F-22 Decals

[B2Blain]

I just received your F-22 decals for a current Hawaii ANG project. This is the first time that I am purchasing from Caracal and they look great!  I have a question regarding S29/S30. Hasegawa shows them as screens. But your decals are solid in color. I cannot tell from pics from the real jet if they depict screens on the top of the fuselage. Can you confirm if they should be solid?

 

Thanks!

[KursadA]

I have not been close enough to a real jet to see if these are conformal antenna of some sort or screens, but even the highest resolution photos I studied for the design show these to be a solid surface. I believe they are either conformal antenna, or have such fine screening that it is impossible to discern a screen shape in 1/48 scale. They also seem to have different colors on different aircraft, which leads me to believe that it is a solid/dielectric material that can change color with age & wear.

 

I am fully comfortable and confident in my choice to depict them as solid shapes. Even if these were screens of some kind, any attempt to depict them as a grid would have looked lame and unrealistic in any decal printing technology that I am aware of.

 

Edited November 15, 2022 by KursadA

[B2Blain]

Thank you for your quick response and attention to detail. I think I found the same walk around images you did. It does looks more like a different coating or material, rather than a screen. 

[B2Blain]

It seems the fin flash is very close in color to the outside of the vertical stab. I positioned it across the Aggressor Gray so you could see the contrast. It blends in with the light ghost gray - FS36375. Unless it is suppose to be a different color? I applied Model Masters' FS36375 straight out of the bottle - without lightening it or weathering the area. Then applied several coats of Future. My guess is that the decal is suppose to be Dark Mod Eagle Gray - FS36176. 

 

 

Edited December 18, 2022 by B2Blain

[KursadA]

This was always going to be a tricky project because of how close the grays are, and how the coatings on an F-22 can look very different under different lighting conditions. Just one look at the kit decal sheets of the Hasegawa and Academy 1/48 kits and the Revell 1/72 kit shows you gray colors all over the color spectrum, and not two kit sheets have the same color. 

 

 It is impossible to make out the details on the tiny image you posted, but the colors are very close on the real aircraft, and the contrasts on the lighter leading/trailing edges and the base color are not very sharp. In many lighting conditions it is difficult to see the markings unless the aircraft is literally factory-fresh.

 

 

The darker gray on the sheet was specified to be  FS36176. The way Cartograf printed it is closer to FS36270. I would recommend lightening all of the base colors a little bitIf I ever reprint the decals  in the future I will consider darkening the colors a bit.

[B2Blain]

 

Here is one in shade. It's give a better image to determine contrast. The decal appears darker on the sheet, and shows contrast when you hold it next to the finished stab. There is some transparency with the decal, with the underneath shade coming through. That maybe part of the issue. I maybe wrong. I am too far down the road to the lighten the stab. I think I may use the kit decals for this one and try to figure out if I should lighten or darken with my next one. I was looking forward to doing a Hawaii Raptor.

 

 

Edited December 19, 2022 by B2Blain