Mercury Redstone UNITED STATES Correct Font Decal

[Terry Kosel]

Estes has been producing this kit for years with the incorrect font for the red UNITED STATES. Is the correct version decal being produced aftermarket? If not, I would be glad to provide artwork to anyone out there who would like to right this terrible wrong . Sorry, I’m an art director, bad typography drives me nuts

 

[Ez2cDave]

Post it here, on the Forum, so that everyone can benefit from the data !

Dave F.

 

[Terry Kosel]

See attached PDF

Post it here, on the Forum, so that everyone can benefit from the data !

Dave F.

Here is the corrected UNITED STATES decal artwork sized to 1:34

 

[Ez2cDave]

See attached PDF

Here is the corrected UNITED STATES decal artwork sized to 1:34

Beautiful, Terry . . . Outstanding work !

Dave F.

 

[David Schwantz]

I think mine looks just like yours

 

[caveduck]

What font is that? I made some correct MR decals a long time ago, but I think I did photogrammetry on a prototype photo. Does anyone here know how they actually produced the large scale lettering on those rockets in the early 1960's? Seems like it could have been anything from an optical enlarger to a really talented guy from a Cocoa Beach sign shop doing it freehand from a small example (and there were/are people who could do that).

 

[Terry Kosel]

What font is that? I made some correct MR decals a long time ago, but I think I did photogrammetry on a prototype photo. Does anyone here know how they actually produced the large scale lettering on those rockets in the early 1960's? Seems like it could have been anything from an optical enlarger to a really talented guy from a Cocoa Beach sign shop doing it freehand from a small example (and there were/are people who could do that).

The closest font I've found is Trade Gothic Condensed, with some slight variations that I redrew in Adobe Illustrator. It's actually the same font as the 1st stage tanks of the Saturn 1B, which I guess makes sense considering the Redstone heritage.