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Playing in the Sandbox Group Build Sept 1, 2024 - Jn 1, 2025

Scale and stencils... what do you guys do?


GazzaS

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Hello friends,

    Gonna be decaling a MiG soon.  It's not exactly Large scale, but to me it's plenty large.  The kit comes with like a thousand stencils.  Besides the pretty red stars, and ID numbers, I'm wondering if any, especially the smaller ones,  would be seen from 48 feet away.  or even 32. 

 

What do you guys think?

 

Gaz

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A while ago I built a 1/48 F-15 Eagle and did the full stenciling job :icon_eek:. I think the result looked ok, but since this time I have a more than slightly aversion to start another modern jet. More than once I put a F-4 Phantom back into the shelf and it was the only reason I didn't buy an AMK Mig-31 till now. I hate decaling in general and stenciling even more. One thing you might take into account is the quality of the decals. If they blend in perfectly without silvering and visible shining film, they will enhance your model a lot in my opinion.

Cheers Rob

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3 minutes ago, DocRob said:

A while ago I built a 1/48 F-15 Eagle and did the full stenciling job :icon_eek:. I think the result looked ok, but since this time I have a more than slightly aversion to start another modern jet. More than once I put a F-4 Phantom back into the shelf and it was the only reason I didn't buy an AMK Mig-31 till now. I hate decaling in general and stenciling even more. One thing you might take into account is the quality of the decals. If they blend in perfectly without silvering and visible shining film, they will enhance your model a lot in my opinion.

Cheers Rob

Thanks for your input Rob. I have held the plastic of the AMK MiG-31 in my hands.  You are cheating yourself of a truly awesome kit!

 

Gaz

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1 hour ago, GazzaS said:

You are cheating yourself of a truly awesome kit!

I know, that's why I bought the special edition five minutes ago :D. Since yesterday I had it in the shopping cart for the umpteenth time. Thanks Gaz for inflicting the stenciling pain to me :rofl:.

Cheers Rob

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Good points, and I think stenciling helps as well, BUT, it seems to me that once in service a lot of the stenciling gets burned off, and not always replaced, I have seen a lot of 'in service' birds, and a number of Phantoms back in the day, and Phantoms were notorious for their extensive stenciling, but the ones I saw were not over done, it may be a case of at what stage you are modeling your bird, factory fresh it would be loaded, but once in service maybe not so much.................it will probably come down to a personal feeling..... no matter how much or how little you put on , it could be accurate..... just MHO :2c:

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Me, I hate applying all those stencils. Especially when they're all tiny little decals. 

Eduard a few years ago came out with a couple PE stencils to use for airbrushing on certain stencils. They were a bit of a pain to use but worked great. 

DSC_0169-L.jpg

DSC_0171-L.jpg

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On a fairly well maintained operational MiG-25PD/PDS you could easily spot the larger service and maintenance markings from a distance of more than 50 metres.

BlQJTbA.jpg

AdRRnoS.jpg

It's your model. You decide.



For comparison - ICM MiG-25PD stencil sheet:
DSunA0F.jpg

Generic F-4E stencil data sheet:
(the full monty - less than 20% of the stencils are duplicate copies/variations)
fFlWTm8.jpg

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1 hour ago, BlrwestSiR said:

No, Hill Grey F-4E from Clark AFB with a couple extra guns. 

DSC_0318-L.jpg

DSC_0181-L.jpg

Never did an RFI pic for it. Maybe I should. 

 

Dude, you need to post pic of her ! Looks really good....harv

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As Ivan said above, stencils are very markable and usually very well maintained on Soviet/Russian aircrafts. They are in deferent colours  in order to distinguish between different systems, such as, air, oil, fuel and general warnings. Even fasteners have little tiny lines on them to show the "lock" position. uig-975-05-tass-b-371814.jpg

Kittyhawk+48th+MiG-25+RBRBT+Foxbat+B+rev

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In general, the service and maintenance markings on the forward fuselage, around the intakes and on the pylons were in somewhat better condition than those applied to the rest of the airframe. MiG-25s were parked in the open and only fwd fuselage, intakes, pylons and missile seekers were covered with tarps to protect the airframes, etc. from the elements. "Better condition" = less faded and worn.

In order to replicate this "subdued" effect, you could apply another highly diluted, thin coat of light grey to the exposed areas. 

In principle that's just what I did on my old 48th scale Draken:
9t46T6F.jpg

lnokNjo.jpg

 

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19 hours ago, DocRob said:

I know, that's why I bought the special edition five minutes ago :D. Since yesterday I had it in the shopping cart for the umpteenth time. Thanks Gaz for inflicting the stenciling pain to me :rofl:.

Cheers Rob

Always glad to help!  You'll have to do a build blog of the MiG-31.

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7 hours ago, Ivan Ivanovich said:

On a fairly well maintained operational MiG-25PD/PDS you could easily spot the larger service and maintenance markings from a distance of more than 50 metres.

BlQJTbA.jpg

AdRRnoS.jpg

It's your model. You decide.



 

Well...  I hadn't really made a decision until I read all of the answers and saw the photos you guys posted.  Thank you!  I think I can see enough in the above photo to clue me in.   It's not that I hate placing deals.  I hate silvering.  And every decal presents a silvering opportunity.  So, the surface has to be immaculately smooth.  Any hint of porousness will eventually show.  So...

 

Thank you!

 

Gaz

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