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CD144004 - C-135 Family General Purpose Markings


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You have been asking for general C-135 / KC-135 data markings for a while. Let us do these. I am satisfied with how the 1/144 KC-135R sheet is doing so far, and I already know how successful the 1/72 scale sheet was. With the C-135/KC-135 having served in so many versions, it makes sense that a general markings sheet will be well received. I will then use this sheet as the basis for a more extensive series of C-135/KC-135 sheets. I intend to do these in 1/72 and 1/144 scales both.

Endless promises and fanciful sneak peeks are not really my style. I will sit down and finish these in a matter of days after I clear the huge shipping backlog that I am facing now. Let me know what you need on this sheet - what I currently have in mind are:

-All general stencilling I provided in the USAF KC-135R sheets, plus

-Yellow/red variants of door outlines etc. as seen in earlier (KC-135A/E) and on French aircraft

-Windshield / brow window decals: To borrow from Donald Rumsfeld; I will design these for the kit we have, not the kit we want to have ;-)

-US national insignia in standard sizes specified for the C-135 family, both in low-vis (black) and color

-Refueling markings etc.

Edited by KursadA
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I think I may just faint! You don't know how fantastic of news this is Kursad. :woot.gif:/>

I think you've pretty much hit on everything that is needed for a high vis 135 variant. One other item may be to add walkway stripes for the wings, horizontal tail surfaces and vertical tail. And I don't know if you would have room but maybe windshield outlines in silver and red. Many of the RC's seemed to have red outlines on some of the panes.

My wife is going to kill me when I order a gillion of these sheets!

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These are very nice photos, ikar - thank you for sharing. I know many of you would like to see decals for KC-135A/E from earlier time frames. I would like to make these a reality, but I find that some of the details (like ruddervator markings etc.) have not been documented well in the pre-digital camera era. Believe it or not, the hardest part of the research for the KC-135R sheet was finding photos of ruddervator markings for all 16 units covered on the sheet - I had to go through hundreds of photos online to complete the sheet.

That said. I am working on an early KC-135, but will have to make some compromises for the gaps I have in my references.

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Then there's "Looking Glass".

scan0083.jpg

You need red/white stripe markings around the boom operator's area, some extra antennas and those things on top of the wings, The S.A.C. band and possibly a white top.

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  • 2 months later...
  • 2 months later...

This sheet is almost done - just need to add a few markings seen on hi-viz and French KC-135FR's, and I am sending it to be printed in time for an October release.

It will be sold as a standalone sheet, and it will also be part of a future set that will have a boatload of different options of various C-135 family members.

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Have you considered adding the fuselage titling for Military Airlift Command and Military Air Transport Services and the blue/yellow tail bands with white lettering for MAC, MATS, ADC? Since this is a generic sheet these would be useful and welcome items

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Have you considered adding the fuselage titling for Military Airlift Command and Military Air Transport Services and the blue/yellow tail bands with white lettering for MAC, MATS, ADC? Since this is a generic sheet these would be useful and welcome items

Yes, yes, yes. A million times yes!!!!! I would buy multiple sheets for this alone!

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I am making a guess that you are not including the "Milky Way" blue fuselage band on this generic decal? Microscale did a generic USAF sheet way, way back in 1978 that had a lot of this general type of markings. This is going to be a great decal sheet you are doing.

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To aircal62,

What Microscale sheet with generic SAC milky way bands are you referring to in 1/144 scale? I am not aware of it. Only the two 1/144 C-130 sheets which were copies of their 72-194/195 sheets. They did some other WWII and jet fighter sheets, but I do not remember even a 1/144 B-52 sheet. Did Microscale produce a 1/144 sheet of their USAF Command Insignia #1/#2 sheets 72-187/190?

R/Dutch

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Microscale did print the 1/72nd B-52D sheet in 144 scale as well as several others, B-26 etc. I do not think that the USAF Command Insignia sheets were ever reduced down to 1/144. I was really unclear with my discussion of the Milky Way bands on the 72nd scale sheet and the Caracal KC-135 Generic markings decal proposal. I guess what I was wanting to do was to suggest that the Milky Way band be included, but then you would have to have a SAC emblem, MATS and MAC, Weather, etc emblems also. Although including all of these would make the sheet infinitely useful on many many projects and potentially useful on the Roden C-124, early C-130's, C-118's. The problem that Caracal faces is how much. They could even include the DayGlo bands carried by these birds circa 1962. And on, and on and on...

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Go many when you send these to the printers Kursad. I'm saving my lunch money and plan to order 10-12 of these. I have a feeling that these will be hugely popular and will sell out fast.

These sheets will sell so well it will almost be a license to print money. :woot.gif:

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Microscale did print the 1/72nd B-52D sheet in 144 scale as well as several others, B-26 etc. I do not think that the USAF Command Insignia sheets were ever reduced down to 1/144. I was really unclear with my discussion of the Milky Way bands on the 72nd scale sheet and the Caracal KC-135 Generic markings decal proposal. I guess what I was wanting to do was to suggest that the Milky Way band be included, but then you would have to have a SAC emblem, MATS and MAC, Weather, etc emblems also. Although including all of these would make the sheet infinitely useful on many many projects and potentially useful on the Roden C-124, early C-130's, C-118's. The problem that Caracal faces is how much. They could even include the DayGlo bands carried by these birds circa 1962. And on, and on and on...

Great suggestions - I did add the SAC bands and most of the other emblems/badges you suggested. Just a couple more corrections to the layout and I will be able to show the final draft to you, before sending it to be printed.

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Great suggestions - I did add the SAC bands and most of the other emblems/badges you suggested. Just a couple more corrections to the layout and I will be able to show the final draft to you, before sending it to be printed.

Great! Now I'm really going to be broke. Can you say 15 - 20 sheets! Anyhow, fantastic news on the SAC sash and other badges/emblems.

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  • 2 weeks later...

KursadA,

I know you are probably planning on releasing other 1/144 KC-135 series sheets in the future. Will this Generic Data sheet be included in future releases as well? Just curious. Doesn't mean I won't buy 10-12 generic sheets, I just may not need the data sheet if I buy the future releases for the unit markings. Aw, heck, what am I saying? I'll probably buy them anyway.

R/ Dutch

Edited by Dutch
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