Classic British Flight Sim

Restarting my FSX repainting activities and I'm fully tooled up this time - Abacus' FS Repaint AND Photoshop Elements 9. The bloody things should repaint themselves with all that.

Anyway, I have CAA document CAP523 which covers the display of nationality and registration marks on aircraft, but what I can't pin down is the font. So when repainting, with all the usual Windows and PSE fonts available, what is the most favoured font that repainters use for UK registrations ?

Ta in advance

Hi Paul

Go to Simmer Paint Shop and download the RN and RAF fonts

I use either those although there is no hyphen but mainly Eurostile Bold with the proportions modded a bit in the type tool window.

Square 721 is another to keep on hand...there have been several styles used.

The later stuff like on BA Landor is much more rounded as by then there were using bought lettering where as before it was made up of straight painted lines or tape.

Some aircraft have the cheaper hand painted squarer on the wings and the more expensive posher slightly rounded on the fuse ....a few Herons were like that, Cambrian for example.

Don't assume all styles are the same, not even on the same airframe, and in the early days it was not a font...merely the work of a sign writer using straight lines and rounded corners with the exact proportions determined by the CAA laid down proportion and limitations of the airframe.

Ah thanks Garry, I knew you would respond.

At Simmers Paint Shop, I found a few modern RAF ones, and looking at the thumbnail, RAF-45d851 looked closest to what is shown in CAP 523, so I got that.

Could you cast your expert eye over these ? Its just me getting to grips with how FS Repaint and Photoshop work together, but the font Arial Bold seems pretty close, wouldn't you say ?

Ah yes..one of the modern bought lettering

Looks fine to me, but without seeing the real thing

That's all that's important really, what looks right even if it isn't quite right but close enough

Yes, it seems right as you say. Thanks for that Garry, and thanks for reminding me about Simmers Paint Shop.

The font looks alright, but its sizing looks too small to me. I would suggest that the letters need to be about 30% larger - compare the lettering on G-NEWT which Paul kindly posted on his Sunarise thread

Okay Chris, size is no problem, as long as the font is okay.

It does look small but whith out the real one to compare...I see oddballs with small registrations often

Does this one look better ? The whole thing is in its early stages as I'm learning all the techniques.

Oh yes, much more realistic IMHO