WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??

[mason22]

curious question came across my mind the other day in looking at various wwII aircraft and ours in AH.

Was there an "official" font face that the military used/uses for the lettering on the aircraft (for the squad and AC ID?...you kow, the big letter on the side next to the stars and stripes logo?)

I figured this would have been a great trivia question had i only known the answer.

Also, (this is for HTC - NATE, SUPER, PYRO?) - what fonts are you guys using for the AC artwork?

thanks guys.

[Kratzer]

I suspect that they don't use a 'font', but rather create the aircraft art based off of photographs, etc., and just 'paint' the numbers on to look as they did on the aircraft.

[mason22]

true kratzer, but "if they did" use a font, what would it be? that is the question.

[Nash]

I had the font for the US aircraft. Was on my Mac before my Mac's HD got hosed. I forget the name of it also.

Yeah, there were definitely specific typefaces used.

[Kieren]

I think "cargo" is pretty close for American a/c. Have you tried that look?

You can also look up the old Profile series of booklets, they can sometimes help.

[Superfly]

Most of the markings are drawn based on the pictures, but there is a font I found called AmarilloUSAF that works well for a lot of the planse, especially the US planes.

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"Holy Underwear!"
John "SUPERFLY" Guytan - Art Director
HiTech Creations
-=HELLFIRE=- SQUAD

[Nash]

That's the one!

And my understanding (could be wrong) is that typeface was the *official* typeface of the USAF.

[This message has been edited by Nash (edited 01-26-2001).]

[BMF]

 http://www.masterstech-home.com/The_Library/Font_Samples/Font_Indices/Image_Pages/A/AmarilloUSAF.html

contains both PC and MAC versions

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Bare*Metal*Finish

[mason22]

you guys rock!

thanks again to everyone, and BMF for supplying the link!

this will help a ton! damn webdesigners are at it again   woohooooo!

[flakbait]

There's another font called Stencil that works well. It looks just like Army lettering they stamp on nearly all equipment. I'm fairly sure you can find it anywhere, but my copy came with Office 97.

-----------------------
Flakbait [Delta6]
Delta 6's Flight School
Put the P-61B in Aces High
"For yay did the sky darken, and split open and spew forth fire, and
through the smoke rode the Four Wurgers of the Apocalypse.
And on their canopies was tattooed the number of the Beast, and the
number was 190." Jedi, Verse Five, Capter Two, The Book of Dweeb
 

[BMF]

There are three different versions over at
 http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/library/fonts/

which might be good for smaller stuff like dashboards labels and tail numbers.

How do you make use of these in AH?

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Bare*Metal*Finish

[mason22]

i use them for personal website stuff and squad website.

it's cool to have also. ya never know when you might could use something like it.

[sky_bax]

Damn.

Wish I had know about this font before I did 35 aircraft profiles for our website.  

But..... I`m currently working on a 352nd FG 3D model for the WB NW Mini-Con. The 352nd is sponsering the event and Veteran Bluenoser Robert "Punchy" Powell, President of the 352nd FG Assoc. will be this years guest speaker. It is his aircraft I am re-creating.

I can`t seem to get any of these links above to work.

The first is dead link.
See no AmarilloUSAF in the second.

And here is a thread on the exact same subject but this link forces you to a wrong defult page: (someones storage space?)

 http://lists.ient.com/ubb/Forum15/HTML/000085.html

BTW, the Razor posting that thread is not the same Razor previously on the AH UBB.

2 them ... 1 in each community  

But wait, but it gets better. In my many searches I keep finding helpful links like this one:

 http://agw.dogfighter.com/agw//Forum3/HTML/017827.html

Talk about overmodeled.

Spinning my wheels with these font links & getting nowhere  

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Skybax
328th Fighter Squadron
 www.352ndFighterGroup.com
Blue Nosed Bastards of Bodney

[This message has been edited by sky_bax (edited 01-27-2001).]

[Nash]

Hey mason, Superfly, etc.

I stumbled upon a few more fonts for ya.... for British and Canadian aircraft.

I haven't checked 'em out yet, but this guy seems to know what he's doing.  

"These fonts were designed with reference to secondary research sources, examination of hundreds of photographs, and inspection of actual preserved aircraft. "

 http://members.aol.com/p5219/fonts.htm

[funked]

THX GUYS!