Silver border black decals Lew McFarland used. Need substitutions..

[Mark Romanowitz]

I am looking for the large 3" or 4" silver border black block letter decals like the ones Lew McFarland used on his Sharks.. I remember Lew used to buy these at a local hardware store, and I have looked on eBay to no avail. I just need "AMA" and "89361". I'm sure there are other options, but I am not a graphics guy. If you have some ideas on how to reproduce them I'm all ears..

Every time I went home to Lexington and stopped by to see Lew he would ask me "Mark, when are you going to get back into stunt, and when are you going to build a Shark".. Well, Lew, I'm sorry I'm about 15 years too late, but I'm finally building a Shark..

I'm going to try to make it as close to one like Lew flew as I can.. At least appearance wise, with the Polar gray topside, Sky blue underside, and silver and red accents.. Having the proper looking decals would be great also..

Any help would be appreciated..

Mark

[Jim Hoffman]

The decals popular in that era were DURO brand decals.
 
I generally make my own decals using Micromark decal paper and a laser jet printer.
https://micromark.com/

A few years ago I needed gold letter decals.  Our printers can't/won’t print gold color.  I went to Fusion Scale Graphics and he made a very good “gold like” set of decals.  I think he does a lot of model work.  Excellent result.  Not cheap, but the quality was excellent.
https://fsdecals.com/

Fusion did the gold decals on the wing using artwork I provided

[Mark Romanowitz]

Thanks, Jim, I will look them up...

BTW, that is one beauty of a plane you have. Wow.. Well done!

[Mark Gerber]

You can still find some of the original Duro decals and stencils on eBay if you need them for masters or a style guide.

Mark Gerber