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Speed,Combat,Scale,Racing => Scale Models => Topic started by: Paul Smith on April 23, 2016, 10:20:47 AM

Title: USAAF font software
Post by: Paul Smith on April 23, 2016, 10:20:47 AM
Does anyone have the software for the type fonts used on Army Air Force planes?

It would be great to have it with or without the stencil marks, but I would be happy with it either way.
Title: Re: USAAF font software
Post by: bill bischoff on April 23, 2016, 12:25:22 PM
The font is called "amarillo"
Title: Re: USAAF font software
Post by: Avaiojet on April 23, 2016, 01:04:51 PM
"amarillo"
Title: Re: USAAF font software
Post by: Paul Smith on April 23, 2016, 01:42:27 PM
I've heard of "amarillo".  I had it on past computer.  What is the current source?
Title: Re: USAAF font software
Post by: Avaiojet on April 23, 2016, 02:27:07 PM
I've heard of "amarillo".  I had it on past computer.  What is the current source?

Paul

What are you looking to do? Do you want the font to bring into your program for decal making?

Cut a mask by hand?

For your cutter/plotter?

Charles



Title: Re: USAAF font software
Post by: wwwarbird on April 23, 2016, 10:10:45 PM

 Another accurate font is AIRBORNE.  y1
Title: Re: USAAF font software
Post by: Paul Smith on April 24, 2016, 08:40:47 AM
Thanks, I will try your suggestion.

I got Amarillo USAF to work on an older computer.  It seems that their installation procedure had not been updated to be installed on Windows 7 (which is also on the way out, but that's another issue).

I sent a message to the source of Amarillo.  Maybe he has method to get his products onto current in near-future computers.

I want to create the marking on my computer.  Once that is done I will try to make home printed decals or go to a shop & have stickers of spray masks made.   
Title: Re: USAAF font software
Post by: Avaiojet on April 24, 2016, 09:05:54 AM
Interesting thing about fonts and the aircraft they are going on is, you really have to take a good look at your documentation. Follow your documentation.

Sometimes the numbers are condensed and the spacing changed. Even insignias, if the aircraft your modeling has been restored, the application may not be totally correct. So, the model shouldn't be correct either to be correct. Correct?  LL~

Here's a good example on this award winning scale model I did the graphics for. The word NAVY is condensed because of the fit. Not the fit on the model, but on the actual aircraft. A few other numbers were altered from the "correct" font also as was the Star n Bar insignia. The red is a tad thinner. As this appeared on the actual aircraft.

Also, you can't just condense a font because the verticle strokes get thinner than the horizontal and you can see this. The entire letter has to be changed so the stroke thickness stays the same.

I follow documentation as best I can if there is some.

Charles

Title: Re: USAAF font software
Post by: Paul Smith on April 24, 2016, 01:45:42 PM
With some help from the source, I was able to get it working.  Unfortunately, the subject aircraft (like countless others) no longer exists.  It's the world we live in unless everybody wants to model the B-29 FiFi.   I got a couple of first hand photos when the plane existed, better than none.  If I planned on modeling it I would have taken more.

I'm doing a hurry-up job to get it in the air this year.  Today I did the pre-paint weight-in.  Everything except final assembly glue, paint, and bolts.  The airframe weights 2.8 pounds and the powertrain weighs 2.7 pounds for a total of 5.5 pounds, my heaviest model ever and still maybe 1.5 pounds form the goal line.
Title: Re: USAAF font software
Post by: wwwarbird on April 24, 2016, 06:42:33 PM

 What are you building?
Title: Re: USAAF font software
Post by: Paul Smith on April 25, 2016, 06:23:53 AM
TB-25J, based on the Brodak B-25 kit.

The TB was a bomber stripped of all weapons and used at Reese AFB from 1946 to 1954, then displayed until circa 1990.
At that time the aircraft, despite strong protests from the city of Lubbock, was taken away and sold to a museum.
The museum dummied it up into a fake B-25B Doolittle raider.  As anyone can figure out, the display has to be a fake because all the real ones were lost.

Perhaps my model will go the same route as the prototype and be converted to a Doolittle raider after flying for a while as a TB.

All I really need are the tail & fuse numbers and U.S Air Force for the nose.  The lettering in the photo is maybe a bit more stretched-out than Amarillo
 USAF.
Title: Re: USAAF font software
Post by: Avaiojet on April 26, 2016, 09:40:23 AM
Many of the numbers that were on the stab/rudder of aircraft, sides sometimes also, were of a military "stencil" font. As is the aircraft in the photo.

There is a separation or space cutting the letters. Here's one example, but there are may variations.





Title: Re: USAAF font software
Post by: Paul Smith on April 26, 2016, 02:02:23 PM
I got as far as a bond paper proof.  The next step is conversion to stickers or stencils.  

I had to convert to jpg and modify the font in PowerPoint.  So now my product is a jpg.
Title: Re: USAAF font software
Post by: wwwarbird on April 26, 2016, 06:28:50 PM

 Cool! Please keep us posted on the build! y1
Title: Re: USAAF font software
Post by: Paul Smith on April 27, 2016, 06:35:29 AM
Not all were "lost", as one landed in Russia. They got to keep it. I wonder what they did with it?  Sure didn't reverse engineer it like they with the three B-29's. H^^

Right.  Lost to us anyway.  I won't be photographing the one in Russia.
It seems like due to the secracy of the Toyko raid and bad weather at sea, there isn't much good documentation of actual Doolittle raiders.  Just fuzzy black-and-white stuff.

Of course, you could go to a museum in Texas and photograph MY TB-25J which has now been modified into a Doolittle B-25B replica.
Title: Re: USAAF font software
Post by: Paul Smith on April 28, 2016, 11:41:12 AM
Problem solved!   I found a local race car lettering shop with a very good library of fonts.   They did all the masks I need for my current project. 

Pit Stop Graphics.   586-991-2426