Over the years, I've found one of the most useful things to have handy for a multitude of modelling projects is a supply of decal stripes. Quick to use, they are a lot less hassle than masking and painting - and, vitally, guarantee consistent widths. Some of the early ones I tried were produced with a continuous carrier film, so you had to slice them up for use - a bit of a chore - but then I found Fantasy Printshop's stripes and that all changed. Ray Horwell at Fantasy Printshop produces his stripes with a carrier film that's trimmed so tight, there's basically no excess.
Now Ray has moved beyond his generic decals and produced a sheet of stripes designed specifically to cater for modern day aircraft ordnance in 1:72. It includes stripes in the following colours - Yellow, Blue, Brown, Silver, Green and Black, with each stripe measuring approximately 13.5 cm, so enough for dozens of typical weapons in 1:72.
Not every colour is offered in the same width stripes, but the range offered is: 0.3mm, 0.4mm, 0.5mm, 0.6mm, 0.7mm, 1.0mm, 1.3mm and 1.8mm.
The printing is everything you'll have come to expect from Fantasy Printshop - strong colour density, and pin-sharp registration of the carrier film on the designs with effectively no excess to consider.
Conclusion
Modellers of modern aircraft will find this a very handy sheet to have by the workbench, but its usefulness will undoubtedly also go beyond its specific target purpose; a range of quality decal stripes in a variety of widths and colours is just something I recommend always having ready to hand.
Item #FP650 is available now from Fantasy Printshop - Price: £6.95
Many thanks to Fantasy Printshop for the review sample.
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