I've got a flight's worth of 30th SkyStrikers thanks to ROSS's cheap prices and TRU selling them for $25 just before Christmas.
I was putting the decals on one and was trying to figure out the best place for the personalized markings for each potential pilot. I decided that a cool place would be behind the cockpit as it's a big enough area and the only other decals it interferes with are the stripes. I can live with that rather than having it look crowded on the nose. Where have you placed yours if you chose to use these decals?



Also, I think Hasbro made some odd choices for their personalized pilot markings. Ace obviously makes sense as he was the original pilot. Flint also makes sense and he tended to fly quite a bit, at least in the cartoon. Snake Eyes and Shipwreck though? OK, from Hasbro's point of view, Snake Eyes is their god, so he has to be included with everything, it's why he has over 60 variations and basically had the title of the comic named for him with G.I.*JOE in small print, but I don't seem to recall him getting too much stick time in the comics or the cartoon. And Shipwreck? The sailor? OK, so he flew a few times in the cartoon, but he would have been pretty far down on the list of my choices for getting a personalized aircraft marking.
The markings themselves are kind of neat though and do make sense, Ace has a royal flush, because of his reputation as a card player. Flint has a skull wearing a SF beret with crossed shotguns, representing two of his signature items. Snake Eyes has a pair of dice showing ones with the Arashakagi symbol. Shipwreck's marking is an orca firing a missile from its blow hole and like his selection as a pilot, kind of confusing, as this is an animal that lives in the sea, used as markings on an aircraft. If I'm not mistaken, I believe the logo is reused from the Killer WHALE hovercraft marking.

Personally, I'd have used Ace and Flint, but skipped SE and Shippy. While Slip Stream is another pilot, his baby is the Conquest X-30, so I could see leaving his name off the list, but I'd think Lady Jaye, Scarlett, and Duke should have gotten personalized markings, incorporating a javelin and a crossbow for the ladies, and who knows what for Duke. Whom else would you think should have gotten their own markings?

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I think the spot you chose works well. I have used the blank (inside) side of the tailfins. There aren't many places that make them visible enough if you are not replacing the skysriker tail markings with them.

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Nose art.

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I've not done it, but I thought the Art was designed to fit in the space between the Bird's wings on each Tail-fin.

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Well, the instruction sheet shows them to be used in lieu of the eagle decal. I'm not sure how well that work for Flint or SE because they're black like the tail. I plan on using the eagle decal on all my planes, just to keep that consistency within the squadron.

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I just have one in Skystriker markings and used the Ace decal on the nose. Like pluv said, nose art like the old WWII planes had.

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I have a Skystriker (not submitted to the gallery) which I did in a plain gray paint scheme where I left off the "GI Joe" with stripes stickers on both sides of the cockpit and I put the Flint sticker there instead. It looks pretty cool, but doesn't follow the Skystriker scheme exactly, but hey, this is joecustoms right?

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The funny thing I've found about vintage SkyStrikers is the decals. When I first got back into collecting, I bought a few SkyStikers and refurbished them for resale. It amazed me how disorganized the decals were from one plane to the next. Many vintage, used vehicles seem to have the decals located more or less correctly according to the instruction sheet, but SkyStrikers were all over the place.

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To be fair, some 6 year old was trying to hold a plane as big he is and read a blueprint at the same time. If I would have gotten the sticker sheet that came with the current Skystriker I would have cried after the first ten minutes.

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That's true, and I'm sure the number of "No Step" stickers sparked a few early cases of ADD... but I agree with Suburbanator...of all the vehicles I've seen, the Skystriker is notorious for a dis-organized sticker application.

I'm talking Tail Fin Logos on the Plane by the Engine cover dis-organized...though somehow the Black cockpit stickers always seemed to end up close to the right place....but always have a TON of play ware.

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Heh, I got the GF's son a Skystriker back when it was still on shelves. I told him I'd help with the decals after we finished some chores. I then left the room and come back to find him putting stickers anywhere and everywhere on the thing, with no rhyme or reason.

I'll have to 3rd or 4th the nose art suggestion.
I picked up a 25th Conquest from a thrift store that could probably top any sloppy sticker applications you could come up with.

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So I will 5th the nose art suggestion. That is what I did with 4 of mine.

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I'll claim the 6th for nose art, when I got the new Skystriker it loked the best there. I have finished a Jolly Rogers VF 103 piloted by Capt Jack Sparrow , working on a Sundowners VF 111 and doing a classic one with the blue eagle circle. All will have a form of nose art.

The problem I have with it being "nose art" is that it makes the nose too crowded looking. I placed the Star and Bars, the Joe logo, aircraft ID number and the rescue markings where the instruction sheet indicated. I think adding the pilot marking there would be too much unless you left off some of the other decals.

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