I don't know if this is the right place to ask this question, tho the space shuttle might be considered a military aircraft.
I'm wondering if anyone can comment on the accuracy of the colors and tile patterns of the cutting edge shuttle decal sets. I have the sets and they just seem wrong to me, in both particulars. Here's an attachment of a section of the CE decal set showing the wing, and another attachment of a diagram from one of my many shuttle books of supposedly the correct tile pattern for the same wing, as well as most of the side of the tail.
They're vastly different. Well, the wing anyway. CE doesn't cover much of the tail or the sides of the shuttle. Any ideas about which is more correct?
The shuttle tiles: they're not salmon and olive green and tan green, are they??
Confused,
J

which shuttle do you have starseeker ? I have the Revelle 1/72 Columbia. It would be nice if there was a real space forum here.

there are tiles, and their is the sheeting(sheathing?) no 2 shuttles are alike. They are constantly being modified/upgraded.

Exactly - with the constant upgrades, each shuttle has evolved over its 20+year life.

I agree that the colors seem a little much, especially for the ceramic tiles. There are subtle color/shade variations but I don't ever recall seeing a "green" shuttle tile.

And I agree with Bert - it would be nice to have a Real Space model forum. The questions are (1) getting a sponsor and (2) how many real space modelers are out there? You can catch some real space modeling discussions at the Models and Toys forum at collectSPACE (http://www.collectspace.com).

i know there are quite a few real space modelers here, come out come out whereever you are, olly olly oxen free lol

In image 34590 the pattern on the left is for the upper right wing detail and is confusing to me since I am not aware of any high-temperature reusable surface insulation (HRSI), aka tiles, used in that area from my references.

The area depicted is just inside the leading edge reinforced carbon-carbon (RCC) panels and covers fore to aft at the elevons. This areas pattern and material consist of low-temperature RSI (LRSI) and were painted white. Discovery's detail in this area is vastly different than all the other orbiters and has a more jagged and stepped applique.

It'd be safe to make a representative orbiter of anything but Discovery with that sheet I would think.

The colors are subjective from the many images. I've been a couple of hundred feet away from Discovery after she made her return to space flight and the underside HRSI is indeed very, very, very, gray and weathered in places. Unfortunately the decal sheet looks too gray either due to scale or printing limitations. The pure gray ink could probably benefit from some misting and blending of darker greys and black. I don't know if this would cover up much of the tile detail though.

I'm working on trying something in my head before I tackle mine. Maybe spray through some wire mesh that would be representative of the tiles if not accurate at least.