Hello to all. I am new to Fine Scale Modeler and have just joined. I have a question about the decals in the P40C Flying Tiger kit by Academy. On the decal sheet by the number of the decal it says 1 and 2. Both are different. Does this mean one decal is for one side, and the other decal is for the other. Surely it doesn’t mean to place one decal over the other???
Anyway thanks to all who replay and i am open to any suggestions or comments. I regular hobby is model railroading. But I have always had a passion for model planes and cars.
I have an uncle who flew these planes during WW ll, and I am putting together a tribut to his grand children. Thanks again
For those of us who aren’t that familiar with the kit, what are those particular decals? Nationalist Chinese sunburst roundels? Plane number in the squadron, squadron insignia, etc? TIA
@Robert_Hughes I built that kit many years ago, so take what I’ll say with a grain of salt. I did look at the instructions on scalemates.com, where I see the markings pages indicate a 1 and 2. 1 is for Squadron Leader Robert H. Neale of the 1st Pursuit Squadron “Adam and Eves” group. 2 is for Charles Older’s bird of the 3rd Pursuit Squadron, “Hell’s Angels” group. I think that is what the numbers indicate.
This is a link to the page I am referring to, where you can download the instructions (which I had hoped would include a screen shot of the decal sheet as sometimes is the case).
https://www.scalemates.com/kits/academy-12280-p-40c-tomahawk–264325
I don’t know that decal sheet, without properly seeing the decal sheet (I can only see a blurry scan I found online), but looking at the instructions, is it the blue circled markings you are asking about or the red circled?
If it’s the red circled national insignia, then they are two different shades of blue. I seem to remember that there may have been some variations in the colour for these markings, whether due to initial paint mixing, fading or weathering. So you would pick one shade of marking and apply only that one.
If it’s the blue circled AVG markings you are asking about, I’m inclined to think that either it’s an issue with printing limitations, colour density or something else which requires you to double up on the decal. It looks like the yellow tiger goes on first, then the black details over top. Some aftermarket decals (especially nose art) are made of multiple layers to get the full image in a complete form.
If you post a picture of the decals, maybe we could give a more definitive answer.