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General Forums => Aces High General Discussion => Topic started by: mason22 on January 26, 2001, 10:55:00 AM

Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: mason22 on January 26, 2001, 10:55:00 AM
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.
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: Kratzer on January 26, 2001, 10:59:00 AM
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.

Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: mason22 on January 26, 2001, 11:00:00 AM
true kratzer, but "if they did" use a font, what would it be? that is the question.
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: Nash on January 26, 2001, 11:02:00 AM
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.
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: Kieren on January 26, 2001, 11:02:00 AM
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.
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: Superfly on January 26, 2001, 12:04:00 PM
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.

------------------
"Holy Underwear!"
John "SUPERFLY" Guytan - Art Director
HiTech Creations
-=HELLFIRE=- SQUAD
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: Nash on January 26, 2001, 12:05:00 PM
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).]
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: BMF on January 26, 2001, 12:38:00 PM
 http://www.masterstech-home.com/The_Library/Font_Samples/Font_Indices/Image_Pages/A/AmarilloUSAF.html (http://www.masterstech-home.com/The_Library/Font_Samples/Font_Indices/Image_Pages/A/AmarilloUSAF.html)

contains both PC and MAC versions

------------------
Bare*Metal*Finish
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: mason22 on January 26, 2001, 12:53:00 PM
you guys rock!

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

this will help a ton! damn webdesigners are at it again  (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/biggrin.gif) woohooooo!
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: flakbait on January 26, 2001, 01:44:00 PM
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 (http://www.worldaccessnet.com/~delta6)
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

 (http://www.worldaccessnet.com/~delta6/htbin/custom1.jpg)
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: BMF on January 26, 2001, 06:46:00 PM
There are three different versions over at
 http://www.doc.mmu.ac.uk/library/fonts/ (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?

------------------
Bare*Metal*Finish
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: mason22 on January 27, 2001, 12:48:00 AM
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.
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: sky_bax on January 27, 2001, 04:22:00 AM
Damn.

Wish I had know about this font before I did 35 aircraft profiles for our website.   (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/frown.gif)

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 (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   (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)

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

Talk about overmodeled.

Spinning my wheels with these font links & getting nowhere   (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/frown.gif)

------------------
Skybax
328th Fighter Squadron
 www.352ndFighterGroup.com (http://www.352ndFighterGroup.com)
Blue Nosed Bastards of Bodney

[This message has been edited by sky_bax (edited 01-27-2001).]
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: Nash on February 08, 2001, 01:33:00 PM
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 (http://members.aol.com/p5219/fonts.htm)
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: funked on February 08, 2001, 01:39:00 PM
THX GUYS!
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: funked on February 08, 2001, 03:07:00 PM
Nash those are great!
I just went from this:
 (http://www.raf303.org/308/pilots/zfa_old.jpg)

to this:
 (http://www.raf303.org/308/pilots/zfa.jpg)

 (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: mason22 on February 08, 2001, 03:23:00 PM
thks Nash!!
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: funked on February 08, 2001, 06:31:00 PM
Here's my Blankbird.   (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/smile.gif)

 (http://www.raf303.org/308/pilots/spitv_zfu.jpg)
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: skernsk on February 08, 2001, 06:55:00 PM
Real nice funked!!  What program did you use to do the artwork?
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: funked on February 08, 2001, 07:21:00 PM
Thanks!

I used Photoshop 5.5.

I got the profile from Blankbirds (http://www.dogfighter.com/blankbirds/index.php3)

[This message has been edited by funked (edited 02-08-2001).]
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: Voss on February 09, 2001, 02:25:00 AM
  A little while back I needed a stencil font for the exterior of USAAF aircraft. The insignia pattern is one thing, but finding a stencil pattern that matches USAAF aircraft is nearly impossible, at least I never found one that was right for each character. So, I broke out a few utilities and made up some new ones.
  If anyone wants to know how, just check out the "Font Creator Program," by High-Logic. I guess I *could* post my stencil font, if anyone needs it. You can make just about anything into a font. I have even gone so far as to put brush strokes into fonts. That kind of detail helps to accent scale.  (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/wink.gif) I love this stuff.
 http://www.high-logic.com (http://www.high-logic.com)

Voss
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: Biggles on February 09, 2001, 11:14:00 AM
 
Quote
Originally posted by BMF:
http://www.masterstech-home.com/The_Library/Font_Samples/Font_Indices/Ima ge_Pages/A/AmarilloUSAF.html (http://www.masterstech-home.com/The_Library/Font_Samples/Font_Indices/Image_Pages/A/AmarilloUSAF.html)

contains both PC and MAC versions


Cool! I was looking for a good font to use for the B-36D I'm creating for FS2000. I need it for the "UNITED STATES AIR FORCE" labels and tail numbers.

 (http://home.earthlink.net/~dccowan/36f.jpg)
Title: WWII Aircraft lettering...what font??
Post by: funked on February 09, 2001, 06:00:00 PM
Very cool Biggles.   (http://bbs.hitechcreations.com/smf/Smileys/default/biggrin.gif)