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Hobby Decal

1/48 F/A-18E/F Transfer Stencils

product # ST48028V1

$15.98 from Hobby Decal

Review by Steve Bamford on July 19  2007

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This new decal sheet from Hobby Decal includes dry transfer stencils for the 1/48 F/A-18E/F.  Full sized 1/1 aircraft have their stencils painted on using paint stencils.  Regular decals are ink printed on a clear carrier film....which is fine, but they are not as accurate in look and application as dry transfers.  

Dry transfers are reverse printed on a  temporary clear film.  When you apply the stencils you lay the back of the stencils on the painted surface of the model and then burnish (rub) them down through the clear temporary carrier film.  The dry transfer sticks to the model and dis-engages from the clear carrier film.  The beauty of dry transfers is you do not have any clear carrier film as you would have with regular decals. The decals are beautifully printed on 2 decal sheets.  One complete set of stencils is included on this decal sheet.

The dry transfers are very clearly printed and will replicate the actual stencils on the 1/1 F/A-18E/F perfectly.  

These dry transfer stencils are very clearly printed and you will be impressed.  

Included in this decal set are stencils for the aircraft including the weapons pylons.  You also get national insignia.  There's over 100 different stencils included in this decal set....100 different stencils!!!  You'll need to check your references to see if the particular jet you're doing carried all these stencils, but what a sight it would be to see a jet with a full stencil job.  

You also get a full set of formation lights and national insignia.

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To apply the dry transfers you need a rounded tool to rub the clear carrier film to burnish the dry transfer top the painted surface of the model.  Below is the tool sent to me by Hobby Decal....my wife recognized this as a Crochet needle....a type of knitting.

The 3 pages of instructions are clear and include 2 pages of black and white line drawings showing stencils placement from 4 views of the F/A-18E/F.  Plus a third cardboard page which includes 8 steps of instructions with drawings and text instructions.  This page is cardboard to give protect to the product and avoid bending during shipping.  The Hobby Decal website also has instruction on installing dry transfers. 

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Crochet needle for applying decals
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Sample photo of another HobbyDecal sheet

   

Instruction sheets

  

  

  

Gallery mainpage Ad on leftside at bottom If you want maximum realism.......then try these dry transfers, you will be impressed....and for a bare metal finish there really is no substitute for dry transfer stencils.  Hobby Decal has a variety of dry transfers for a large variety of aircraft from props to jets in different scales. 

Steve

I would like to thank Hobby Decal for providing me with this review sample.

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Photos and text © by Steve Bamford

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