Photo Etch - Aftermarket Special Decals

[hooterville75]

Can someone please tell me if their is a way to find out what all aftermarket special decals or photo etch parts are available for any models to make the model look more realistic ? Depending on what type of decals or products are available in these two categories could determine what kits I build in the future. Being so new to this hobby I have no clue about this kind of stuff.

Maybe photo etch or special graphical decals is something I shouldn't worry about being I'm so new to the hobby ????? I just like to have my models looking as realistic to real life as I possibly can. Thanks in advance for any info one can give me in regards to finding out what all types of these products exist.

[Chillyb1]

I think you are right to wonder whether or not you should worry about this stuff because you are new to the hobby. Don't concern yourself with that stuff right away. The fact that you know photoetch and other aftermarket stuff does exist means you'll be paying attention while you get deeper into the hobby. There's a photoetch set out there for a very large percentage of kits. Go to Model Car Garage's website (you can find that easily enough on your own) and try to wend your way through all they offer. A vast panoply of both kit-specific and generic photoetch sets are available there. I use photoetch sets for most of the models I build and it takes some getting used to. When I started building as an adult, some six or eight years ago, I didn't know anything about aftermarket anything. As I built more and figured out what kinds of kits and subjects I wanted to build, I found out about the astonishing range of the aftermarket suppliers to our hobby. And I gradually became more adept at using the stuff.

So, pay attention and don't worry about it yet. Spend more time here and elsewhere online and you'll soon understand what's out there and how to find it.

[Casey]

I think it's easier to do it the opposite way- decided which kit(s) you want to build, then see what's available for them.

I don't know of a complete p/e list anywhere, but Model Car Garage seems to have the biggest product range, but they mostly deal in American kit subjects.

I bet there are literally thousands of aftermarket decals, too. I bet Slixx alone has produced close to 500 different sheets.

[Custom Mike]

Keith Marks (mofobow on Fotki) makes literally hundreds of decal sets for detailing models, but most are "stock" decals,scripts, stripe packages, etc. His stuff is super high-quality, and very reasonably priced. Here's a link to his Fotki page, you could spend a few days looking at all of his decals!

http://public.fotki.com/mofobow/

Edited September 22, 2012 by Custom Mike