Aeromaster Lozenge Decals
Greg Springer (gspring@ix.netcom.com)
Sun, 15 Oct 1995 11:54:37 -0700
I picked up a set of Aeromaster's 5-color lozenge yesterday and am
sitting here on a quiet Sunday afternoon comparing them with Superscale
and Americal sheets. First of all, let me state that I am a believer
in using lighter colors to achieve'scale effect'. This is the main
factor in my opinion on these sheets.
The first commercially available sheets that I can remember are the
Fowler decals from the early 80's. In 1987 I covered a prize-winning
Fokker D-VI conversion with these only to discover about three years
later that the original subject was done in 4-color (lugubrium!).
Glenn Merrill informed me that the colors were suspect. Americal then
released their sheets. Glenn had access to the fabric collection of
the late Rodney Gerard and I believe that he has always taken pains to
get an exact color match. However it is a match to the full sized
samples which IMHO leaves the decals too dark in 1/48 scale.
Last year Superscale released their 5-color sheets. These are much
lighter in tone than Americal's. Their under surface decals are the
ones which I prefer.
Finally Aeromaster's sheets arrived and while I think that their
under surface decals are too dark,I quite like the color balance of the
upper surface sheet and that will be the one which I will use on my
next 5-color subject.
This opinion is completely unscientific in nature. I am not
pedantic about color matching but I strive for what 'looks right'
sitting on the shelf. Please don't ask me about 4-color!
On another subject Mark Rook commented recently on the correlation
between craft brewing and WWI aviation enthusiasts. I think that this
due to two common factors. People who are interested in both fields of
endeavor (endeavour in English) are artisans and traditionalists.
That's my ha'porth for this week!
Greg Springer
'All the world is my friend for I am a brewer.'