LOBOS for VMF115

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 5:27 pm

G'day VMF115

The guy from airliners.net came through with a photo that had enough detail for me to get a start, unfortunately the image was a 3/4 rear shot so I have had to make a guess or two in regards to correcting the perspective, note that I still have a liitle more work to do before I can confident the distortion has been fully compensated for.

But I think it's getting pretty close. Compare it to your original reference shots.

VMF115 · Post by **VMF115** » Tue Nov 21, 2006 9:09 pm

Thanks, Looks cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thank you!!!

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Tue Nov 28, 2006 3:46 am

G’day VMF115

Work on the SOUTH DAKOTA banner has been painfully slow, as the only reference shot I have is of way to lower resolution to really be able to nail this artwork, it would not be such am issue in say 1/72nd, 1/48th or 1/32nd scales but in the big time 1/18th scale any misjudgement stands out big time.

So far I have got most the letters reasonably close but the "S" is giving me the HITS (see the S is missing) as my reference image is just of far too lower quality. As mentioned above the original was shot at a low angle 3/4 rear view and was also shot in very poor light. To even get to this point I have had to do some major Photoshopping to this image with some pretty drastic free distortion and much lightening which inturn has resulted in even more image quality loss.

So if you are willing to try and contact the unit to see if they may be able to help out with the lettering detail that would a great boost to the project.

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Wed Nov 29, 2006 3:25 am

G'day VMF115 and others

Well I have closely examined the reference shot for about the 100th time and the following is about the best I can do with the available material.

Not one to give up lightly I have also continued to Google fruitlessly for hours only to find one partial image (and not the S part either) that may be of some assitance, however I unfortunately left that image at work along with my memory stick so I will have to wait until I can get that image back home tomorrow evening before I can see if it will help at all.

VMF115 · Post by **VMF115** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 12:40 am

G'day Spudkopf

I contacted them and they are going to look for more images for me.

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 5:41 am

So you found time to drag yourself away from your new Me 262

I actually too have one of these babies on the way sometime soon and I am very much looking forward to getting one in my hanger.

There is still no sign of my F16 as of yet, but with any luck it should appear some time early in the new week. Then I can move onto setting up my various artwork for some test prints to confirm the scales and angles.

I also drew up yet another set of fonts based o the new image I mentioned above. From the examples I now have it would appear that there is quite some variation between the stencils used on each of this units aircraft.

Hopefully your request will bare some fruit and allow me to get a more or less generic font script nailed for the LOBOS vipers.

VMF115 · Post by **VMF115** » Sat Dec 02, 2006 11:34 am

Thank you.

LOL Not done yet playing with my Me-262.
I just made a base for the Me-262 using cardboard and some dark gray paint to make part of the tarmac. I am thinking about making a facade hanger.

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Mon Dec 04, 2006 7:19 pm

G'day All

My F16 arrived yesterday, the first thing I did was to do Rob's front wheel shortening mod, once that was done and dusted I went scanned and measured up the tail, to create my scaling template.

I then pulled together all my LOBOS artwork, and tweaked it to fit this template, I have also printed out a test shot which I will use to confirm size a fit on the actual tail when I get home this evening.

Here are the initial results:

VMF115 · Post by **VMF115** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 12:05 am

SWEET WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How do I remove the paint????

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Tue Dec 05, 2006 3:04 am

G'day VMF115

Most solvents I have tried so far have failed to remove the BBI printing, I think someone may have suggested nail polish remover, but I would be very careful in case it also attacks the plastic.

My prefered method, would be to lightly sand the surfaces with some very fine wet and dry sand paper to remove any of the raised print detail and then to repaint the entire fin with an appropriatly matched paint like a Testor, Gunze or Tamiya spray can. As the vertical fin is seperated from any other like painted surfaces exact matching should not be that bigger an issue. I would then take the airbrush and do some panel highlighting with some black.

I have noticed that there is only one hoist point stencil on the fin and I will be making a replacement one to go on the decal sheet.

If I get a chance this evening I'll try and do some test fitting ad take some pics of the results.

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 8:33 pm

G'day all

Here is how the scale test looks on my own F16s fin, this is just a simple black and white laser printer printout, printed onto some a clear adhesive label medium (not water slide).

I have been researching the colours used and after doing some digging think I have found some suitable CMYK colour matches.

I have decided that FS 36118 Dark Grey should be used for the serial and unit alpha numeric, while FS 36375 Light Grey would appear to be the highlight colour used for artwork. I have sent of a test template to John so we can test the colour results.

To get the correct luminescence for FS 36375 it will probably be necessary to use a white under layer, however I’m hoping for FS 36375 that the FS36270 Medium Grey tail colour alone will provide enough luminescence as the white ink is very expensive and there is a heck of a lot of FS36118 to be used.

VMF115 · Post by **VMF115** » Wed Dec 06, 2006 11:29 pm

G'day Spudkopf it looks nice and I hope you dont have to use the Expensive kind of ink, it does look GREAT!!!!!!!!!!

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Thu Dec 07, 2006 2:02 pm

G'day VMF115

I have just had some preliminary printing results back from John, the initial sample that I sent off to him used percentages of black to create the greys and he has told me that his printer mixed Cyan Magenta and Yellow to create even these greys which means any thing other than pure black is going to require a white layer as it will be treated as a colour.

But having said that he did not seem too phased by the need for a white layer and so things are still moving forward. John’s going away for a few days so we’ll have to wait to hear how the CMYK Federal Standard (FS) colour versions come out, but since they use specific CMYK values my hope is that the colour output should be more solid and ultimately more accurate.

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 4:47 pm

G'day VMF115

I have now finalised the content and layout for the 175th decal sheet, which I have just now sent off to John. Below is a Lo-Res reduced jpg print muck-up.

Next on the list will be a South Carolina ANG sheet and a 52nd FW (TFW) sheet.

VMF115 · Post by **VMF115** » Thu Dec 14, 2006 5:25 pm

Spudkopf wrote:G'day VMF115

I have now finalised the content and layout for the 175th decal sheet, which I have just now sent off to John. Below is a Lo-Res reduced jpg print muck-up.

Next on the list will be a South Carolina ANG sheet and a 52nd FW (TFW) sheet.

G'day Spudkopf
Looks good.

Schuft · Post by **Schuft** » Sat Feb 03, 2007 8:21 am

The Lobo decal set is now available at Johns Stuff

Spudkopf · Post by **Spudkopf** » Sun Feb 04, 2007 2:10 pm

G'day All

I was away this weekend so this is the first chance that I have had to let you know that there are currently three F16 decal set designs on offer at the John's Stuff site.

These are:
175th FS S.D. ANG (LOBOS)
157th FS S.C. ANG (SWAMP FOX)
52nd FW Spangdahlem AB, Germany (Part 1 Current)

http://www.johns-stuff.com/pages/decals/F16.html

I am also currently working on part 2 of the 52nd FW Spangdahlem AB, Germany decals and this set will cover the 80s and 90s.

VMF115 if just follow the link from Schuft above you can order your set direct from John.