Accurate Markings Matter ...

[C VEICH]

The stars-and-bars are probably the easiest of markings to replicate correctly. No stencils or complex knowledge of geometry required. Since it is such a simple task....messing it up is the equivalent of one misspelling their own name....

Agreed.

Honest question here, no offense intended. Have either of you ever painted the US national insignia? Due to the manner in which it evolved there are some rather non-intuitive characteristics which are very easy to get wrong unless you have some knowledge of the process. If anyone is interested in just how easy it is to get it wrong, and also how to do it right, then I would recommend the article at the link below. Cheers!

https://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-war ... ignia.html

[menards]

The stars-and-bars are probably the easiest of markings to replicate correctly. No stencils or complex knowledge of geometry required. Since it is such a simple task....messing it up is the equivalent of one misspelling their own name....

Agreed.

Honest question here, no offense intended. Have either of you ever painted the US national insignia? Due to the manner in which it evolved there are some rather non-intuitive characteristics which are very easy to get wrong unless you have some knowledge of the process. If anyone is interested in just how easy it is to get it wrong, and also how to do it right, then I would recommend the article at the link below. Cheers!

https://www.rcuniverse.com/forum/rc-war ... ignia.html

Yes, I have. Many times. The link you provided is a good resource that provides the proper dimensions as well as the evolution of the marking.

Also, whenever trying something for the first time, especially painting a marking, I was always told to make a practice run or two on something other than the final product before you attempt the final product.

That said, I stand my my statement. It's pretty easy to replicate. You even provided the step by step instructions!

[Mark Allen M]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHCTaUFXpP8

[Aeronut]

Maybe the urgency of the moment was the reason this one was left unfinished.

[Noha307]

It's not quite the same as national insignia, but I found it curious that someone applied the registration to this Boeing 707 with a dash in it. It might be explained by the fact that it later went to Australia, who use the dash in their registrations:

(Source: Aussie Airliners)

It's actually interesting when you realize that more countries in the world use letters instead of numbers in aircraft registrations and the United States is kind of the odd one out. I think a dash makes more sense when there's only letters.

Also, I recently came across this apparent mistake in designation on a C-46R, or should I say "C46-R":

(Source: Airliners.net)

Although, I guess since it is technically a new variant built by Riddle, they could call it whatever they want.

EDIT: Also, for some reason it was a common thing to try to squeeze the entire serial number on the vertical stabilizer of the BT-13 and not let it run over onto the rudder. I'm not sure why this was a thing, but if I had to guess it was some combination of the fact that swapping out a damaged rudder would have caused confusion by losing the last few digits or a leftover of the early paint scheme that had the red, while and blue rudders that would have made a number hard to read:

(Source: Wikimedia Commons)

You even get these weird diagonal serial numbers where they try to force them to fit:

(Source: Aircraft Wrecks in Arizona and the Southwest)

Here's one where you can still see the ghosting of the number on the rudder:

(Source: Age Photostock)

What makes it so strange to me is that no one else seemed to ever have those concerns. I mean just about every other American warplane was fine with dividing the serial number between the stab and rudder.

[Richard W.]

[Chris Brame]

Saw the movie From He It Came a few days ago and had to grab a still shot:

(BTW, can someone ID that helo?)

[Noha307]

(BTW, can someone ID that helo?)

It's a Bell 47H. Apparently, it was written of in a crash in 1985.

By the way, if anyone isn't aware of the Internet Movie Plane Database, it can be helpful in situations like these.

[airnutz]

Chris that's a Bell 47H-1 Bellairus c/n 1371, the upgraded version of the bubble canopied Bell 47G. Soundproof cabin, 3 full-size leather covered seats, of 33 built. It was written off in Vermont April 28, 1985. It may have been rebuilt and survives in Canada as CF-TOI.
Being that they were built with a metal tail boom, it looks like the culprit for the upside down insignia is a prop guys mistaken application of contact plastic sheet. Surprising a "big budget blockbuster" would let that slide???

[airnutz]

Apparently, I type a bit slower than you Noha!

[Noha307]

Here's a really bad one. There's all sorts of things wrong with the designation format:


Magnified:

(Source: Blogspot)

EDIT: Although, thinking about it further, there is technically less wrong with this designation then appears at first glance. "F84-CKX" would be close to an (admittedly awkward) conversion of a USAF designation to USN format. Plus, it occurs to me that since Republic never built any aircraft for the Navy, a manufacturer letter was never assigned. This means that there would have been nothing for whomever was in charge of designations to build upon. Assuming that "C" represents Republic (using "R" would result in the designation with "XFR-1K" which was already taken by the Ryan FR Fireball) it should be written "XFC-1K".

[Snake45]

Posed/Fake!

[wolf]

and then there is the PW-1W designation which is wrong on so many levels.

[Vzlet]

I was flabbergasted to see the NASM's long-lived goof on the X-1. It has since been corrected:
Grounded Record Breakers https://www.flickr.com/photos/vzlet/

[Combatmech]

Here's a really bad one. There's all sorts of things wrong with the designation format:


Magnified:

(Source: Blogspot)

EDIT: Although, thinking about it further, there is technically less wrong with this designation then appears at first glance. "F84-CKX" would be close to an (admittedly awkward) conversion of a USAF designation to USN format. Plus, it occurs to me that since Republic never built any aircraft for the Navy, a manufacturer letter was never assigned. This means that there would have been nothing for whomever was in charge of designations to build upon. Assuming that "C" represents Republic (using "R" would result in the designation with "XFR-1K" which was already taken by the Ryan FR Fireball) it should be written "XFC-1K".

FYI.....
http://thanlont.blogspot.com/2019/08/us ... erjet.html