ALPS for the Oriskany project. Do you think that's what he'd use if he printed one of every squadron from an air wing for someone? 

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1 hour ago, picknpluck said:

@Darren Roberts any timeframe on the decals you mentioned above? I just picked up an RVHP RF-8 conversion in 1/48 and would love to do that Nimitz 'Sader with the racing stripes!

We are in the very beginning planning stages, so I couldn't tell you when. The wheels are just now beginning to turn......very slowly. 🙂

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I would guess the same, Darren.

 

I don't even know of anyone that does "one time silk screen" decals.

 

Another option would be to contact a silk screen decal company,,,,,,,and sponsor a production run. But, then, this idea would become like mine would have,,,,,instead of a unique collection of aircraft Wings,,,,,a modeler becomes one of 500 people with a decal collection of Air Wing sets. (that is why I didn't commission decals for my one of each Squadron model collection)

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