This new decal sheet from Hobby
Decal includes
dry transfer stencils for the 1/48 F/A-18E/F. Full sized 1/1 aircraft
have their stencils painted on using paint stencils. Regular
decals are ink printed on a clear carrier film....which is fine, but
they are not as accurate in look and application as dry transfers.
Dry
transfers are reverse printed on a temporary clear film.
When you apply the stencils you lay the back of the stencils on
the painted surface of the model and then burnish (rub) them down
through the clear temporary carrier film. The dry transfer
sticks to the model and dis-engages from the clear carrier film.
The beauty of dry transfers is you do not have any clear carrier film as
you would have with regular decals. The decals are
beautifully printed on 2 decal sheets. One complete set of
stencils is included on this decal sheet.
The dry transfers
are very clearly printed and will replicate the actual stencils on
the 1/1 F/A-18E/F perfectly.
These dry transfer
stencils are very clearly printed and you will be
impressed.
Included in this decal set
are stencils for the aircraft including the weapons pylons. You also
get national insignia. There's over 100 different stencils included
in this decal set....100 different stencils!!! You'll need to check
your references to see if the particular jet you're doing carried all
these stencils, but what a sight it would be to see a jet with a full
stencil job.
You also get a full set of
formation lights and national insignia.
Click on
images below to see larger images
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To apply the dry transfers you need a rounded
tool to rub the clear carrier film to burnish the dry transfer top
the painted surface of the model. Below is the tool sent to
me by Hobby
Decal....my wife recognized this as a Crochet needle....a type
of knitting.
The 3 pages of
instructions are clear and include 2 pages of black and white line
drawings showing stencils placement from 4 views of the
F/A-18E/F. Plus a third cardboard
page which includes 8 steps of instructions with drawings and text
instructions. This page is cardboard to give protect to the
product and avoid bending during shipping. The Hobby
Decal website also has instruction on installing dry
transfers.
If you want maximum
realism.......then try these dry transfers, you will be
impressed....and for a bare metal finish there really is no
substitute for dry transfer stencils. Hobby
Decal has a variety of dry transfers for a large variety of
aircraft from props to jets in different scales.
I
would like to thank Hobby
Decal for providing me with this
product sample.
Steve
Bamford
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