Often, the addition of remove before flight tags are important to the completion of a modern aircraft model, whether it is done as part of a diorama setting or simply to add an interesting visual flourish to a finalized project.  Remove before flight tags (or flags) are pinned to critical items on an aircraft, such as pitot tube covers, ejection seat safety mechanisms, landing gear retraction linkages, chaff and flare buckets, ordnance, and more.  Personally, I love adding remove before flight tags to a finished model.  Remove before flight tags have been produced as decals or printed paper items for a long time, and more recently, as pre-painted photoetched metal and fabric parts by Eduard.  Here, we take a look at two remove before flight tag sets produced as 3D-printed parts in Eduard’s SPACE product line.

Eduard’s two SPACE 1:48 scale remove before flight tag sets (3DL48051 and 3DL48052; both with an MSRP of $14.95) each contain 38 separate remove before flight tags in each set.  Each set contains three different styles of tags with slightly different placement of “remove before flight” printing.  One set features white text (3DL48051) and the other, black text (3DL48052).  Just as with their photoetched metal sets, the seven tags represented by Part # 8 are printed with “remove before flight” on both sides.  All the others feature printing only on one side of the tag.

These are polymerized vinyl parts that are 3D-printed directly onto a piece of traditional decal paper.  Once dipped in water and released from the decal paper, you are ready to go.  Just as with Eduard’s PE metal remove before flight tag sets, a scale modeler can twist and shape these parts as they wish.  The small loop hook atop each tag allows the builder to thread some fine wire through and pin it to the corresponding item.  It should be noted that 1:1 scale remove before flight tags have long come in a variety of sizes and colors.  These tags are representative of modern U. S. styles over the last 50 years or so.  Still, Eduard’s tags have always seemed a somewhat oversized, and at best, represent the largest of all remove before flight tags used on modern military aircraft.  Often, I use Eduard’s 1:48 scale tag sets (such as these) on 1:32 builds and their 1:72 scale tags on 1:48 scale projects, and they all generally seem to be more size appropriate one scale category up.

We extend our sincere thanks to Eduard for the review sample.  You can visit them on the web at http://www.eduard.com and on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/EduardCompany/

Haagen Klaus
Scale Modeling News & Reviews Editor
Detail & Scale