SPA Modeler

Oh yeah! I want to get those for mine as well.

Please do give a full review report of those Quinta Studio 3-D decals. I’ve had my eye on a few sets and wonder if they are worth it. They look extremely tempting and simple to use.

Coincidentally, the Sprue Brothers order that came in today included the Quinta cockpit set for the Tamiya F-14A kit. This is just a preliminary look but since I won't be starting this build in the near future and the question was asked, I thought I'd share my "unpacking" photos. My first impression... wow it is small! More a function of going down in scale than anything to do with the product itself. I'm used to 1/32 scale and it shocked me that a full dual cockpit set is not much bigger than a business card.


Once you get down to this scale, legibility for older eyes becomes a challenge. It looks suitably busy for a modern jet cockpit but I can't speak to authenticity or accuracy as the subject is beyond my experience. The product appears to be 3D-printed vinyl deposited on a small sheet of decal paper. It has different degrees of surface texture ranging from a satin finish for the majority of the components and a shiny gloss for some of the bigger CRT displays. An initial thought is that a flatter finish might help to reduce the glare and make the detail more visible but I'll have to read the instructions to see what types of finishing clear coats are recommended, if at all.


Once you start zooming in, the intense level of detail becomes more apparent. Although there are no legible words or numbers that I could see, it does look impressively complex. There is some visible print texture but it is much less noticeable than say from an Eduard pre-painted photoetch set.


Tilting the camera perspective reveals the real magic in this new technology... visible 3D relief. All of the individual switches and buttons are represented in the z-dimension, which is a huge step beyond the limitations posed by the photoetch medium. Good resin may offer more definition but handpainting to his level of consistency would only get you halfway there. You'd still need to find a way to represent the fine stenciling data that exists around each little button and switch. On the lighter gray panels, the print texture is more noticeable but I don't think it is apparent to the naked eye.



There is also a sheet for the ejection seat components including harnesses and yellow/black pull loops. Here, the limitations in the print technology becomes more apparent as I think it is impossible to produce a loop with a perfectly circular cross section. The best that could be done, which may be quite good, is semi-circular with a flat bottom. Were they able to print the yellow/black pattern on the bottoms of the loops? From what I've read, the answer is yes, which would be pretty neat. The harnesses are the least successful application of this new tech in my opinion and I couldn't see any advantages (besides convenience) over other already available products.


Overall, I'm very impressed with this new product and can't wait to see what these look like on the model itself.

jkim wrote:Gonna give the Tamiya F-14A kit a go. Obviously, another Non-Luftwaffe subject and not even a prop this time. Even the scale is different than my normal 1/32. Gotta start psyching myself up for it...




And yeah, it IS going to be a high-vis Jolly Rogers scheme.

Snap, that's the scheme I'll be building mine in.

I'd be interested to see how well that 3D set fits into the cockpit - I would imagine it'll look really good when done.

Are you going to use the kit decals, Stuart? I'm worried about the thickness of the Tamiya decals so I've ordered some aftermarket alternatives just in case.

The Scale Hobbyist order is still "processing" while the Sprue Brothers order has already been delivered.

those 3d decals are cool - may pick them up for my kit.

Where did you find them? Do they have a website? Their Facebook page is in Ukranian(?) or Czech?

Sprue Bros sells them. Here's their Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/QuintaModellingStudio

I bought mine from Sprue Brothers. Here is a nice article/review on Quinta product applied to an actual build...

https://www.themodellingnews.com/2020/1 ... tudio.html