In the first picture below of the wolf face, I’d like to do something like that maybe to the front of an F-18 fighter model or some other military aircraft model in the future. I’m wondering what the best way might be to accomplish this?
I’ve thought maybe I could paint the aircraft as normal, then take colored pencils and “draw” on the face and details, etc. Could that possibly work?
Other pictures below show military and civilian aircraft with animal faces, etc. on the front of them. Has anybody ever tried replicating similar designs on their models before? If so, how did they turn out? What techniques and equipment/supplies did you use?
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WOW! That nose art is spectacular!
I can barely paint them one colour so no help but would totally love to see somebody pull that off so do hope you get some guidance.
Perhaps custom decals,but they’re not always easy to apply either
Wow that would be quite a skill - and I love to see that. Out side of maybe a worm - not sure I have the artistic skills to do that. There have been some decals sets that depict animal ‘faces’ on aircraft.
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Even if I were to “draw” the faces on an aircraft, the symetry would have to be PERFECT. Getting the height and width of various facial features correct would be daunting.
I think decals would be the way to go for the most part. That would solve your symmetry concerns. The trick would be figuring out how to shape the decal for printing and cutting so that it looks proper when applied to a complex surface. Others hopefully have more ideas or hints on how to do this.
One other option would be making multiple masks. There used to be a product (frisket film) like a sheet of semi-plasticized paper that you could draw on then cut out. (Just checked- it’s still available). Or to step into this century…
Either way you go, distortion of the image would have to be considered in the shape of the mask or decal. Good luck.
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I would draw it in pencil on the model, then paint it over.
That’s what I immediately thought of. This Monogram boxing comes with the decals.
You can see the distortion:
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Every time I look at those Eagle decals, it makes me think if something like that would work on a B-2 bomber. Hmmm.
Bird of prey?
Get aftermarket decals. That would be the simplest.
Here is a Belgian f16 with tigermeet markings.
Here is a old revell kit with that eagle decals.
Now here is a captured p40, markings were hand painted first, then the teeth was custom printed decals. Thisxwas of course much more work.
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Well, it’s not an aircraft, but it is a great example of animal artwork on a military vehicle
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I LOVE that camo scheme on that sherman. I have a 1/48 hobbyboss with that xcheme waiting jn my stash. Well done!
I kinda had an odd thought. Wouldn’t it be funny if real aircraft, armor, etc. were painted to look like the names they have? For example:
F-15 Eagle painted like a real eagle.
F-16 Falcon painted like a real falcon.
A-10 Warthog painted like a real warthog.
…etc., etc., etc. 