I am finishing up Eduard’s F6F-5 Hellcat. They include an extensive sheet of stencil decals for the plane. The thing is though, I have searched the net for pics and have two Squadron books on the Hellcat, but have yet to find as many stencils on the real planes as Eduard calls for in their kit. I know on modern aircraft there is extensive stenciling, but what about the old WWII birds? Were they used as much back then as they are now?
I’ve seen some photos of factory fresh WWII aircraft that had noticable stencils, but I would have to believe that during the day-to-day battles maintining a stencil was less critical than maintaing the basic aerodynamics of the aircraft. Touch-up paint, when it occurred probably didn’t include reapplying a stencil as you need to 1) let the undercoat dry; then 2) mask and paint the stencil. In war-time that means a lost day that an aircraft could be in combat. Remember that WWII was a war of attrition where each side was producing madly replacement equipment and men as they were removed from the front.
From a weathering perspective, I’d use those stencils as part of the backdrop. Then when weathering removes or covers a portion I wouldn’t bother to make it readable. I’d also view it as possible touch-up paint when using different shading – “newer” looking panels would not get stencils.
Tim
The instruction sheet of one of aeroplanes (ProModeller Helldiver I think) had a comment about stencils in the decal section that basically said the while they were applied at the factory when new, they generally were not reapplied in the field when camo patterns were painted on/changed or battle damage was repaired.
Stencils seem to be one of those “personal choice” things that permeate this hobby.
Do them if you want to, but don’t sweat not having them if you build our kits as “used and abused”.
I’m more of a “factory fresh” kind of guy, so I tend to put them on as long as the are reasonably visible and not too much of a pain.
Regards, PWB.
Thanks guys. I already have about 1/3 of the sheet on now, and yes they have been a PIA, but I think I’ll continue and go for a factory fresh version. This is the first aircraft model that I’ve gotten to this stage and the weathering process wasn’t something that I was looking forward to so this will give me a reason to leave it clean.